What hikiya means
Hikiya is the practice of raising a building and moving it whole to another position, without dismantling it. Because the posts and roof frame stay assembled, the building arrives in the state it left.
The Arichika Residence in Yamaguchi Prefecture is described as having a main house built facing the highway in 1892 and moved bodily to its present site in 1924, with an entrance hall, a reception room and a retirement wing added at the same time to complete the present arrangement. The date field of the record notes the move as completed in 1924.
Many moves stay within the same plot. The Hanaju shop in Tokyo, built in 1877, is described as a flower wholesaler founded around the time the Yanaka cemetery opened, which in that year moved its earlier building to the rear of the site and put up a two-storey shop and dwelling in the space that opened up.
The north storehouse at the Inaba Residence in Kyoto Prefecture, from the late Edo period, is described as a two-storey plastered storehouse of two bays by one and a half, Kirizuma-zukuri with Sangawara-buki, which old drawings show to have been moved when the main house was built.
How records note it
The move becomes part of the building's history. The former rice store at Kawatsuru in Kagawa Prefecture, from the Taisho period, is described as having been moved from the residential part of the site to the north and now serving as a display space for brewing equipment, with the date field recording the move as around 1955.
Alterations often accompany the move. The Muramatsu Residence in Yamanashi Prefecture, built in 1865, is described with the note that the arched framing of its upper openings may date from the move that came with the building of a merchant's storehouse. Where move and alteration coincide, the parts of a building have to be dated separately.
Two written forms of the Japanese word are in use and both appear in the records of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, with the same pronunciation. Following the form used by the entry being quoted is the safer course.
The practice also differs from dismantling a building and rebuilding it elsewhere, though records sometimes cover both with a single word for relocation. Reading the description rather than the label settles which happened.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: Registered tangible cultural properties (structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/toroku_yukei.html
- National Cultural Properties Database: Arichika Residence, its 1892 main house moved bodily to the present site in 1924
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/00004610
- National Cultural Properties Database: Hanaju shop, whose predecessor was moved to the rear of the plot in 1877
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003074
- National Cultural Properties Database: Inaba Residence north storehouse, shown by old drawings to have been moved when the main house was built
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003113
- National Cultural Properties Database: Kawatsuru former rice store, tile-and-plaster lattice below and white plaster above
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003000
- National Cultural Properties Database: Muramatsu Residence, whose upper openings may have been altered when the building was moved
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003084
Last verified: 2026.08.31