is the name of an

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

minka are vernacular houses constructed in any one of several traditional Japanese building styles. In the context of the four divisions of society, were the dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants (i.e., the three non-samurai castes). This c ...

'' farmhouse in the

Iya Valley The Iya Valley (祖谷 ''Iya'') region in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan is a scenic area known for its dramatic mountain valleys, thatched roof farmhouses and historic vine bridges. Although access has improved in recent years, the Iya Valley and ...

, western

Tokushima is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 728,633 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,146 km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the north, E ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. 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 An ''irori'' (, ) is a traditional Japanese sunken hearth fired with charcoal. Used for heating the home and for cooking food, it is essentially a square, stone-lined pit in the floor, equipped with an adjustable pothook – called a ''jiz ...

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 Alex Kerr in 1973, Chiiori features in Alex's book

Lost Japan is a 1993 book written by American Japonologist Alex Kerr. Background The book deals with Kerr's life in Japan and on aspects of Japanese culture by which he was fascinated. The text is a collection of personal essays in which he suggests that t ...

. 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. However, in summer of 2007, Kerr bought back Florence's share and since then Alex and the Chiiori Trust / Chiiori Alliance have managed the house. In 2012, Chiiori underwent a major restoration. Over the course of a year, the roof was re-thatched, walls and underfloor structure redone with damage repaired, earthquake protection incorporated, and amenities built in, such as plumbing, bath, toilets, lighting, and heating systems etc. However, most of these changes are invisible, and the thatch, irori, and old pine floors are as they've always been. Working as a consultant for Miyoshi City, of which Iya is a part, Alex went on to restore eight other thatched houses in the hamlet of Ochiai, further up the valley from Chiiori. Today Chiiori Alliance manages all nine houses as places for people to stay and for cultural events. File:Chiiori irori floor hearths.jpg, Interior of Chiiori

External links

Official website
Architecture in Japan Houses in Japan 1720s establishments in Japan Houses completed in 1720 Buildings and structures in Tokushima Prefecture Thatched buildings {{Japan-struct-stub