A Storehouse of Twenty-One Square Metres
The Storehouse of Hashimoto Ryokan (橋本旅館土蔵, Hashimoto Ryokan Dozō) is a small two-storey earthen-walled storehouse at 410-1 Shinjuku-chō, Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built during the Meiji era and entered on Japan's national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 25 June 2002.
The measurements are worth stating plainly, because the whole interest of the building lies in them. It runs three ken along the ridge and two ken across, roughly 5.5 by 3.6 metres, giving a recorded floor area of 21 square metres. Two storeys sit inside that footprint. The roof is gabled, kirizuma, covered with sangawara pantiles, and the entrance is placed on the long eaves side, an arrangement called hirairi. The ground-floor doorway faces south, towards the inn's main building.
It stands immediately behind the main building, off its north-west corner, close enough that the two read as one continuous mass. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it broadly to the Meiji era, given in the national database as 1868 to 1911, without narrowing further. The main building in front of it went up in 1929, so the storehouse is the older of the pair by several decades.
Plaster Above, Boards Below
Look at the wall surface and the building explains its own construction. The exterior is finished in white lime plaster, shirokkui, laid over a thick earthen core built up on a bamboo lattice. Below the hachimaki, the raised plaster band that runs like a belt around the upper wall, the surface changes: horizontal weatherboarding takes over, held in place by notched vertical battens known as sasarako.
This is not decoration. Lime plaster handles fire well and rain badly, and the lower part of any wall takes the worst of it, from splash off the ground and from rain driven sideways in a storm. Boarding the lower zone sacrifices a cheap, replaceable layer to protect the expensive one behind. Storehouse builders across the Kantō region reached the same conclusion, and the detail became a regional habit.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the workmanship as careful despite the building's small scale, and treats it as a component of the street landscape. That phrasing points at something real. A storehouse this size had one job for an inn: keeping bedding, tableware, seasonal fittings and the household's valuables dry, cool and safe from fire. Nobody was meant to admire it. It was built well anyway.
Registration, and a Town Full of Storehouses
The storehouse holds register number 08-0067, immediately after the main building's 08-0066. Both were handled in the thirty-third round of registrations, both took effect on 25 June 2002, and both were gazetted on 16 July of that year. The criterion applied was the same: contributing to the historic landscape of the country.
Registration (登録有形文化財, tōroku yūkei bunkazai) sits below designation in Japan's system of protection. Rather than requiring permission for alterations, it obliges the owner to notify the authorities before substantial change. The framework dates from 1996 and was built for ordinary working buildings of the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa years, the kind that vanish quietly when nobody is counting.
Makabe is where that logic pays off. The town grew as the castle town of the Makabe clan, and its street grid was completed under Asano Nagamasa and his son after 1606. Cotton traded onward to northern merchants made it wealthy in the Edo period; silk reeling and granite quarrying carried it through the Meiji years. Over three hundred shop-storehouses, earthen storehouses and gates survive on the old grid, 102 of them registered, and on 29 June 2010 about 17.6 hectares were selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the first in Ibaraki Prefecture. The Hashimoto storehouse is one small unit in a town that runs on kura.
The Makabe granite quarried nearby, used for lanterns and gateposts across eastern Japan, turns up in the plinths and paving of these same streets.
Seeing It, and Getting There
The interior is closed. Hashimoto Ryokan stopped taking overnight guests some years ago and the property now operates as a rental location for film and photography, which means no tours, no admission ticket and no opening hours. The storehouse can be seen from the public road on the north-west side of the site, where its plastered upper wall and boarded lower wall are visible above and behind the inn. That view costs nothing and is available at any hour.
Photographing it from the street is unproblematic. Going onto the property is not, since this is private land in a residential quarter.
Late winter draws the most visitors to Makabe. Makabe no Hinamatsuri, running since 2003, sets hina dolls in the street-facing rooms of more than a hundred houses and shops; the 2026 edition ran from 4 February to 3 March, with vehicle restrictions in the central streets on the busiest weekends and no charge for viewing.
Public transport takes patience, as the branch railway serving the town closed in 1987. The Yamazakura GO municipal bus links JR Iwase Station on the Mito Line with the Shitajuku stop in about forty minutes. Arriving on the Tsukuba Express means changing buses at Tsukubasanguchi, around ninety minutes in total. Rental bicycles at Iwase Station cover the ten kilometres along the Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Rinrin Road. Drivers can park at the municipal Takagamichō car park, roughly ten minutes on foot from the centre, and Makabe Denshōkan hands out walking maps.
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Q&A
- How old is the Storehouse of Hashimoto Ryokan?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the Meiji era, recorded in the national database as 1868 to 1911, without a more precise year. That makes it older than the inn's main building, which was completed in 1929.
- Can visitors enter the Storehouse of Hashimoto Ryokan?
- No. The property is private and now functions as a rental filming and photography location rather than an inn, so there are no tours and no admission. The storehouse can be viewed from the public road on the north-west side of the site, free of charge and at any time.
- Why does the Storehouse of Hashimoto Ryokan have boards over the lower part of its walls?
- The walls are white lime plaster over an earthen core, which resists fire but suffers from rain. Below the raised plaster band called the hachimaki, horizontal boards fixed with notched battens (sasarako) shield the plaster from ground splash and driving rain. Replacing boards is far cheaper than replastering.
- What are the dimensions of the Storehouse of Hashimoto Ryokan?
- Three ken along the ridge by two ken in depth, roughly 5.5 by 3.6 metres, with a recorded building area of 21 square metres over two storeys. The roof is gabled and laid with sangawara pantiles, and the ground-floor door opens on the south side towards the main building.
- When was the Storehouse of Hashimoto Ryokan registered as a cultural property?
- On 25 June 2002, with the gazette notice on 16 July 2002, as part of the thirty-third round of registrations. Its register number is 08-0067, and it was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.
Basic Information
| Name | Storehouse of Hashimoto Ryokan (橋本旅館土蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 410-1 Shinjuku-chō, Makabe, Makabe-machi, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); register number 08-0067; 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 earthen-walled construction, tiled roof, floor area 21 m²; three ken by two ken; Meiji era (1868-1911) |
| Owner | Private; the owner's name is not published in the national database |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the public road on the north-west side of the site, free of charge. Interior closed; the property operates as a rental filming and photography location. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Hashimoto Ryokan Dozo
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00002753
- Cultural Heritage Online — Hashimoto Ryokan Dozo
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/182663
- Agency for Cultural Affairs — Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/hozonchiku/index.html
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education — Makabe Preservation District, Sakuragawa City
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- Ibaraki Tourism Official Site — The Townscape of Makabe
- https://www.ibarakiguide.jp/spot.php?mode=detail&code=685
Last verified: 2026.08.05