Machiya (町屋/町家?) are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. Machiya (townhouses) originated as early as the Heian period and continued to develop through to the Edo period and even into the Meiji period. Machiya housed urban merchants and craftsmen, a class collectively referred to as chōnin (townspeople). The word machiya is written using two kanji: machi (町) meaning town, and ya (家or 屋) meaning house (家) or shop (屋) depending on the kanji used to express it.

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