History of Gingaso

Gingaso was built in 1885*1. The house has a thatched roof with miscanthus and its shape is like a key in old timec. The key type thatched roof house is rare in this area, Itoshima.
Amazingly the house lives through 120 years in spite of the owners being changed.
Becoming the fourth owner of the house in 2004, we felt the house would like to be as it was.

We, therefore, looked for the craftsmen with traditional architectural skills, who are now disappearing in Japan as well as all over the world.
Thirty months later the craftsmen reformed the old house as original as possible: the miscanthus were rethatched, the clay walls were repainted, the aluminum sashes were replaced by the wood framed sashes, the earthen floor was reformed into traditional hard-packed dirt floor tataki, traditional clay-made cooking stoves and wood-firing cast iron bathtub were installed and the sunken hearth was widen in order to fire woods as well as charcoals. The old house was named Gingaso by a lady calligrapher Moegi Yamamoto during the reformation. Gingaso means Galaxy House in English.
Every work of the craftsmen was beatiful and joyful to see. We did nothing but moved the overwhelming delicate works which were done one by one cautiously.

Japanese traditional lifestyle, no wasting tradition which is easy for the earth, functional hand-made tools with beauty by craftsmen.
いま誰かが気が付かなければ現代の便利さを追求した生活の波に押されてなくなってしまう、という危機感と、 そういった昔の生活を博物館の中だけではなく、実際の生活を通して体験したい、そして次の世代へと残していきたい、との思いから銀河荘で百年前のような生活を始めることになりました。

忙しい現代に生きる私たちだから、あえてこういった暮らしを選択することによって、昔ながらの生活を営みながらも現代社会で生きることは可能なのだというメッセージを伝えられれば幸いです。
昔の生活は時間がかかって不便なだけのものではない、ということを大人と一緒に新しい時代をになう子供たちにも体験してもらえる場にできたら、と思っています。


*1 According to the archives of the local government, Gingaso was registered in1885. The truth of its birth might date back some more decades.
*2 Old fashioned key is like "L" shape.
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