Kitano Foreigners' Houses

Kobe’s Kitano Ijinkan Street (Kitano Ijinkan‑gai) is a “gallery of civilizations” suspended between the mountains and the sea. Each Western-style building made of stone or red bricks is like a foreign messenger of time. After the opening of the port, foreign merchants and diplomats left their dreams of their homeland on this high platform. Today, Ijinkan has become a window for the city to communicate with the world.  Unlike the recommended attractions in the tourist guide, I cherish the naturally generated “historical tone” of this street block more – a building hidden in a quiet corner is hidden in the corner of the alley: or the “Uroko no Ya” covered like fish scales, with the outer wall carved into fin-shaped patterns with natural stone pieces, as if sealing the breath of the sea into the wall; or the light green “Moegi no Ya”, with two asymmetrical windows that wave to the street view smartly, and its arched window stairs and classical fireplace seem to be quietly calling the whispers of the banquet guests in the past.    The charm of Kitano Ijinkan lies not in its "exotic style" but in its lasting footnote of "going through the ages but still kissing the sea breeze". On one side is the modern Kobe Port and the modern skyline, and on the other side are the century-old Western-style houses and gardens, which wonderfully weave the city's past and present, introversion and extroversion, between the ramps and red tiles into a silent cultural exchange poem.