Raku Family Residence Attendants' Waiting Room

Raku Family Residence Attendants' Waiting Room: The Smallest Building on the Lot

The Raku Family Residence Attendants' Waiting Room (樂家住宅供待, Raku-ke jūtaku tomomachi) is a tiny shelter south of the front gate of the Raku potters' home on Aburanokoji Street in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto, where the servants accompanying visiting guests waited; it is dated to the early Meiji period and was registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2007.

A tomomachi is a place for a guest's attendants to wait until their master's business is done. This one measures 1 bay by 1.5 shaku (a shaku is the traditional Japanese foot), with a building area of 3.0 square metres, the smallest of the nine registered buildings. Its roof is a gable of pantiles.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the early Meiji period; the Raku Museum dates the rebuilding of the family house to 1855.

Why It Was Registered

The Raku Family Residence Attendants' Waiting Room was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency credits it with giving the south-east corner of the site its Japanese-style exterior.

Barely deeper than a bench, it pairs with the waiting arbor on the other side of the gate and closes the street front at the southern corner. A house that provided a place even for its guests' attendants was plainly one used to receiving visitors.

What to Look For: A 4-Shaku Lattice Window

Inside is a bench; facing the street is a projecting lattice window 4 shaku wide. The building is scarcely deeper than the bench itself, so from the road it looks almost like a roofed window fixed to the wall.

A projecting lattice lets people inside see out while keeping them largely hidden from passers-by. The same device appears on townhouse fronts all over Kyoto; here it screens the attendants' waiting place.

A 7 metres long timber fence with its own tiled coping runs along the western boundary. With the waiting arbor and its fence to the north and the gate between them, it completes a frontage of tiled roofs and lattice on both sides of the entrance.

Seeing the Attendants' Waiting Room

The Raku Family Residence Attendants' Waiting Room faces Aburanokoji Street, and its lattice window, roof and fence can be seen from outside. The interior belongs to the private home and is not open.

Look to the south of the gate, at the south-east corner of the lot. Compare it with the waiting arbor to the north: the same lattice window, used at two sizes, set either side of the gate. The street is narrow, so keep clear of traffic. Directions are on the Raku Family Residence page.