An Inn Built on a Corner Plot in 1929
The Main Building of Hashimoto Ryokan (橋本旅館主屋, Hashimoto Ryokan Shuoku, also written Hashimoto Ryōkan) is a two-storey wooden inn building at 410-1 Shinjuku-chō, Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, completed in 1929 and entered on Japan's national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 25 June 2002.
Its construction year is not an estimate. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that written documents fix when the building went up, which puts it in a minority among the hundred-odd registered buildings of Makabe, where dates are more often read backwards out of joinery and roof framing.
The plot lies at the northern edge of the old town centre, on the angle where two streets meet. The south elevation is the front. Upstairs the plan turns that corner and becomes L-shaped, and the roof follows the plan: a hip-and-gable form, irimoya, presents itself to the street, while on the western side the main ridge runs back into the depth of the lot. The recorded floor area is 236 square metres.
The family is said to have opened a lodging business here in the last years of the Edo period. What survives above ground, though, belongs to the Shōwa era rather than to that first venture.
Why the Building Entered the National Register
Japan's registration system for cultural properties (登録有形文化財, tōroku yūkei bunkazai) works with a lighter touch than designation. A National Treasure or an Important Cultural Property is tightly controlled; a registered property is protected mainly by an owner's duty to notify the authorities before making substantial alterations. The arrangement was introduced in 1996 with everyday buildings of the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa years in mind, on the reasoning that a structure still in use has a better chance of survival than one frozen as an exhibit.
Hashimoto Ryokan's main building qualified under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. It holds register number 08-0066, was included in the thirty-third round of registrations, and the formal gazette notice appeared on 16 July 2002.
The town around it explains a good deal. Makabe took shape as the castle town of the Makabe clan in the late Sengoku period and its street grid was completed under Asano Nagamasa and his son Nagashige after 1606. Cotton bought in the Kansai region moved through here to merchants from Aizu and Yonezawa, twelve market days a month; silk reeling and the granite trade followed in the Meiji years. Over three hundred shop-storehouses, earthen storehouses and gates still stand along that grid, and 102 of them carry registered status. On 29 June 2010 an area of roughly 17.6 hectares was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the first such district in Ibaraki Prefecture.
An inn is an oddity in that company. Almost everything else registered in Makabe was built to sell goods or to keep them safe.
Reading the Front from the Street
Three things give the building away as an inn rather than a merchant house. A canopy projects over the entrance at the centre of the south front. The second-floor openings are wide and unguarded where a shop would have kept them tight. A wooden balustrade runs along the upper storey, and a balustrade exists for one reason: somebody is meant to lean on it.
Set that against the neighbours. The mise-gura that line Makabe's main streets, plastered storehouses doubling as shopfronts, were built against fire and theft, with heavy walls and small apertures. The inn does the opposite and turns its face outward.
Hashimoto Ryokan no longer takes overnight guests. The building is let out as a location for film, television and photography under the name Hashimoto Ryokan Studio, so the interior is not open to casual visitors and no admission ticket exists. What anyone can do, at any hour and free of charge, is look at it from the public road. Photographing the exterior from the street raises no issue; the rooms inside are reachable only through a commercial booking.
Late winter is the moment to walk Makabe. Since 2003 the town has held Makabe no Hinamatsuri, a doll festival in which more than a hundred houses and shops set out hina dolls behind their street-facing windows; the 2026 edition ran from 4 February to 3 March, and cars are kept out of the central streets on the busiest weekends. Viewing costs nothing.
Reaching the town takes some planning, since the branch railway that once served it closed in 1987. From JR Iwase Station on the Mito Line, the municipal Yamazakura GO bus reaches the Shitajuku stop in about forty minutes. Travellers coming on the Tsukuba Express change at Tsukubasanguchi and should allow around ninety minutes in total. Rental bicycles at Iwase Station suit the ten-kilometre run along the Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Rinrin Road. Drivers can use the municipal car park at Takagamichō, about ten minutes on foot from the centre. Maps are handed out at Makabe Denshōkan, the town's history and information centre.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Main Building of Hashimoto Ryokan?
- Not as ordinary sightseers. The inn stopped accommodating guests, and the building now operates as a rental location for filming and photography, so the interior is entered only by those who have booked it commercially. The exterior can be viewed from the public street at any time without charge.
- When was the Main Building of Hashimoto Ryokan built, and when was it registered?
- It was completed in 1929, the fourth year of the Shōwa era. Registration as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property took effect on 25 June 2002, and the gazette notice followed on 16 July of the same year. Its register number is 08-0066.
- How do you reach the Main Building of Hashimoto Ryokan by public transport?
- The nearest railway stations are Iwase on the JR Mito Line and Tsukuba on the Tsukuba Express. From Iwase, the Sakuragawa municipal bus Yamazakura GO takes about forty minutes to the Shitajuku stop, which leaves a short walk. From Tsukuba, change buses at Tsukubasanguchi and allow roughly ninety minutes. Taxis and rental bicycles are also available at Iwase Station.
- Is photography allowed at the Main Building of Hashimoto Ryokan?
- Photographing the exterior from the public road is fine, and the corner site gives a clear view of the south front and the upper-floor balustrade. Interior photography is a different matter: the rooms are commercial studio space and require a paid reservation. People live and work along these streets, so the usual courtesies apply.
- What else can be seen near the Main Building of Hashimoto Ryokan?
- The inn stands inside the Makabe preservation district, so the whole walk is the attraction: Gojinyamae-dōri, the main street lined with plastered shop-storehouses, plus the storehouse belonging to this same inn just behind it. Makabe Denshōkan supplies maps and background. The ruins of Makabe Castle, a National Historic Site, lie a short distance away, and local sake breweries and stone-lantern workshops keep the older trades visible.
Basic Information
| Name | Main Building of Hashimoto Ryokan (橋本旅館主屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 410-1 Shinjuku-chō, Makabe, Makabe-machi, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); register number 08-0066; criterion: contributing to the historic landscape of the country |
| Year Designated | Registered 25 June 2002 (gazette notice 16 July 2002), thirty-third registration round |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey timber frame, tiled roof, floor area 236 m²; built 1929 |
| Owner | Private; the owner's name is not published in the national database |
| Public Access | Exterior viewable from the public road at any time, free of charge. Interior not open to general visitors; the building is rented out as a filming and photography location. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Hashimoto Ryokan Shuoku
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00002752
- Cultural Heritage Online — Hashimoto Ryokan Shuoku
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/168062
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education — Makabe Preservation District, Sakuragawa City
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- National Conference of Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings — Makabe, Sakuragawa City
- https://www.denken.gr.jp/archive/sakuragawa-makabe/index.html
- Ibaraki Tourism Official Site — Makabe no Hinamatsuri
- https://www.ibarakiguide.jp/event.php?mode=detail&code=1074
Last verified: 2026.08.05