Fujiya/Window of the Souvenir Shop

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

08 May 2018

This is a machiya (townhouse) that was built around 1830 in Narai, Nagano. The upper part of the opening facing the street is fitted with shitomido (top-hinged swinging shutters), while the lower part is fitted with board doors and glazed doors that slide vertically along grooves in the columns. All of the doors are fully opened when the shop opens for business. When the day of the summer festival comes around, the shopkeeper stows away all of the merchandise, sets out cushions on the koagari (raised floor), and hangs sudare (woven screens) from the front eaves. He lifts the sudare to watch the parade when the ohayashi (festival music) approaches. Parade members are customarily treated with sake (rice wine) from the storefront.

Fujiya (Fujiya Souvenir Shop)
Souvenirs / Narai, Shiojiri, Nagano

This article is an excerpt from “Window Workology,” a joint research project concerning windows and the behaviors around them done in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.