A Storehouse That Records Its Own Date
The Hirai Family Residence Storehouse (平井家住宅土蔵, Hirai-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a two-story earthen-walled dozō at 264 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in 1893 and entered on Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 9 June 2004.
Most buildings of this class come to us undated. Carpenters left no signature, owners kept no accounts that survived, and dating falls back on the evidence of joinery and tile. This one is different. Written on the ridgepole is an inscription giving the sixth month of Meiji 26, which is June 1893, together with the name of the master carpenter, recorded in characters usually read as Shiba Hatsugorō. A month, a year, and a man.
That single line is why the building carries more historical weight than its plain exterior suggests. It anchors a fixed point in the construction chronology of a town where dozens of storehouses stand undated, and it names one of the craftsmen who actually built them, a category of person who ordinarily leaves no trace in the record at all.
How the Building Is Put Together
The storehouse stands with a north-south ridge, set back from the street. Reaching it means passing along the sequence that runs south from the southeast corner of the main house: a tōriniwa service passage and a nagayamon, a gate built into a low range of rooms, both following the line of the road. The storehouse continues that line.
Its footprint measures 4 ken along the ridge by 2 ken deep, roughly 7.3 by 3.6 metres, with a building area of 37 square metres. The roof is gabled and laid with sangawara pantiles. Entry is on the west side, and the building is hirairi: the door sits on the long flank rather than under the gable end, which is the arrangement that lets a storehouse open directly onto the working yard beside it.
Inside, the ground floor is doma, packed earth rather than boards, and the upper floor covers only the southern half of the plan. That asymmetry is practical. The half-height void on the north side gives room to stand tall goods upright, and the boarded half above provides dry storage for lighter things.
Earthen walls of this kind were built up in layers over a bamboo lattice and finished in plaster, a slow process measured in seasons rather than weeks. The reward was thermal steadiness and, above all, resistance to fire. Makabe had learned what fire could do: the great blaze of 1837 burned through a town then built largely of thatch, and the shift toward kura-zukuri construction that followed reshaped the streets over the next several decades.
Seeing It in Context
The storehouse was registered on the same day as the Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House, the mid-Meiji merchant building that fronts the T-junction to the north; the shop holds register number 08-0131 and the storehouse 08-0132. Both were taken in under the criterion of contributing to the historical landscape of the nation, in the 42nd round of registrations, and both were announced in the official gazette on 24 June 2004.
Taken as a pair they show the logic of a Makabe merchant plot. Commerce faces the street. Storage retreats down the long axis of the lot, screened by the gate range, out of sight of customers and away from the busiest source of ignition. The plot is narrow and deep because the town was laid out that way, in a street grid settled no later than 1615 around the castle town of Makabe, later a zaigōmachi under a Kasama domain administrative office and a base for shipping cotton into northern Kantō and Tōhoku.
Roughly a hundred buildings in Makabe now hold registered status; published counts range from 101 to 104 depending on the date of the source. On 29 June 2010 an area of about 17.6 hectares was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the 87th in Japan and the first in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Practical matters. The Hirai storehouse is private property and is not open to the public; there are no opening hours and no admission fee. Because it sits behind the main house rather than on the street frontage, visibility from the public road is limited, and how much you can see depends on where you stand. Do not enter the site to get a better angle. Photography of what is visible from the street is fine, with the usual courtesy toward a family living there.
The Makabe Hina Matsuri runs annually from around 4 February to 3 March, when over a hundred households and shops set out doll displays; it began in February 2003 and now draws roughly 70,000 visitors, free of charge. Which houses take part changes each year, so consult the Sakuragawa Tourism Association's current map. Reaching Makabe is easiest by car, about 40 minutes from the Tsuchiura-kita interchange, with paid parking at Takajōmachi (279-1 Makabe) on the same block. By rail, Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line or Tsukuba Station on the Tsukuba Express both require a connecting bus.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Hirai Family Residence Storehouse in Makabe?
- No. It is a privately owned storehouse on an occupied residential site, with no opening hours and no admission. It stands behind the main house, so even the exterior is only partly visible from the public street. Please do not enter the property.
- How do we know exactly when the Hirai Family Residence Storehouse was built?
- An inscription on the ridgepole records the sixth month of Meiji 26, corresponding to June 1893, along with the name of the master carpenter, generally read as Shiba Hatsugorō. Precise dating of this kind is uncommon among the storehouses of Makabe, most of which can only be placed within a broad period.
- What is a dozō, and how does the Hirai Family Residence Storehouse differ from an ordinary timber building?
- A dozō is a storehouse whose timber frame is encased in thick earthen walls built up in layers and finished with plaster. The result is heavy, slow to heat and slow to burn. The Hirai storehouse is two-storied, with a doorway on the west flank, an earth ground floor and a boarded upper floor over the southern half only.
- When was the Hirai Family Residence Storehouse registered, and what is its register number?
- It was registered on 9 June 2004, announced in the official gazette on 24 June 2004, and carries register number 08-0132. The adjoining Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House was registered the same day under number 08-0131.
- How do you reach the Hirai Family Residence Storehouse in Sakuragawa City?
- The site address is 264 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki. There is no railway station in Makabe; from Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line or Tsukuba Station on the Tsukuba Express you need a connecting bus. By car it is roughly 40 minutes from the Tsuchiura-kita interchange, and the paid Takajōmachi car park at 279-1 Makabe is on the same block.
- Why does a plain storehouse like this one qualify as a cultural property?
- Registration under the 1996 system recognises buildings over fifty years old that contribute to the historical landscape, rather than singling out masterpieces. The Hirai storehouse carries a documented construction date, sits within the Makabe Important Preservation District, and shows how a merchant plot in the town was organised in depth.
Basic Information
| Name | Hirai Family Residence Storehouse (平井家住宅土蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 264 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register number 08-0132 |
| Year Designated | Registered 9 June 2004; gazette notice 24 June 2004 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-story dozō construction, tiled roof, building area 37 m². Plan 4 by 2 ken (approx. 7.3 by 3.6 m), gabled, sangawara pantiles, hirairi entry on the west |
| Owner | Private (no owner name recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Closed to the public; set back behind the main house, with limited visibility from the street. Within the Makabe Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Hirai Family Residence Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004118
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Hirai Family Residence Shop and Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004117
- 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