Imai Machiya House
Step inside a free restored merchant house and read how an Imaicho family used its street and rooms.
Verified site photographs are being prepared.Discover Imai Machiya House
Imai Machiya House gives an indoor key to Imaicho's living townscape. Kashihara City dates the original townhouse to the early eighteenth century and says it belonged to successive merchant families before a long vacancy. Conservation work used traces in the building to restore a two-row, six-room merchant-house plan. Visitors can move from the public frontage and earthen passage toward living rooms, seeing the boundary between business and domestic life that a streetscape walk alone cannot explain. This is a city-run interpretive house; the neighboring historic homes are not automatically open for entry.
Start at the shopfront
The official Nara visitor guide identifies an elevated front room where merchants received customers. From the entrance, the through-going earthen passage connects the front to working spaces. The house is not a grand residence isolated from trade; its narrow frontage and deeper interior are useful clues to how business and home shared one plot.
Follow the six-room arrangement
The city describes a two-row, six-room plan, with a shomise at the north end and an earthen passage along the east. Door fittings, smoke vent and a low upper floor preserve techniques from the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century. Look for these details in their actual positions rather than assuming every restored board is untouched original material.
Understand what restoration means
The house was vacant and deteriorated for a long period. The city surveyed and repaired it, and the Kashihara tourism association says its restoration drew on physical traces and old material while strengthening fire and earthquake protection. A visit shows a historically informed reconstruction of lived space, not a frozen room that has never changed.
Use it as the start of an Imaicho walk
The house stands on Honmachi Street within the wider protected district. After the interior, compare its street face and passage with other facades from public lanes, then continue to a café or another house that explicitly advertises visiting hours. Do not enter private townhouses because they appear on a tourist map.
Make the short visit practical
The city lists free admission from 9:00 to 17:00, with a full closure for the 12:00–13:00 lunch hour and from 25 December through 5 January. Nara's English guide estimates nine minutes on foot from Kintetsu Yagi-Nishiguchi Station. There is no need to book ordinary viewing according to the city's public-facilities table, but operating changes should be checked before travel.
What to look for
Early-eighteenth-century merchant-house plan
Shopfront and earthen passage
Free city-run indoor interpretation of Imaicho
Photo notes
Kashihara City requires permission before photographing its managed buildings or exhibits for commercial web publication, including this house. The city's production guide restricts approved indoor shooting to weekdays, 9:00–11:30 and 13:00–16:30, and prohibits tripods indoors and flash. MyNara has no cleared photograph of the interior; obtain city permission before a production shoot or reuse of images.
SEASONAL CALENDAR
Events connected with Imai Machiya House
These records are shared with MyNara’s event calendar, so dates and notices have one source. Recurring patterns are not confirmed dated editions; check the organizer’s latest guidance.
Imaicho Townscape Walk
Kashihara City describes this town-wide May festival as a chance to experience Imaicho's history and culture in its nationally designated historic district. The programme can include a period-costume tea procession, a recreated Rokusai market, tea service, street art, performances and openings at selected historic houses. The Agency for Cultural Affairs' profile of the district reports more than 10,000 visitors annually. The usual window is the second Saturday through the third Sunday in May, with the main events on the third Sunday; check the current city or preservation-society notice for the next dates, open buildings, fees and traffic arrangements. The district is the venue; nearby shops and residences are not automatically participating venues.
Check organizer informationMake a day of it
Explore guides close to this map point, then check the actual route before travelling. Distances below are straight lines, not walking distances or travel times; map points may not be entrances.
Sources & editorial status
Original MyNara draft based on the linked sources. Sources reviewed 20 October 2026. Opening arrangements, prices and offers may change; use the operator's current information before travelling.
- Official Nara Travel Guide
- Kashihara City — house history, opening and admission (updated 19 August 2025)
- Kashihara City — March 2026 historic-house visiting table; no booking for ordinary viewing
- Kashihara City — commercial filming permit and indoor limits
- Kashihara City Tourism Association — restoration context