Sumiya Pleasure House

Sumiya is the sole surviving grand ageya, or banquet house, of Kyoto's old Shimabara pleasure district, and it is an Important Cultural Property. Built in the seventeenth century and later expanded, it hosted lavish parties where guests were entertained by tayu courtesans and geisha amid rooms of extraordinary craft. Each chamber has a distinct theme, from a hall inlaid with fans to salons of blue plaster and delicate latticework. As a rare intact example of this vanished world, it now operates as a museum of Edo-period culture and design.