A Shop of 1928 on the Old Shimodate Highway
Kobayashi Shoten Store (小林商店店舗, Kobayashi Shōten Tenpo) is a single-storey wooden shop building of 1928 at Iizuka in Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 July 2003. The building faces the old Shimodate highway, and its registration number is 08-0100.
The street range carries a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof and is entered on the long side, in the Hirairi manner, with a Geya lean-to running along the front. Behind it a second range holds the zashiki, the matted reception rooms, and this too is hipped with a lean-to of its own. Every roof on the property is laid in Sangawara-buki pantiles. The registered building area comes to 93 square meters.
Inside, the plan keeps the arrangement that shops in this part of the Kantō region had used for generations: a chōba, the low railed counter where the accounts were kept, and an L-shaped Doma of beaten earth that let carts and customers move through the working half of the house without stepping up onto the boards.
Then there is the joinery. Glass doors close the shopfront, and the sliding storm shutters retract into tobukuro boxes at either end. Sheet glass in a country shop front was a recent thing in 1928, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs points to these details as the place where the taste of the early Shōwa years shows through an otherwise conservative building.
Why Kobayashi Shoten Store Was Registered
The registration criterion applied to Kobayashi Shoten Store is the one covering buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The wording matters. What was recognised was not a rare technique or a famous architect, but the part this shop plays in a street that still reads as a street.
Registration came in the 37th round of listings under the Registered Tangible Cultural Property system, with the ministerial notice published in the official gazette on 17 July 2003. The rice storehouse on the same lot, immediately to the south, was listed on the same day as number 08-0101, so the two buildings entered the register together as a pair rather than as separate finds.
Makabe has a great many such buildings. The city's map of registered properties counts 102 of them, listed since fiscal 1999 under a deliberate municipal policy of using the register to hold the townscape together. Kobayashi Shoten Store is number 41 on that map.
What to Look At
Start with the roof. Most shop houses of this kind take a gabled roof, presenting a triangle of wall above the eaves; Kobayashi Shoten Store instead uses a hip on both the street range and the rear reception wing, so the tiled planes fall away on all four sides and the building reads as low and settled rather than tall. It is a quieter profile than the neighbouring merchant quarter usually offers.
Under the eaves, look at the depth of the lean-to. It shelters the whole front, which is what makes the glass practical: a glazed shopfront in a snowy prefecture needs shade in summer and protection from driving rain, and the Geya supplies both.
Then step back far enough to take in the plot as a whole. The shop stands at the north end; the rice storehouse stands at the south; the two present an unbroken line of tiled roof and boarded wall to the road. That continuity is the reason both were registered, and it is much easier to see from thirty paces away than from directly in front.
One more thing that rewards a slow look: the rear wing is longer than a passer-by expects. Makabe plots run deep and narrow, and the reception rooms behind Kobayashi Shoten Store extend well back from the road, which is why the building covers 93 square meters despite a modest street frontage.
Visiting Kobayashi Shoten Store
Kobayashi Shoten Store is private property and the interior is not open. Sakuragawa City states this plainly on its walking map: enjoy the exteriors as you walk, and do not enter the grounds or the buildings of registered properties. Everything described above can be seen from the public road.
Photography from the road is not restricted by any posted notice. The building is somebody's home as well as a shop front, so keep the camera on the architecture.
The nearest railway station is Iwase on the JR Mito Line, about 20 minutes away by taxi according to the city's tourism pages. The Sakuragawa city bus, the Yamazakura GO, links Iwase Station with Makabe at a flat fare of 200 yen per ride. Coming from the south, take a Tsukuba city bus from Tsukuba Station to Tsukubasanguchi, about 50 minutes, then change to the Sakuragawa bus for about 20 minutes more.
Drivers can use the Makabe Takajōmachi car park at 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho, which has 65 spaces for ordinary vehicles and takes no reservation. From there it is a walk of roughly ten minutes north. The city map treats this end of the district as the Iizuka course, a loop of about 20 minutes added on to the main circuit, and Kobayashi Shoten Store is its first stop.
The busiest season is the Makabe Hina Matsuri, held each year from 4 February to 3 March, when households through the town set out doll displays. Not every registered building takes part, and there is no published statement that this one does, so treat the festival as a reason the streets will be crowded rather than a promise of access.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside Kobayashi Shoten Store?
- No. The building is privately owned and the interior is not open to visitors. Sakuragawa City asks that people view registered properties from the street and refrain from entering the grounds.
- When was Kobayashi Shoten Store built, and when was it registered?
- It was built in 1928. Registration as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property took effect on 1 July 2003, and the notice appeared in the official gazette on 17 July 2003. The registration number is 08-0100.
- How do I reach Kobayashi Shoten Store by public transport?
- Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line is the nearest station, about 20 minutes by taxi. The Yamazakura GO city bus also runs between Iwase Station and Makabe for a flat 200 yen, and there is a connection from Tsukuba Station via Tsukubasanguchi.
- Is there parking near Kobayashi Shoten Store?
- The Makabe Takajōmachi car park at 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho has 65 spaces for ordinary cars and needs no booking. Walk north from there for about ten minutes.
- What makes Kobayashi Shoten Store worth stopping for?
- The hipped roofs, the deep lean-to over the shopfront, and the glass doors with their shutter boxes, which date the building to the early Shōwa years. Together with the rice storehouse next door it forms a continuous stretch of historic street frontage.
Basic Information
| Name | Kobayashi Shoten Store (小林商店店舗, Kobayashi Shōten Tenpo) |
|---|---|
| Location | 171-2 Iizuka, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), registration number 08-0100 |
| 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 93 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 Store
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003378
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Kobayashi Shoten Rice Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003379
- 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