Ijinkan

In Japanese, IJIN means foreign people - KAN means house. Kobe is an old port city in Japan and has been an open port since1867. Many foreign people lived there from 1873. From 1887-people lived in KITANO/KOBE. KITANO is mountain side of Kobe. Here are some pictures of the old times.

Some houses were French, English, Chinese, USA... Now many of these foreign homes are on sightseeing tours in Kobe. You can see the insides of these houses. To many of you they may look like your grandparents' homes, but in Japan they were very different and exotic!

Koichi Saito, Imani Art Club, Japan