A Warehouse Built in the Language of a Town House
Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse (小林商店米蔵, Kobayashi Shōten Komegura) is a single-storey wooden warehouse of the middle Meiji era at Iizuka in Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 July 2003. The Meiji era ran from 1868 to 1911, and the national register dates the building to around its middle. Its registration number is 08-0101.
The roof is gabled in Kirizuma-zukuri and laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the building is entered on its long side in the Hirairi manner. A Geya lean-to 5 shaku wide, about 1.5 meters, runs along the east front, which is the side that faces the road. The registered building area is 33 square meters, so this is a small structure by any measure.
What sets it apart is the wall. A rice store of this period would ordinarily be raised in Dozo-zukuri, its frame buried under thick earth and finished in white plaster, because grain and fire are old enemies. Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse is not built that way. The posts stay visible in Shinkabe construction, the lower part of the front and both side walls are faced in Shitami-itabari boarding held by notched sasarako battens, and a single opening breaks the centre of the front. Nothing else interrupts it.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs puts the matter plainly in its register entry: a warehouse, yes, but not a storehouse in form. What it looks like is a Machiya.
Why the Storehouse Was Registered
The criterion applied to Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse is the one for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country, and here that criterion does real work. The register's own commentary connects the form of the building to the street it sits on: because the storehouse borrows the vocabulary of a house rather than that of a fireproof vault, it lines up with the shop standing to the north and the two make one continuous frontage.
That is an argument about a decision, not merely about age. Somebody in the middle Meiji years chose the look of the street over the safety of thick earth walls, and the register treats the choice as the thing worth keeping.
Listing took effect on 1 July 2003 in the 37th round under the Registered Tangible Cultural Property system, with the notice published in the official gazette on 17 July 2003. The shop on the same plot went onto the register the same day as number 08-0100, and the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education still files the two together under a single heading.
Reading the Front Wall
Stand opposite Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse and the wall divides itself into bands. Low down runs the boarding, each plank overlapping the one beneath and pinned by the notched battens that give the technique its name. Above the boarding the plaster is thin enough that the posts and the horizontal members read through it as a grid. This is the ordinary carpentry of a house front, applied to a building whose job was to hold rice.
The single central opening is worth a pause. A working storehouse needs one wide, well-protected doorway rather than a scatter of windows, so the front is otherwise blank; and because the wall is boarded rather than plastered over, the doorway sits in a surface that matches the neighbouring house fronts instead of contrasting with them.
The lean-to over that opening gives about 1.5 meters of cover, enough for sacks to be handled out of the rain. Its underside shows the rafters, which are worth a look from close in.
Finally, compare proportions with the building to the north. At 33 square meters the storehouse is roughly a third the footprint of the shop, and the drop in scale from one to the other is part of what makes this stretch of road feel like a working merchant's plot rather than a row of equal facades.
Visiting Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse
The most convenient place to leave a car is the Makabe Takajōmachi car park at 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho, which holds 65 ordinary vehicles and takes no advance booking. From there the walk north takes about ten minutes. Sakuragawa City's map of registered properties treats this northern end as the Iizuka course, roughly 20 minutes added to the main circuit, and the Kobayashi Shoten plot is its opening stop, numbered 41.
By train, the nearest station is Iwase on the JR Mito Line, given as about 20 minutes by taxi on the city's tourism pages. The municipal Yamazakura GO bus also connects Iwase Station with Makabe for a flat 200 yen per ride. From the Tsukuba side, a Tsukuba city bus reaches Tsukubasanguchi in about 50 minutes and the Sakuragawa bus continues from there in about 20 minutes.
Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse remains in private hands and no part of it is open to the public. The city's map states the position without hedging: look at the exteriors from the street as you walk, and stay out of the grounds and the buildings. Since the east front is the side that faces the road, the wall described above is the wall you can actually see, which is a piece of good fortune.
No notice restricts photography from the public road. Frame the building and not the household.
Late winter brings the Makabe Hina Matsuri, running from 4 February to 3 March each year, when doll displays go up across the town and the streets fill. It is a fine time for a walk and a poor time to assume that any particular private building will be open, including this one.
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Q&A
- Is Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse open to visitors?
- No. It is privately owned and the interior is closed. Sakuragawa City asks visitors to view registered properties from the public road and not to enter the grounds.
- How old is Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse, and when was it registered?
- The national register dates it to the middle of the Meiji era, which ran from 1868 to 1911. It became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 July 2003, gazetted on 17 July 2003, under registration number 08-0101.
- Why does Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse not look like a storehouse?
- Because it was not built in the plastered dozo-zukuri manner usual for granaries. The posts remain exposed and the lower walls are boarded, giving it the appearance of a town house so that it matches the shop beside it and keeps the street frontage continuous.
- How do I get to Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse?
- Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line is about 20 minutes by taxi, and the Yamazakura GO city bus links the station with Makabe at 200 yen per ride. Drivers can park at the Makabe Takajōmachi car park, 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho, and walk north for about ten minutes.
- How large is Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse?
- Its registered building area is 33 square meters, a single storey in timber under a tiled roof, with a lean-to about 1.5 meters deep along the front.
Basic Information
| Name | Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse (小林商店米蔵, Kobayashi Shōten Komegura) |
|---|---|
| Location | 171-2 Iizuka, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), registration number 08-0101 |
| Year Designated | Registered 1 July 2003, gazetted 17 July 2003, 37th round of registration |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber frame, tiled roof, building area 33 square meters |
| Owner | Private individual, per the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database leaves the owner field blank. |
| Public Access | Exterior viewing from the public road only. The interior is not open and the grounds may not be entered. |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003379
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Kobayashi Shoten Store
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003378
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education, Cultural Properties of Ibaraki: Kobayashi Shoten Store and one other building
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6442/
- 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: The Townscape of Makabe, with access and parking
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
- Sakuragawa City: Makabe Hina Matsuri
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/play/page002066.html
- Sakuragawa City: Yamazakura GO city bus routes and stops
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/kurashi/koutsu/page005762.html
Last verified: 2026.09.07