Beside the shrine
A two-story wooden townhouse in Nakanocho, Higashiyama, its 4.4-meter front facing south onto a lane off Sanjo Street. Downstairs is one open room with the kitchen at the back; upstairs are two tatami rooms under the original beams.
It is one of four terraced houses, set just past the vermilion torii that mark the approach to Aidzuchi Inari Daimyojin, the shrine next door. The listing gives its legend: the Heian swordsmith Sanjō Munechika is said to have forged the blade Kogitsunemaru there with divine aid. The Noh play Kokaji tells the same story, with the Inari deity appearing as a fox spirit to work beside him, and the finished blade signed Kogitsune, Little Fox, on its back.
The house
The building date cannot be fixed. The earliest record in the house evaluation report is 1882, which puts it in the Meiji era. The seller renovated it in July 2026 and kept the weathered earth walls and the aged beams as they were, along with the steep open stair, where someone pencilled 1956.4.2 on the plaster above the top step.
On the ground floor, three rooms became one living, dining and kitchen space, with floor heating under the kitchen and living room. The former tooriniwa, the old passageway, keeps its full height and now holds a long desk and shelving under a barred window high in the wall. The kitchen is stainless steel; the shower room and the tatami are new.
Upstairs, the two rooms are laid with square tatami in two tones and left open to the roof boards and log beams. On one wall, a grid of old paper backing shows through the plaster.
What comes with it
Registered land is 38.65 square meters and registered floor area 50.7, about 57 as measured. The house holds a Kyo-machiya profile. It cannot be rebuilt if it comes down, it is sold as-is with no furniture, and it is vacant. Heian Shrine's Grand Torii is a seven-minute walk, and Higashiyama Station on the Tozai line is five minutes away.
