Kawabata Yanosuke Residence Main House and Studio

A Painter's House and Studio in Shogoin

The Kawabata Yanosuke Residence Main House and Studio (川端彌之助家住宅主屋兼アトリエ) is a two-storey timber house and studio of 1925 in Shogoin Naka-machi, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on February 4, 2021. It is the home of a Western-style painter, standing at the back of a plot north of Shogoin temple (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 79 square metres; registration number 26-0611, with no owner listed.

The Painter Kawabata Yanosuke

According to a research bulletin of the Kyoto City cultural properties section, Kawabata Yanosuke (1893 to 1981) was born in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, graduated in law from Keio University, then decided to become a painter and studied under Sawabe Seigoro at the Kansai Art Academy. He went to France in 1922, returned in 1925 and built this studio-house at Shogoin. After the war he taught at Kyoto City University of Arts and Kyoto Saga University of Arts and played an important part in Kyoto's Western-style painting world.

A surviving ridge tag shows that the carpenter Kato Umekichi raised the frame in October 1925; the builder is said to have been Kyoto Amerikaya. Having heard of the Great Kanto Earthquake while in France, Kawabata seems to have had it braced generously against earthquakes (Kyoto City).

Why It Was Registered

The Kawabata Yanosuke Residence was registered as a building that has become a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a good example of a pre-war house with a studio.

The Kyoto City bulletin notes how the studio sits at the heart of the ground floor beside the reception room, with the kitchen and bath also adjoining it, so that living and working spaces are not separated.

What to Look For

The Kawabata Yanosuke Residence has a large gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) roof running north-south with a gabled wing projecting east, covered in red Western-style tiles (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Kyoto City notes that the roof was first of red-painted cement tiles, replaced in 2018 with Western tiles of the same colour. The base is red brick and the walls mortar, with half-timber-style pilasters high on the south gable, while the roof frame is of Japanese construction.

To give the studio height, its western half rises through two storeys, and large north windows bring in steady light. It has a wooden floor, and the painter's easel is still there. Of the three rooms upstairs, the south room opens onto the studio and is said to have been the couple's bedroom; the north room was the children's room (Kyoto City).

Visiting the Kawabata Yanosuke Residence

The Kawabata Yanosuke Residence appears to be a private home, and we found no official information on public access. Please view it only from the street. The address is 5-4 Shogoin Naka-machi, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto.