A Taisho Shop Built to an Edo Pattern
The Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse (三輪家住宅見世蔵, Miwa-ke Jūtaku Misegura) is an early Taishō-era merchant shop building at Makabe in Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, added to the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 18 October 2000. It stands on the south side of Takajōmachi-dōri, facing north onto one of the streets that run east to west through the old town.
The building measures 3 ken by 2 ken, the ken being the traditional bay unit used to size a Japanese timber frame. It has 2 storeys in Dozo-zukuri, the thick-walled construction developed to keep fire out, under a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles with the entrance on the long side. The building area comes to only 28 square meters. A Geya pent roof projects over the ground floor front, and the shop counter sits beneath it.
The Miwa family opened a footwear shop here 3 generations ago and the business has carried on since. This is not a building preserved for display: it has stayed in use, facing the street, throughout.
Why the Register Took Notice
Makabe turned to fireproof construction after a great fire in 1837. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the town had been built mainly of thatch until then, and storehouse-style townhouses spread gradually in the years that followed.
The Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse went up more than 70 years after that fire, somewhere between 1912 and 1925. What makes it unusual is that the exterior reproduces the Edo-period misegura formula almost exactly rather than modernising it. The second-storey wall uses projecting purlins. A moulded cornice runs in horizontal steps under the eaves. A tall boxed ridge sits along the top of the roof, finished at its ends with raised plaster mounds called kagemori. The walls are packed thick with white Shikkui lime plaster.
The criterion cited for registration is that the building serves as a model of its type. A Taishō carpenter reproduced a form that had already become classical, and did so without loosening it. The register number is 08-0036.
Reading the Facade
The first thing to notice on the Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse is the door pocket set to one side on the ground floor, and another directly above it on the second. Edo misegura kept their openings narrow so that fire could not get in. Pushing the pockets to one side here allowed the rest of the frontage to open wide. The weight of the plastered wall and the commercial wish for a broad shopfront sit together on a single elevation.
Stop and look up and the height of the boxed ridge becomes clear. The horizontal line of the cornice, and how it meets the eaves of the neighbouring houses along the street, reads more easily from the far pavement.
Inside, the ground floor is a Doma earth floor that served as the counting area. The upper floor holds an 8-mat Zashiki with a Tokonoma alcove. Nothing of this shows from outside, but it tells you the second storey of the shop was a room for people rather than a loft for goods. Attached at the rear is the family's main house, registered separately under number 08-0037.
Visiting the Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse
The Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse is privately owned and still lived in and worked in, so the interior is not open to visitors. What you can see is the exterior, from Takajōmachi-dōri. The street is public and open at any hour, which means there is no admission charge and no closing time to plan around.
Photography of the exterior from the public road is fine. Do not enter the plot, and take care that the residents' daily life does not end up in the frame.
Each year between February and 3 March, Makabe holds the Makabe Hina Matsuri, when more than 100 shops and houses set out doll displays and open their shopfronts. The stretch of Takajōmachi-dōri around the building draws its heaviest visitor numbers then. Which houses take part changes from year to year, so check with the Sakuragawa Tourism Association if you want to know about a specific building.
By public transport, take the Sakuragawa city bus Yamazakura GO from Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line, bound for Tsukubasanguchi, and get off at Shimojuku. The ride takes about 40 minutes and Takajōmachi-dōri is a 5-minute walk from the stop. From Tsukuba Station on the Tsukuba Express, the Tsukuba city bus north shuttle reaches Tsukubasanguchi, where you change to the same Yamazakura GO service; allow about 90 minutes in total. Drivers can use the Takajōmachi car park at 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho, roughly 2 minutes away on foot. Rental bicycles are available outside Iwase Station, and the Tsukuba Kasumigaura Ring Ring Road covers the 10 kilometers to Makabe in about an hour. (Checked 8 September 2026)
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Q&A
- Can you go inside the Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse, and is there an admission fee?
- No. It is a private home and shop, and the interior is not open to the public. Viewing is limited to the exterior from Takajōmachi-dōri, and there is no admission fee or fixed opening time.
- When was the Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse built and when was it registered?
- It dates from the early Taishō era, between 1912 and 1925. It became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 18 October 2000 under register number 08-0036.
- How do you get to the Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse from the nearest station?
- From Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line, the Yamazakura GO city bus reaches the Shimojuku stop in about 40 minutes, and it is a 5-minute walk from there. Drivers can park at the Takajōmachi car park, about 2 minutes away.
- Is photography allowed at the Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse?
- Shooting the exterior from the public street is acceptable. Stay off the property and avoid photographing the residents or their private space.
- What should visitors look for on the Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse?
- The single door pocket on each floor, the projecting purlins across the second-storey wall, the stepped cornice under the eaves, and the tall boxed ridge with its raised plaster ends. Together they show an Edo form adapted to let a modern shopfront open up.
Basic Information
| Name | Miwa Family Residence Shop Storehouse |
|---|---|
| Location | 229 Makabe, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register number 08-0036 |
| Year Designated | Registered on 18 October 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Dozo-zukuri, 2 stories, tile roof, 3 ken by 2 ken, building area 28 square meters |
| Owner | Private individual |
| Public Access | Interior not open to the public; exterior viewable from Takajomachi-dori at any time; no admission charge |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Miwa Family Residence Misegura (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001863
- National Cultural Properties Database, Miwa Family Residence Main House (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001864
- Cultural Properties of Ibaraki, Miwa Family Residence Misegura and One Other Building (Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education)
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6541/
- National Cultural Properties Database, Makabe, Sakuragawa City (Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/103/00000090
- Makabe Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings (Sakuragawa City)
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/education/bunkazai/city_bunkazai/kuni_bunkazai/page003423.html
- Sakuragawa City Bus Yamazakura GO Service Information (Sakuragawa City)
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/kurashi/koutsu/page005762.html
Last verified: 2026.09.07