A Merchant House Holding the Corner of a T-Junction
The Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House (平井家住宅店舗及び主屋, Hirai-ke Jūtaku Tenpo oyobi Shuoku) is a two-story timber merchant building at 264 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in the middle years of the Meiji era (1868–1912) and entered on Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 9 June 2004.
It occupies the southwest corner of a T-junction and turns its face north, toward the street. The shop block runs east to west with a ridge 4.5 ken long (roughly 8.2 metres) and a depth of 2 ken (about 3.6 metres), covered by a gabled roof of sangawara pantiles. Along the front, a geya-bisashi lean-to eave projects about five shaku, close to 1.5 metres, throwing the shopfront into shadow for most of the day and giving passers-by somewhere dry to stand.
Behind the shop the building thickens. A kadoya, a wing pushed out at right angles from the main volume, holds the living quarters: a six-mat room and an eight-mat room fitted with a tokonoma alcove. Total building area comes to 99 square metres, which is modest by the standards of Makabe's grander merchant compounds and typical of the scale at which most of the town actually lived and traded.
One elevation gives the building away. The west wall, the side that runs tight against the neighbouring property, is finished in the manner of a dozō storehouse, with thick plastered surfaces where a normal timber house would show posts and boards. That was not decoration.
Fire, Cotton, and the Reason for Registration
Makabe grew up around Makabe Castle, a national historic site, and kept the street grid laid out when the castle town took shape; the plan was settled no later than 1615. Once the castle gave way to a Kasama domain administrative office, the town carried on as a zaigōmachi, a rural commercial centre where the produce of the surrounding district was gathered and sold, and it grew wealthy as a distribution base sending cotton cloth north into the rest of the Kantō region and on into Tōhoku.
Then, in 1837, a great fire swept the town. Roofs of thatch gave way over the following decades to kura-zukuri, buildings whose walls were packed with earth and finished in plaster to resist flame. The Hirai shop, put up two generations after that fire, still carries the lesson on its west flank: the wall facing the neighbour is the wall most likely to catch, so that is the wall built like a storehouse.
The registration system that protects the building is worth explaining, because it differs from the designation system foreign visitors more often hear about. Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, introduced in 1996, cover a wide field of buildings more than fifty years old, and the obligations placed on owners are comparatively light: notification before major alteration rather than a requirement for permission. The intent is to keep ordinary working buildings in use. The Hirai house was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historical landscape of the nation, in the 42nd round of registrations, with the register number 08-0131.
Sakuragawa City began using the system aggressively in 1999 and pushed roughly a hundred Makabe buildings onto the register within a few years; sources published at different dates give figures between 101 and 104, so the count has shifted as buildings have been added or lost. On 29 June 2010 the district was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, covering about 17.6 hectares. It was the 87th such district in Japan and the first in Ibaraki Prefecture.
What There Is to See, and How to See It
This is a private home. The interior is not open to the public, and there is no admission gate, no ticket desk, and no set of opening hours. What you can do is stand on the street and read the building, which is what the registration was designed to protect in the first place.
Look first at the line where the lean-to eave meets the second storey. Then walk a few paces west so the plastered flank comes into view alongside the timber front, and the two systems of construction sit side by side in a single glance. The junction between them is the whole argument of the building compressed into about a metre of wall.
South of the main house, along the road, the site continues: a tōriniwa service passage and a nagayamon row-house gate lead back to the Hirai Family Residence Storehouse, a dozō of 1893 registered on the same day under the number 08-0132. Reading the two buildings together shows how a Makabe merchant plot was organised, with the commercial face on the street and storage retreating deep into the lot.
The one month of the year when Makabe's private houses open up is the Makabe Hina Matsuri, held annually from around 4 February to 3 March. It began in February 2003 when a handful of residents set out dolls to welcome visitors arriving in the cold; more than a hundred households and shops now take part, drawing something on the order of 70,000 people, and viewing is free. Participation is voluntary and varies from year to year, so check the Sakuragawa Tourism Association's current map rather than assuming any particular house will be open.
Getting there takes planning. Public transport is thin: the nearest railway stations are Iwase on the JR Mito Line and Tsukuba on the Tsukuba Express, and both require a connecting bus. By car, allow roughly 40 minutes from the Tsuchiura-kita interchange. The Takajōmachi paid car park sits at 279-1 Makabe, on the same block as the Hirai house, so once you have parked you are already there. Photographing exteriors from the public street is normal practice in Makabe, but these are lived-in houses; keep out of doorways and windows.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Ibaraki
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Hirai Family Residence, Store and Main House
- [ Hitachi Seaside Park Nemophila Flower Tours ]
Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House in Makabe?
- No. It is a privately owned and occupied house, and the interior is not open to the public. The exterior can be viewed at any time from the public street. Some Makabe houses open their entrances during the Hina Matsuri in February, but participation is decided by each household.
- When was the Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House registered, and what does Registered Tangible Cultural Property mean?
- It was registered on 9 June 2004 and announced in the official gazette on 24 June that year, under register number 08-0131. Registration is a lighter form of protection than designation as an Important Cultural Property: it applies to buildings over fifty years old and asks owners to notify the authorities before major alterations, so that working buildings can stay in use.
- How do you reach the Hirai Family Residence in Makabe, Sakuragawa City?
- The address is 264 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City. Trains do not run to Makabe; from Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line or Tsukuba Station on the Tsukuba Express you need a connecting local bus. Driving is easier, at roughly 40 minutes from the Tsuchiura-kita interchange, and the paid Takajōmachi car park at 279-1 Makabe is on the same block.
- Is the Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House the same as the Hirai Family Residence in Inashiki City?
- No, and the two are easy to confuse. The Inashiki property is a thatched Edo-period farmhouse designated an Important Cultural Property in 1976. The Makabe property described here is a Meiji-era merchant house holding the lower status of Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Unrelated buildings of the same family name also stand in Sakura, Chiba and Atami, Shizuoka.
- What makes the west wall of the Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House unusual?
- The elevation facing the adjoining property is finished like a dozō earthen storehouse rather than as ordinary timber walling. It is a fire precaution, reflecting the shift toward fireproof construction that followed the great fire of 1837, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs record singles it out as the building's defining feature.
- When is the best time of year to visit the Hirai Family Residence and the Makabe townscape?
- Early February to early March, during the Makabe Hina Matsuri, when more than a hundred houses and shops display doll sets and the streets are at their liveliest. Traffic restrictions turn the central streets into a pedestrian zone on some weekend afternoons. Outside that window the town is quiet and the buildings are still there to be walked past.
Basic Information
| Name | Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House (平井家住宅店舗及び主屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 264 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register number 08-0131 |
| Year Designated | Registered 9 June 2004; gazette notice 24 June 2004 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-story timber construction, tiled roof, building area 99 m². Shop block 4.5 by 2 ken (approx. 8.2 by 3.6 m), gabled with an east-west ridge; front lean-to eave approx. 5 shaku (approx. 1.5 m) |
| Owner | Private (no owner name recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Interior closed; exterior viewable from the public street at any time. Within the Makabe Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004117
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Hirai Family Residence Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004118
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education — Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6301/
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education — Makabe Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- Sakuragawa City — Makabe Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/page/page003423.html
- National Council of Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings — Sakuragawa Makabe
- https://www.denken.gr.jp/archive/sakuragawa-makabe/index.html
Last verified: 2026.08.06