A Single-Storey Shop House of 1931
The Kitaoka Family Residence (Store and Main House) (北岡家住宅店舗及び主屋, Kitaoka-ke Jūtaku Tenpo oyobi Shuoku) is a timber shop house in the Iizuka section of Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in 1931 and entered on the national list as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 February 2004.
It faces east onto a street that runs north to south. The frame measures 6 ken along the ridge by 4 ken across it, carrying a hipped Yosemune-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the doorway is on the short end of the plan rather than on the long side, the arrangement Japanese carpenters call Tsumairi. A Geya penthouse roof 1 ken deep runs the width of the front and puts the shop windows in shade for most of the day.
The shop itself takes the street end of the building. Behind it three rooms are laid out in an L: a 6-mat room, an 8-mat room, and an 8-mat room fitted with a Tokonoma and a Tsukeshoin. All of that sits inside a footprint of 93 square meters, which is not much ground for a working shop and a formal reception room together.
The carpenter is remembered as a man named Obara from Kawaharamachi, a quarter of the same town. The national register entry presents this as local tradition rather than as documented fact.
Why the Kitaoka Family Residence Is on the Register
Registration came under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic character of the national landscape, and the Kitaoka Family Residence earns that on the strength of the street it belongs to. Makabe grew from the castle town of the Makabe clan into a market town under the Kasama domain, and roughly 100 buildings in and around it now carry registration. About 17.6 hectares of Makabe-cho Makabe was selected in 2010 as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings.
Sakuragawa City, on its own walking map of the registered buildings, describes the Kitaoka Family Residence as an early Showa shop that carries on the Kanto Machiya form. That phrasing is worth unpacking. Two-storey town houses with heavy projecting eaves brackets had been spreading through Makabe since the Taisho period, the same years in which the Tsukuba Railway reached the town. This building went up in 1931 and stayed at a single storey, with the older proportions.
The register also classes it under commerce rather than under housing, a reminder that the front room was the point of the building and the living rooms grew behind it.
What to Look at from the Street
The first thing to read is the narrowness. Because the Kitaoka Family Residence turns its short end to the road, the frontage is only 4 ken wide while the building runs 6 ken back into the plot. Town houses on cramped commercial streets were built this way across Japan, and Makabe gives you the pattern in plain form.
Next, follow the line of the penthouse roof across the front. It sits low, at about the height of a person's reach, and it makes a horizontal band of shadow that the shop opening sits inside.
Then look up at the tiles. Pantiles of this kind, wavy in section and hooked over the batten below, spread through Makabe after the great fire of 1837, and the roof of the Kitaoka Family Residence is a late example of a very long habit.
Visiting the Kitaoka Family Residence
This is somebody's home. The Kitaoka Family Residence is not open to visitors, there is no admission and no opening time, and Sakuragawa City asks people walking the town to stay off the grounds of the registered buildings and enjoy them from the outside. Please do that.
Photographs from the public street are fine. Keep the camera off windows and doorways, and do not linger in the entrance.
Makabe has no railway station of its own. Sakuragawa City Bus, branded Yamazakura GO, links Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line with Tsukubasanguchi by way of Makabe, at a flat fare of 200 yen per ride, and it accepts IC cards such as Suica and PASMO. Routes vary by day of the week and by time of day, so check the city's timetable page before you set out.
By car, the town has visitor parking marked on the city's walking map. Makabe is small enough to cover on foot once you are there, and the Kitaoka Family Residence sits among enough other registered buildings that a single walk takes in a good many of them.
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Q&A
- Can you go inside the Kitaoka Family Residence in Makabe?
- No. It is a private house and the interior is not open. Sakuragawa City asks visitors to keep off the grounds of the registered buildings and view them from the street.
- Is there an admission fee or an opening time for the Kitaoka Family Residence?
- Neither. Nothing is charged and nothing is opened. The exterior can be seen from the public street at any hour.
- How do you get to the Kitaoka Family Residence without a car?
- Take Sakuragawa City Bus, the Yamazakura GO, from Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line or from Tsukubasanguchi. One ride is a flat 200 yen and IC cards work. Routes change by day and by time, so check the timetable first.
- Can you photograph the Kitaoka Family Residence?
- From the public street, yes, and no permission is needed. Please respect the household by avoiding windows, doorways and anything inside the gate.
- What is unusual about the Kitaoka Family Residence compared with other Makabe town houses?
- It was built in 1931, after two-storey town houses had become common in Makabe, yet it kept to a single storey and to the older Kanto shop-house form, entered from the short end of the plan.
Basic Information
| Name | Kitaoka Family Residence (Store and Main House) (北岡家住宅店舗及び主屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 104 Aza Ichibankochi, Iizuka, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Buildings) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2004 (Heisei 16) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building footprint 93 square meters; 6 ken by 4 ken; single-storey timber structure with a pantile roof |
| Owner | Private owner; no owner name recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | Private residence, interior not open. Exterior visible from the public street; visitors are asked not to enter the grounds. |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Database of Designated Cultural Properties: Kitaoka-ke Jutaku Tenpo oyobi Shuoku
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003783
- 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
- Sakuragawa City, Walking Map of the Registered Cultural Properties of Makabe (PDF)
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/data/doc/1487569963_doc_23_1.pdf
- Sakuragawa City, The Townscape of Makabe
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
- Sakuragawa City, Operation of the City Bus Yamazakura GO
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/kurashi/koutsu/page005762.html
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education, Makabe Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
Last verified: 2026.09.07