Sakai Family Residence (Maruoka)

About the Sakai Family Residence (Maruoka)

The Sakai Family Residence (酒井家住宅, Sakai-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a businessman who founded a construction firm, in Rakuma, Maruoka-cho, Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture, where nine structures led by a late Meiji main house were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2025.

The estate lies on the right bank of the Kuzuryū River. The main house stands at the centre of the plot, surrounded by a Western-style house, a guest wing (the Shinzashiki) and three storehouses, and three gates with their walls mark the boundary.

Another registered Sakai Family Residence stands in Sabae, and a different family's house with the same reading, written 坂井家, is in Mikuni in Sakai City. This site therefore adds the place name: Sakai Family Residence (Maruoka).

An Estate Built in Three Stages

The buildings of the Sakai Family Residence fall into three periods.

The oldest is the main house, built in the late Meiji era (1898 to 1912) and relocated in 1923. Where it stood before is not recorded in any published source we could find.

Around 1930 came the Western-style house, the household goods storehouse, the north and west storehouses, the main gate with the west wall and the south gate with the south wall. Six of the nine registered structures date from these years, so the estate seems to have taken its present shape then.

After the war, around 1951, the family added the Shinzashiki for receiving guests and a reinforced-concrete side gate with the southwest wall. Sakai City's list gives the Shinzashiki as early Shōwa; we follow the Agency for Cultural Affairs' date of around 1951.

The Nine Registered Structures

Following a recommendation by the Council for Cultural Affairs on March 21, 2025, the nine structures of the Sakai Family Residence were registered on August 6, 2025, under the consecutive numbers 18-0262 to 18-0270. The Agency's database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main house: late Meiji, relocated 1923. Wooden, 2 storeys, building area 297 m²
• Western-style house: around 1930. Reinforced concrete, 2 storeys, building area 34 m²
• Shinzashiki (guest wing): around 1951. Wooden, single storey, building area 116 m²
• Household goods storehouse: around 1930. Earthen-walled, 2 storeys, building area 61 m²
• North storehouse: around 1930, repaired 2023. Earthen-walled, 2 storeys, building area 79 m²
• West storehouse: around 1930. Earthen-walled, 2 storeys, building area 28 m²
• Main gate and west wall: around 1930. Gate 2.8 m wide, wall 29 m long
• South gate and south wall: around 1930. Gate 1.9 m wide, wall 12 m long
• Side gate and southwest wall: around 1951. Reinforced concrete, gate 1.5 m wide, wall 27 m long

The main house, the Western-style house and the Shinzashiki were registered as models of form; the three storehouses and the three gate-and-wall structures for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Council described the main house as a large, high-quality modern Japanese-style house and the Western-style house as an elaborately designed one.

How the Sakai Family Residence Is Laid Out

The main house of the Sakai Family Residence stands at the centre of the plot and faces west. The Western-style house is joined to it and, according to Sakai City, sits on the west side of the estate. The Shinzashiki is linked to the south of the Western-style house by a covered corridor and looks out over the garden from verandas on its north and east sides.

North of the main house is the household goods storehouse, with the north storehouse beside it to the west; together they form the northwest corner. The west storehouse stands southwest of the main house and holds the southwest corner. Both the north and west storehouses carry the family crest on their west gables.

Around the edge, the main gate, a yakuimon, opens in the middle of the west side with the west wall running off on either side. On the south side is the south gate, an udekimon, whose wall runs west to meet the west storehouse. Along the southwest face, the side gate and southwest wall line the street. A Japanese-style main house, a Western-style house, storehouses and a full set of gates and walls on one plot: that combination is what makes the estate worth knowing. Each building has its own page with details.

Designated a Historic Landscape Building

On May 19, 2026, Sakai City designated the Sakai Family Residence as the second of its Historic Landscape Buildings (rekishiteki fūchi keisei kenzōbutsu), under the city's plan for maintaining and improving its historic character. Together with the Kubota Sake Brewery garden, it was the first such designation in Fukui Prefecture. The certificate was presented at the house on July 28, 2026.

The city's announcement dates the Western-style house to around 1930 and suggests it was a very unusual Western-style building for the area at the time.

Visiting the Sakai Family Residence

The Sakai Family Residence (Maruoka) is a privately owned home and is not open to the public (checked October 2026). We found no notice of open days or special openings, and no official guidance on getting there by train or on parking.

The main gate with its west wall and the side gate with the southwest wall stand on the outer edge of the plot. If you look at the estate from outside, stay off the property and respect the privacy of those who live there.