New Atelier "2nd Floor

Hello everyone. I am Hiroya, a washi artist.Today, continuing from last time, I would like to show you the second floor of our new atelier.

Now, let's go up the stairs!

As one would expect from a Kyomachiya, the stairs are quite steep. And they are narrow!

Favorite wall.This is a clay wall of the first townhouse.The wallpaper was probably put over the clay wall every time a new tenant moved in, but I love the look of the wall after it was removed, so I left it as it is. But is this a sandbox? The dust was so bad that we had to apply a good coat of sealer to harden it.

And the red room that catches your eye as you go up the stairs. This room is to be used as a storage room.After painting it, I was nervous that it might be a little too red, so I talked to the contractor and my daughter about it, and they said, "It's really nice! (Thanks to the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Kinoshita and my daughter).

The back room is the workroom of the family business.

This is also the back room.

From the white wall is my studio. You can see that all the walls on the left are curved, and this is really curved like this. There are old walls, aren't there?The floor before construction was also so uneven and not parallel that it was impossible to walk straight on it, and I got drunk every time (>_<).We had Kinoshita Corporation straighten all such floors. He said that the distortion was so bad that he had to work very hard.

This is also my studio area. I tried plastering this room for the first time. It was a lot of fun. There was no way I could do it as well as the professionals, so I applied the plaster in a very careless manner. That seemed to be a good thing. It gave it a nice taste.

The ceilings on both the first and second floors are covered with plywood. The plywood was coated with traditional oil, which is indispensable for Kyomachiya.

There is a long-established shop in Kyoto specializing in oil called Yamanaka Oil Store. Their olive oil for cooking is also delicious, so oil lovers should visit Yamanaka Oil Store in Nijo, Kyoto.

 

That's all for the new atelier.

The process of dealing with the unplanned things that happen in a building that is too old is more than I had imagined, but I learned a great deal from the process of dealing with each situation, deciding on the image, and moving forward.

Once again, I learned that I love old buildings (Western-style houses and townhouses from the Meiji period), and I learned a lot about how to deal with them and how to renovate them.

I am very happy to have moved to this new location.

It is by no means modern and stylish. I wanted to keep the feeling of home. I wanted it to be like a cozy Japanese confectionery shop in Kyoto, where you can see people's lives. Hopefully, those who work here and all the people, young and old, who visit us will think, "This is kind of exciting," so I made it look like this, just the way I like it.

So I would be happy if you could visit us as if you were coming to a friend's house. We do not have a store for Washi accessories, but you can see them if you visit our atelier. I am often out of the office, so please be sure to email me when you come.