With its tiered roof of interlocking clay tiles, latticed wooden exterior and exposed beams, the new Issey Miyake Kyoto flagship, located in the city¡¯s Nakagyo area, is more than just a store; it¡¯s a celebration of one of Kyoto¡¯s best-known traditional structures ¡ª the machiya (merchant townhouse).
For Issey Miyake, famed for weaving together cutting-edge design with traditional Japanese values and craftsmanship, the 132-year-old machiya is the result of years of searching for the ideal space for its first stand-alone store in Kyoto, a city steeped in historical significance.
Conceived by Naoto Fukasawa, a longtime Issey Miyake design collaborator and current director of The Japan Folk Crafts Museum, the structure¡¯s overarching palette of soft grays is inspired by the color of sumi (charcoal) and highlights the machiya¡¯s original architectural features. Walls, sheathed in plaster blended with charcoal, meet a slightly duskier shade of concrete floor, while overhead wooden beams accentuate the structure¡¯s high ceiling and open mezzanine. Letting in natural light from the rear is a glass wall that looks out onto a slate path that cuts through a bed of smooth gray pebbles and leads to another traditional feature, the machiya¡¯s kura (storehouse), now the Issey Miyake Kyoto gallery space.
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