Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/19/small-buildings-of-kyoto.html
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The tiny dwelling thing is catching on.
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Yeah, I’m waiting for the tiny house haters to start freaking out over this post…
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The skinny green one is a place for Esperanto speakers to meet! Or something like that.
On street view:
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One need not order it - though I’m not arguing against; please support the artist - but the top link in the story takes you to a page where one can read/view the entire book. It’s something else.
soooo… there is more than enough room. 
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“Tokyo” =/= “Kyoto”
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Perhaps not if William Shatner shows up. Head’s too big.
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I see these super narrow buildings around Tokyo as well. Asked a friend years back about why, was told that things get built to property lines and when odd splits due to inheritance or only part of a lot of land being sold you end up with these weird shaped or small lots. Cant let the land be useless so people build on it up to what it will accommodate.
@buddybradley you are right thats indeed a meeting place for esperanto speakers or possibly the HQ of an esperanto association.
Right, since “会館” is such a non-specific word you can’t really say what its function is exactly.
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The books by Azby Brown, based in Kanazawa, give a wide catalog of Japanese use of texture, light, space and so on. A dozen houses from the Misawa Homes catalog circa summer 2004 were on display at a nearby home park, so I took photos, bit.ly/housejp
In the case of Kyoto, I seem to recall that there was an old property tax based on the amount of frontage facing the street… Ah, yes, my brain wasn’t making it up, these skinny buildings are called kyomachiya:
The plot’s width was traditionally an index of wealth because it was the base for the tax calculation.
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Not aware of why, but I have seen them in as big of cities as Tokyo or Nagoya, and the smaller suburban areas (like Seto where I stayed some months in college). They are not super common, but seem not limited to metropolitan areas.
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