Osaka Museum of Housing and Living 9th floor
Exhibition Hall 1: Osaka in the Early Modern Period
Time travel back to Edo Period
10. kusuri-ya Pharmacy・Zashiki Guest Room, Benjo Toilet and Dozō Warehouse
Zashiki guest room of machiya shophouse was used for entertaining guests and holding various ceremonies, functions and annual events.
Zashiki of this machiya shophouse consists of an 8-tatami-mat-size main guest room and a 6-tatami-mat-size naka-no-ma middle room,
which can be made into a larger 14-tatami-mat-size tsuzuki-no-ma connected room by removing fusuma paper-covered sliding doors in between the two rooms when there are many guests.
The main guest room has a tokonoma alcove, a set of chigai-dana staggered shelves on the left, and a tsuki-shoin bay-window-style built-in drawing room on the right,
following the sukiya-fū shoin-zukuri design, or tea-ceremony-house-style traditional Japanese residential design.
To entertain guests, family treasures are put on display, for example by hanging kakejiku scroll on the tokonoma alcove wall and placing tebako casket on the chigai-dana staggered shelves.
There are kami-benjo（*Photo left） upper toilet for the household members and guests, where urination booth and defecation booth stand side by side, and shimo-benjo（*Photo right） for employees.
Dozō warehouse safely stores commercial goods and valuable family properties. For the security and fireproofing, its thick mud wall is plastered.
Prominent merchants built many warehouses, which are regarded as a symbol of business trustworthiness and prosperity.
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