A 1937 town house facing north onto Nakamachi-dori
The Degawa Family Residence Main House is a wooden dwelling of 1937 at 347 Makabe, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, entered on Japan's national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 12 July 2005. It stands on Nakamachi-dori, the street running north from the site of the old Kasama domain Jinya, and turns its front elevation to the north.
The front block runs east to west and rises two storeys in timber. Its frontage measures 4 ken and its depth 3 ken 4 shaku, traditional carpenter's units that come to roughly 7.3 metres by 6.7 metres. The roof is Irimoya-zukuri, hipped below and gabled at the ridge, laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. Behind it a single-storey wing runs north to south beneath a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof, its ridge turned through a right angle against the front block. The registered building area is 90 square metres, so the plot reaches back further than the narrow street frontage suggests.
Makabe's street plan took shape under the Makabe clan in the Sengoku period and was settled early in the Edo period. The Kasama domain administered the town from a jinya, a walled office used in place of a castle, and the place prospered as a market town for goods from the northern foot of Mount Tsukuba. After the great fire of 1837, town houses with thick plastered walls gradually became the norm. The Degawa Family Residence Main House sits at the newest end of that sequence.
What the registration recognises
The criterion cited for this building is that it contributes to the historic landscape of the country. Its register number is 08-0186, from the 46th round of registrations. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property is conferred by registration rather than by designation, a lighter status that leaves owners free to alter interiors and change uses so long as the exterior is not substantially altered. For a district like Makabe, where the buildings are still lived in and traded from, the lighter instrument was the workable one.
The first thing the Agency for Cultural Affairs description points to is the treatment of the street front. The face of the Degawa Family Residence Main House was remodelled in 1951 when a pharmacy opened in it. A shopkeeper on a street like this would ordinarily extend a long Geya eave over the pavement to create dry selling space. That was not done here. A shallow secondary hood was added instead, and the elevation kept the proportions of a house rather than taking on those of a shop. The decision is still legible from the pavement, which is unusual: most conversions of this kind erase the domestic front entirely.
Around 100 registered properties stand in the Makabe district. On 29 June 2010 some 17.6 hectares were selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the 87th such district in Japan and the first in Ibaraki Prefecture. What carried the case was the unbroken run of building types from the late Edo period through to the early Showa years, and the Degawa Family Residence Main House holds down the late end of that range.
What to look at from the street
The interest of the Degawa Family Residence Main House lies in how the front elevation handles height. Because the hood projects only shallowly from the eaves, no deep band of shadow falls across the ground floor. Walking past, you see the second-storey wall and its openings almost directly overhead, and the full height of the building registers at once. Compare it with the stretches of Makabe where shopfronts run out long eaves at first-floor level and the difference is immediate.
The roof carries sangawara pantiles. Unlike the older system that alternates flat tiles with semi-cylindrical covering tiles, each pantile here forms its own S-curve, so the line at the eaves stays thin and light. The gabled upper part of the irimoya roof can be seen at an angle through the gap between this building and its neighbour.
A stone storehouse of the same year, 1937, stands to the south on the same plot. Wood and earth give way to granite as you turn your eyes from the Degawa Family Residence Main House toward it. One household put up two buildings of quite different character in a single season, and both were registered together.
Visiting and access
The Degawa Family Residence Main House is a private home and the interior is not open. The walking map issued by Sakuragawa City asks visitors to enjoy registered properties from the outside at an unhurried pace and to refrain from entering the grounds or the buildings. Viewing is therefore from the public street on Nakamachi-dori. No blanket ban on photography is posted, but since people live here, it is worth framing shots so that neither the interior beyond the windows nor the private grounds appear.
Makabe has no railway station. The nearest is Iwase on the JR Mito Line, about 20 minutes away by taxi according to the city's own guidance. From Tsukuba Station on the Tsukuba Express, take a Tsukuba city bus for about 50 minutes to Tsukubasanguchi, then change to a Sakuragawa city bus bound for the Iwase municipal office for about 20 minutes. By car it is about 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange, or about 50 minutes from the Tsukuba-kita interchange via National Route 125 and Prefectural Route 41. The Makabe Takagamicho car park at 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho holds 65 ordinary vehicles and needs no reservation.
Makabe holds its doll festival across the town centre from 4 February to 3 March in most years. Crowds are heavy during that month and some days bring traffic restrictions, and Nakamachi-dori in front of the Degawa Family Residence Main House fills with people on foot. Anyone who wants an unhurried look at the building itself is better off coming outside that window. Journey times and parking details were checked in September 2026.
Q&A
- Can you go inside the Degawa Family Residence Main House?
- No. It remains a private residence, and neither the interior nor the grounds are open. Sakuragawa City asks visitors to view registered properties from outside and not to enter the sites. You can look at the building from the public street on Nakamachi-dori.
- When was the Degawa Family Residence Main House built, and when was it registered?
- It was built in 1937 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 12 July 2005, with the register number 08-0186. The cited criterion is that the building contributes to the historic landscape. Note the wording: this category is conferred by registration, not by designation, and the two terms are not interchangeable in Japanese heritage law.
- How do you get to the Degawa Family Residence Main House, and what is the nearest station?
- Makabe has no station of its own. The nearest is Iwase on the JR Mito Line, roughly 20 minutes by taxi. From Tsukuba Station it is about 50 minutes by Tsukuba city bus to Tsukubasanguchi, then about 20 minutes on a Sakuragawa city bus. Drivers can use the Makabe Takagamicho car park, which has 65 spaces for ordinary vehicles.
- Is the street front of the Degawa Family Residence Main House original?
- The front was remodelled in 1951 when a pharmacy opened in the building. Rather than adding the long shopfront eave usual in such conversions, the owners fitted only a shallow hood and kept the elevation looking like a house. The Agency for Cultural Affairs record singles this out as a defining feature.
- Are there other registered buildings near the Degawa Family Residence Main House?
- A stone storehouse on the same plot, also of 1937, is registered separately. The Makabe district as a whole holds around 100 registered properties, and about 17.6 hectares of it were selected as an Important Preservation District in 2010. Most of these buildings remain in use as homes or shops.
Basic Information
| Name | Degawa Family Residence Main House |
|---|---|
| Location | 347 Makabe, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2005 (Heisei 17) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Frontage 4 ken, depth 3 ken 4 shaku; building area 90 square metres |
| Owner | Private (no owner name recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs national database) |
| Public Access | Not open. A private house; interior and grounds are closed, and viewing is from the public street only |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Degawa Family Residence Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004701
- Cultural Heritage Online: Degawa Family Residence Main House
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/141971
- Sakuragawa City: Makabe Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/education/bunkazai/city_bunkazai/kuni_bunkazai/page003423.html
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education: Makabe Important Preservation District
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- Sakuragawa City: The townscape of Makabe
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
- Sakuragawa City: Walking guide to Makabe (PDF)
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/data/doc/1487569963_doc_23_1.pdf
- Sakuragawa City: Makabe Hina Matsuri
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/play/page002066.html
Last verified: 2026.09.07