A gate with a granary inside it
Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (市塚政一家住宅長屋門) is an early Meiji gatehouse at Iizuka in Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in the years after 1868 and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 19 September 2003.
It faces south onto the lane. The registry gives its size in traditional bays: 9 Ken along the front and 2 and a half in depth, which works out at a building area of 79 square meters and makes it, in the words of the Agency for Cultural Affairs entry, a comparatively large Nagayamon for Makabe. The roof is hipped Yosemune-zukuri laid in Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the eaves are carried forward on a projecting purlin in the degeta manner.
What lies to either side of the passage is the interesting part. The right-hand wing was a grain store, the left a barn. Below, the walls are clad in overlapping boards held by grooved battens, a technique called sasarago Shitami-itabari; above, they are finished in plaster. Beside each of the two main posts of the gateway is a kuguri-do, a low wicket door for coming and going when the main leaves stay shut.
The farming side of a market town
Makabe is usually described through its merchants. Under Kasama domain it held a regular market, held 12 times a month at its Genroku-era peak, dealing first in cotton and later in rice and sake. Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate belongs to the other half of that economy. A household that builds a granary and a barn into its front gate is a household that harvests, threshes and stores, and the Iizuka lanes on the southern edge of the town kept that character.
Its registration cites the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of Japan. It came through in the 38th round of that year, a few months behind most of the neighboring buildings, which is why the date reads September 2003 rather than July. Makabe and its surroundings hold roughly 100 registered properties, a figure the municipality built up from 1999, and the 17.6 hectare core became an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 2010.
Two more registered gates stand on the same Iizuka lanes, one of them recorded as the only gatehouse in Makabe with a sea-cucumber wall dado, the other a small yakuimon on a household frontage. Seen together they show how differently the same building type could be handled within a few hundred meters.
Details worth stopping for
The wicket doors are the first thing to find at Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate. Swinging the main leaves open takes effort and was reserved for carts, horses and formal occasions, so a person on foot used the small door cut beside the post. It sits low. Anyone passing through has to duck slightly, and that stoop was part of how a gate managed who came and went.
Then look at the boarding. Sasarago work runs a grooved batten vertically over the joints of horizontal boards, locking them down and shedding water at the same time. It gives the lower wall a ribbed texture that changes with the light, quite unlike the flat plaster above. The two materials meet in a clean horizontal line at about waist height along the whole 9 ken of the front.
Stand well back if you can. At this length the building reads as a wall with a hole in it rather than as a gate, which is precisely what a nagayamon was meant to do: enclose the yard, store the harvest and announce the household, all in one structure. Roof repairs have run across the district ever since the earthquake of 2011, which left over nine tenths of the traditional buildings here needing work.
Visiting Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate
Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate stands in front of an occupied private house. The interior is not open, there is no admission and no visiting hours are published. View it from the lane it faces, stay outside the plot, and photograph the building rather than the household. Pictures taken from the public road are unrestricted.
Because the gate faces south, the light is on its front for most of the day, and the ribbed boarding shows best when the sun is low enough to rake across it.
Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line is the practical railhead, about 15 minutes away by car. The Yamazakura GO city bus connects the station with Makabe and carries on toward Tsukubasanguchi. Drivers usually come off the Kita-Kanto Expressway at Sakuragawa-Chikusei, about 20 minutes out. The Iizuka lanes are narrow and residential, so leave the car in a town parking area and walk the last stretch.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go through Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate?
- No. It is the entrance to a private home in daily use, and viewing is from the lane in front only.
- How big is Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate?
- It measures 9 ken across the front and 2 and a half ken deep, with a building area of 79 square meters, which the registry describes as comparatively large for Makabe.
- What were the side rooms of Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate used for?
- The wing on the right of the passage served as a grain store and the one on the left as a barn, so the gate doubled as farm buildings.
- When was Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate registered?
- On 19 September 2003, as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. The building itself dates from the early Meiji era, after 1868.
- Are there other registered buildings near Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate?
- Yes. Two more registered gates stand on the same Iizuka lanes, and around 100 registered properties are recorded in and around Makabe.
Basic Information
| Name | Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (市塚政一家住宅長屋門) |
|---|---|
| Location | Iizuka, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2003 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 9 ken wide and 2 and a half ken deep, building area 79 square meters |
| Owner | Private |
| Public Access | Exterior only, seen from the lane in front. Interior not open |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003506
- Cultural Heritage Online: Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/179726
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education: Ichizuka Masaichi Family Residence Nagayamon Gate
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6469/
- 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
Last verified: 2026.09.05