Former Takei Family Main Building

A Samurai House on an Earthwork Lane

The Former Takei Family Residence Main House (旧武居家住宅主屋, Kyū-Takei-ke Jūtaku Shuoku, also written Kyu Takeike Jutaku Shuoku) is a late Edo-period samurai dwelling in the Miyakojicho district of Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture, added to Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 1 August 2016. It is a single-storey timber building roofed in copper plate, with a floor area of 76 square metres, owned by the City of Sakura.

The lane it stands on is narrow, edged by earth banks and clipped hedges, and it holds three surviving samurai houses. Their addresses run 57, 60 and 61 Miyakojicho: the Former Kawara Residence, the Former Takei Residence, and the Former Tajima Residence. All three housed retainers of the Sakura domain. What differs is their legal status. Kawara is a Chiba Prefecture designated property, Tajima is designated by the city, and Takei is registered at the national level. Three tiers of Japanese heritage protection sit within a few dozen metres of one another, which is not a common arrangement.

City records trace the plot in unusual detail. It belonged to the Saito family, then around 1822 to Yoda Heinai, then to Hattori Yotaro. From sometime before 1860 into the early Meiji era it was the residence of Tajima Denzaemon and Tajima Ikutaro, catalogued then as Plot 54 outside Sakura Castle. After passing through several hands, the house was acquired by the Takei family in 1900. It was dismantled, moved and rebuilt on its present site, with the work finished and the building opened in 1997. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database records the relocation year plainly.

The copper roof is worth noticing on approach. The Former Kawara Residence a few doors away is thatched, so the two read quite differently from the street.

Two Parallel Rows, and a Room Without Nageshi

Registration rested on the criterion that the building serves as a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs summarises the plan in a single phrase: reception space and living space divided into two rows. The omotemuki, the formal front where guests were received, occupies one row; daily domestic life occupies the other. Each row has its own entrance. A visitor and a family member could move through the house without crossing paths, and the social logic of a warrior household is legible directly in the floor plan.

The structural framing preserves an older habit. Slender posts stand at intervals of one ken, roughly 1.8 metres, which by the late Edo period was already a conservative way to build.

The most telling detail is an absence. The tatami reception room has no nageshi, the horizontal timber that caps the posts and, in formal shoin-style rooms, signals rank. It was left out here, and the formal front itself occupies a modest share of the total area. Sakura City describes the building as the surviving home of a middle-ranking Sakura domain retainer; the national database calls it a valuable example of a relatively small samurai house. The wording differs, the reading does not. Status in Edo-period Japan was written into architecture with some precision, and this house sits deliberately below the ceiling its owner's class allowed.

Registration, in Japanese heritage law, is a lighter instrument than designation. Buildings over fifty years old that meet a threshold of value can be entered on the national register; alterations generally require notification rather than permission. The system was built around the idea that a structure survives best when it stays in use. Walking this one lane, a visitor can compare the national, prefectural and municipal versions of that idea within a couple of minutes.

Visiting, and What Else Is Nearby

The Sakura Samurai Houses open daily from 9:00 to 17:00, with last admission at 16:30. They close on Mondays, shifting to Tuesday when the Monday is a public holiday, and from 28 December to 4 January. Admission to the samurai houses alone costs 250 yen for adults and 120 yen for students. A combination ticket covering the samurai houses, the Former Hotta Residence and the Sakura Juntendo Memorial Hall costs 600 yen for adults and 300 yen for students, valid on the day of purchase for one entry to each site. Payment is cash only; card and mobile payment are not accepted. Elementary and junior high school students enter free on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Inside the Former Takei Residence, artefacts excavated during the relocation are on display, and Sakura City confirms that visitors can enter the building. Access does vary between the three houses: the Former Kawara Residence opens its interior only on six special days a year. Checking the city's cultural affairs page before travelling avoids a wasted walk. Free volunteer guides are available on request through a simple booking slip.

Rail is the easiest approach. JR Sakura Station lies about 15 minutes on foot, Keisei Sakura Station about 20. By bus, alight at Miyakojicho and walk five minutes. Drivers will find ten free spaces on the lane itself, though large vehicles cannot enter it. The alternative is the car park at the Sakura Castle Otemon gate site, from which the walk takes about nine minutes by way of either Hiyodorizaka or Kurayamizaka. The latter has no steps.

Photography is covered by a separate city notice on filming at cultural properties. Location shoots do occasionally take over the lane, so a weekday visit tends to be quieter.

Hiyodorizaka, a sunken path walled in bamboo, runs close by. Sakura Castle Park, the National Museum of Japanese History and the Former Hotta Residence all sit within walking distance, the last about twenty minutes away. The Former Takei Residence is also counted among the component properties of the Japan Heritage story "Journey to the Four Cities of Hokuso," which links Sakura with Narita, Sawara and Choshi.