Former Hirai Family Residence

A merchant house on a castle-town corner

The Former Hirai Family Residence (旧平井家住宅, Kyū Hirai-ke Jūtaku) in Shinmachi, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture, is a merchant family's town house whose three buildings, a shop and main house of the mid-Meiji period (between 1883 and 1897), a side storehouse of 1917 and a parlor wing of 1931, were registered together as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property group on August 1, 2016. The Hirai family traded here from the Edo period onward; descendants donated the property to Sakura City in 2008, and the city still owns it.

Sakura grew up around a castle, and its old town divided warriors' districts from the merchants' quarter. The Hirai house stands at the southern edge of the merchant blocks, close to where the samurai lanes began. It faces east onto Shinmachi-dōri, the old main street (now National Route 296), and fills the corner where a side road from the south meets it in a T-junction. Follow that side road west and you reach Makata Shrine, then the samurai residences and Sakura Castle Park beyond. Sakura City describes the Former Hirai Family Residence as a corner building that ties the castle park and samurai quarter to Shinmachi-dōri and shapes the historic townscape.

Charcoal, mail and sake

Family tradition holds that the Hirai settled here in the Genna era (1615 to 1624), when the Shinmachi merchant district was first laid out. The name Hirai Gihei appears among Shinmachi merchants who paid a reconstruction levy to the Sakura domain after the great Edo earthquake of 1855, and a domain record of 1863 lists Hiraiya Gihei among the purveyors appointed to supply firewood and charcoal.

In 1872 the family took on the duties of a postal agent under Japan's new mail system, a role regarded as the beginning of the Sakura post office. The agency itself, however, sat at another address in Shinmachi, not on this lot.

The business lapsed for a time. Nin'ichirō, sixth head of the house, trained with a sake wholesaler elsewhere in the prefecture, came home and opened a sake shop, and from the late Meiji period the Hirai were once again one of the larger merchant houses on the street. The shop closed in 1958 when he grew old, and from the following year the front was let to other tenants.

Shop, storehouse and parlor

The lot runs back from a narrow frontage on Shinmachi-dōri and covers about 377 m². The shop and main house stands toward the north end of the frontage, with the side storehouse beside it to the south on the corner. Behind the shop, the parlor wing extends west, and a small garden opens on its south side. Chiba Prefecture points out that this arrangement, a shop-house on the street, a storehouse at its side and formal rooms joined at the back, is the standard form of a merchant house carried over from the Edo period.

A study based on the city's detailed building survey of 1996 dates the buildings as follows. A fire that started at Makata Shrine in 1886 destroyed the earlier house, and the present shop and main house was built in the mid-Meiji period to replace it. The side storehouse was raised in 1917 and the parlor wing added in 1931. A stone storehouse from the early Showa era stands at the west end of the lot but is not part of the registration.

Three registered buildings

The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended registration in March 2016, and on August 1, 2016 the Former Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House (registration number 12-0188), Parlor Wing (12-0189) and Side Storehouse (12-0190) were each entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure). All three were registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the shop's place at a key point on the old road, the parlor wing's firm date and the picture it gives of a merchant family's domestic life, and the storehouse's role in keeping the full layout of a merchant compound. The construction of each building is described on its own page.

From donation to new use

Since the donation in 2008 the house has been opened as a rest stop during the autumn festival and used for lessons by a nearby primary school. In fiscal 2023 and 2024 the city ran "trial soundings," letting businesses use the building for short periods; a pastry shop and kimono strolls through the old town were among the uses.

On July 9, 2026, Sakura City opened a call for proposals to choose a business that will lease the Former Hirai Family Residence as a shop. The conditions require the street facade to be kept as it is, in line with its registered status, and rule out any extension. The chosen operator is to renovate and run the building, with a lease expected to be signed between November and December 2026.

Visiting

The interior of the Former Hirai Family Residence is normally closed while the city prepares it for reuse. Sakura City opens it on a temporary basis during events such as the autumn festival and the period festival. As of October 2026 the selection of an operator was under way, so the chances of getting inside will depend on the renovation schedule and how the building is used afterward. Check Sakura City's notices before you go.

The exterior can be seen from the road at any time. From Shinmachi-dōri the fronts of the shop and the storehouse stand side by side; walk around into the side road and you see the storehouse's flank and how far the property runs back from the street. The parlor wing sits behind the shop and is barely visible from outside. Photographing the exterior from the public road is no problem, but the buildings stand right on the pavement, so keep clear of traffic and passers-by.

Getting there

The house lies about 1 km south of Keisei-Sakura Station on the Keisei Main Line, as the crow flies. The old castle town sits on a plateau, so the walk climbs up to Shinmachi-dōri; allow around 15 minutes. From JR Sakura Station, local buses heading for Keisei-Sakura Station run along Shinmachi-dōri. No visitor parking is provided.