Shimizuya Hara Family Residence

The Shimizuya Hara Family Residence

The Shimizuya Hara Family Residence (清水屋原家住宅) is the home of the Hara family in Magome, a post town on the Nakasendo highway in Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture; its main house and storehouse, both built in the late Meiji era (1898 to 1912), were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 29, 2013 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Shimizuya is the trading name of the house, and Hara the family name.

According to the Magome Tourist Association, the Hara family served for generations as officials of the post town and were close to the Shimazaki family, who kept the Honjin, the inn for travelling lords. The character Mori-san in Shimazaki Toson's story Arashi (The Storm) is Hara Ippei of this house.

The Two Registered Buildings

The main house, at the south-west end of the post town, is a 2-storey timber townhouse with a frontage of 13.9 metres, a latticed shop front (Degōshi) and a central boarded room under massive exposed beams, with tatami rooms around it. It was renovated in 1970 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The storehouse is joined to the back of the main house and faces an inner courtyard, a 2-storey earthen (Dozo-zukuri) building with walls of lime plaster above a base of battened clapboard (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The registration numbers are 21-0205 for the main house and 21-0206 for the storehouse, and both were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. Together they keep the plan of an old post-town household: a large townhouse on the highway with a storehouse on the courtyard behind. Each building has its own page with the details.

The Shimizuya Museum

According to the Magome Tourist Association, the upper floor of the Shimizuya is open as the Shimizuya Museum. On show are letters, hanging scrolls and photographs connected with Toson, along with documents and paintings from the days when the post town flourished in the Edo period, Kutani, Imari and Karatsu ceramics, and Wajima lacquerware.

It is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from December to March), with admission of 300 yen for adults and 100 yen for students; closing days are irregular (Magome Tourist Association, checked October 2026). No official guidance on photography inside was found.

Getting to Magome

Magome is the 43rd post town on the Nakasendo, and its stone-paved slope, lined with houses on both sides, runs for about 600 metres (Magome Tourist Association). Some stretches are steep, so comfortable shoes are recommended, and the paving means the street is not barrier-free.

Local buses run by Kitaena Kotsu connect JR Nakatsugawa Station with Magome. Highway buses from Tokyo and Nagoya stop at Chuo-do Magome, about 15 minutes on foot from the entrance to the post town. Vehicles are barred from the street through the town from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day for pedestrian safety, and most car parks are free (all per the Magome Tourist Association).