Houses lined with tile roofs, Jizo statues, wells, and the smokestacks of the hot springs. Ajiki Alley lays a unique and beautiful landscape before you. Even then, within this tradition are modern innovations. A hat shop, small goods shops, a bread shop and more. Almost every house has a shop attached to it.
“The alleyways are Kyoto’s cultural heritage sites.”
This saying speaks to the popularity of alleyways as cafes and shops continue to increase in the sideroads of Kyoto. However, it was not so long ago when opening a cafe in the backstreets was unimaginable. The propeller of change in this thought process was “Ajiki Alley.” The landlord of the area, Ajiki-san purposefully built the alleyway to act as a sort of share house where young artists would naturally gravitate to. The landlord would be the mother, the shops his children. Like one big family living under the same roof.
So what kind of person was this Ajiki-san? When he was younger he actually pursued a career in metal carving and engraving, but gave it up to raise a family of his own. Now in his 70’s, Ajiki-san has taken up the art again. However, this field is a delicate art. If anything were to happen due to the condition of your fingertips, you would have to redo everything from scratch. Although Ajiki-san is still in good health with decent eyesight, there are some things that come with age that can’t be overcome. Ajiki-san says he wants young people to fulfill their passions while they are young. When you’re young you have your wits about you and you body moves the way you want it to. This does not, unfortunately, last forever. Ajiki-san wants young people to live out their dreams so they don’t regret anything in their old age. So this is why Ajiki-san mainly rents out these spaces to young people for ridiculously low prices.
“Just like people around the country would probably say, ‘Good thing Japan has Kyoto,” I want people to say, ‘Good thing Kyoto has Ajiki Alley.” While it's easy to say “I want this to live on,” it’s actually difficult to keep it going. At one point Mr.Ajiki will have to ask himself, “Do I really want to hold back on things I want and use all of the money I have on a house I don’t even live in?”
The cost of maintaining a house that has been around for 100 years is no small figure. For this reason, many people choose to move away from these older houses while Ajiki-san buys these houses with his own money and continues the upkeep of these spaces on his own. Many young artists and writers live in these houses and those who have moved on, alongside Ajiki-san,continue their attempts to preserve this alley. Ajiki-san wants you to see this kind of an alleyway as well.
