Nijo Jinya (Important Cultural Property Ogawa Residence)

Highlight

The elegant architecture - so relaxing for guests - is equipped with ingenious defense mechanisms to ward off surprise attacks

Elegant rooms with secret defenses

This was the shop and home of Heizaemon Yorozuya, a rice and money changing merchant back in the Edo period. Being close to Kyoto Shoshidai (the Kyoto deputy), the magistrate’s office and some daimyo residences, Yorozuya used his home as quarters for samurai awaiting court trial and as accommodation for daimyo visiting Kyoto. The present residence was restored and repaired during the years between 1848 and 1854.
There are 26 rooms in all, including a large reception room (Ohiroma), a room that could be used for Noh drama (O-Noh-no-ma), a two-mat room that served as tea ceremony room (Kainyoan) and a tea room built for easy access to a nearby stream (tombune-no-ma). Any of the rooms can double as a tea ceremony room. The residence is well known for its defense contraptions located all over the house to protect important guests. These include guard hideouts, hidden pull-down stairs, hidden stairway and timber struts that doubled as an escape ladder. Apart from these, the house also is noted for its tiled bathroom, which was an unusual sight back in the 1850s.