4 Kyoto genkan

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Entry into a Japanese home built on the pre-modern plan requires that the visitor open the door, announce their presence and wait inside in the entryway (genkan). The Kyoto genkan entryway has great metaphorical utility, as it symbolizes both social and economic status. To be invited up into the house from the entryway is to assume a status equality (at least) with the house’s owner. I was told more than once that in Kyoto a new neighbor may not get past the genkan of their more established neighbor for three or more generations. In a discussion over the plan devised by Kyoto University for the city of Kyoto, a plan to tear down the illegal structures in 40 banchi and replace these with an public housing apartment complex, the architect spent several minutes describing the aesthetic qualities of the new structure, stressing the fact that they all have balconies. “Take away the balcony,” one 40 banchi resident responded, “and give us a genkan!”