Overview
A thatched house bought and restored by Alex Kerr, and the model case for reviving abandoned mountain homes.
About this place
Chiiori (篪庵; House of the Flute) is the name of an Edo period minka farmhouse in the Iya Valley, western Tokushima, Japan. Dating from around 1720, the house is believed to be the second oldest in Iya. (The oldest, nearby Kimura House, is designated an Important Cultural Property) Chiiori preserves its original structure, irori (囲炉裏; floor hearths), and pine floors blackened by hundreds of years of smoke from the irori. The house is unusual for farm houses in Japan because there are no ceilings (except over the small sleeping rooms). This was because for much of the Edo period, tobacco was a leading crop of Iya, and villagers used to hang the tobacco up in the rafters to smoke over the irori. Due to the lack of ceilings, Chiiori has a dramatic wide-open interior. Purchased by Japanologist Alex Kerr in 1973, Chiiori features in Kerr's book Lost Japan. Originally there was no road up to the house, so the only access was to walk an hour from the Iya River road below. Today there's a winding one-lane road access to the house. It is now the center of Chiiori Trust (a non-profit organization based in Iya Valley that is working toward solutions to the problems surrounding depopulation in rural Japan), and Chiiori Alliance (a company dedicated to the same goals). From 1997 to 2007, Kerr shared ownership of Chiiori with Mason Florence. In the summer of 2007, Kerr bought back Florence's share; since then, Kerr and the Chiiori Trust/Chiiori Alliance have managed the house. In 2012, Chi
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source ja.wikipedia.org ↗Key facts
Founded / opened：1720s Highlights / collection：Thatched farmhouse, Plan centred on a hearth Genre：Architecture
Source ja.wikipedia.org ↗Before you go
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