A shopfront house on the Takajomachi street
The Murakami Family Residence Main House is a merchant townhouse of around 1902 in the Takajōmachi block of Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 12 July 2005. It occupies the northwest corner of its plot and turns its long side to a street running north and south.
The ridge runs the same way as the street, so a passer-by sees the eaves side rather than the gable. This is a Hirairi frontage under a Kirizuma-zukuri roof laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. Across the west face, at the height of a shop counter, a Geya lean-to reaches out over the ground. Under that low canopy was the store, the part of a Machiya that opens the family trade to the street.
Behind the store the plan turns. A reception wing runs crosswise, roofed in the hipped Yosemune-zukuri form and holding two 8-mat rooms. A kitchen wing pushes out to the southeast, crosswise again and hipped again. Trade at the street, guests in the middle, cooking at the back: the sequence is legible in the roofs alone. The whole is single-storey timber with a building area of 135 square metres.
Why the register took it in
The criterion recorded for the Murakami Family Residence Main House is contribution to the historic landscape of the country. What earned the listing was not rarity as a single building but the part it plays in the street it belongs to. Its register number is 08-0181.
Makabe began as a settlement attached to Makabe Castle in the warring-states period and grew into a country market town under the Kasama domain, which kept a Jinya administrative post at its centre. Cotton from the Kansai region moved through here on its way to merchants in the northeast, and in the Genroku years the regular market met 12 times a month. After the great fire of 1837 the thatch and plank roofs gave way to storehouse construction. Silk reeling arrived in the Meiji era and a wave of shopfront storehouses went up with it. The Murakami Family Residence Main House, built around 1902, belongs to the closing years of that wave.
Sakuragawa City began using the national registration system in the 1999 fiscal year and put roughly 100 buildings on the register within a few years. That groundwork led to the selection of the Makabe district as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings on 29 June 2010, covering some 17.6 hectares. Takajōmachi, where this house stands, falls inside that boundary.
Registration is a lighter instrument than designation. It asks that the outward character be kept while the building stays in use, which is why so much of Makabe is still lived in rather than roped off.
What to look at from the pavement
The first thing to register is how low the west face sits. The lean-to of the Murakami Family Residence Main House holds its eaves down near head height and creates a shaded band between the house and the road. Walk the street and you find that band repeating from plot to plot, a continuous line of shadow that gives Makabe its particular rhythm.
Because the ridge runs north to south, the gable triangles face away from the street and are never seen by a visitor on foot. What shows is a long, low flank of pantiles running level. There is little ornament here. The quality of a house like this shows in the depth of the eaves overhang and in whether the tile courses hold their line.
The other thing worth tracing is how the wings step back into the depth of the plot. Store block, then reception wing to the east, then kitchen wing to the southeast, each with its own roof shape and its own orientation, the plan folding at right angles. Sharing the same plot are the Murakami Family Residence Annex and the Murakami Family Residence Storehouse, while the Murakami Family Residence Front Gate opens onto the road. Four buildings enclose a rear courtyard around the house. Follow the roofline over the wing wall of the gate and the sequence from shop to living quarters comes clear.
Visiting the Murakami Family Residence Main House
This is a lived-in private home and the interior is closed. The registered cultural property map issued by Sakuragawa City carries a note asking visitors not to enter the grounds of listed buildings and to enjoy them from outside. Seeing the Murakami Family Residence Main House means seeing its street elevation.
No sign prohibits photography of the exterior taken from the public road. Pointing a lens through a window or over the boundary is another matter, as is including residents in a frame. A tripod set where it blocks the footway will not be welcome either.
The nearest railway station is Iwase on the JR Mito Line, about 20 minutes from Makabe on the Sakuragawa city bus known as Yamazakura GO. The fare is a flat 200 yen per ride and Suica, PASMO and other transport IC cards are accepted. Coming from the Tsukuba Express, take the Tsukuba-san Shuttle from Tsukuba Center for about 50 minutes to Tsukuba-san Guchi, then change to the city bus for the last 20 minutes. Drivers leave the Kita-Kanto Expressway at Sakuragawa-Chikusei and follow National Route 50 and Prefectural Route 41.
Takajōmachi car park, at 279-1 Makabe, sits a short walk away and is normally free; a charge applies during the Makabe doll festival in February and March. Volunteer guides organised by the Sakuragawa City Board of Education meet groups at that car park and walk a circuit of the old jinya quarter lasting about 90 minutes, at no cost. Two people are the minimum and applications go to the Makabe Denshokan by the third Monday of the preceding month. Hearing how the street came together changes the way a working house such as this one reads.
For background before the walk, the history museum inside Makabe Denshokan at 198 Makabe is close by, open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., free of charge, closed Mondays. One of its rooms uses old photographs and models to explain the registered buildings of the district.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Ibaraki
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Murakami Family Residence Main House
- [ Hitachi Seaside Park Nemophila Flower Tours ]
Q&A
- Can you go inside the Murakami Family Residence Main House?
- No. The building is a private home in daily use and the interior is not open. Sakuragawa City asks visitors not to enter the grounds of registered buildings, so viewing is from the street only.
- When was the Murakami Family Residence Main House built?
- Around 1902, in the late Meiji era. It was placed on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 12 July 2005 under register number 08-0181, the same day as the annex, the storehouse and the front gate on the same plot.
- How do I get to the Murakami Family Residence Main House, and which station is nearest?
- Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line is nearest, about 20 minutes away by the Yamazakura GO city bus at a flat fare of 200 yen. From Tsukuba Station, ride the Tsukuba-san Shuttle about 50 minutes to Tsukuba-san Guchi and change buses for a further 20 minutes. By car, leave at Sakuragawa-Chikusei and park at Takajōmachi car park.
- Is photography allowed at the Murakami Family Residence Main House?
- Photographing the exterior from the public road is not restricted by any posted notice. Avoid shooting into the grounds or through windows, avoid including residents, and do not set a tripod where it obstructs people passing.
- Where in Makabe is the Murakami Family Residence Main House, and what stands beside it?
- At 232 Takajōmachi, Makabe, near the centre of the preservation district. The annex and the storehouse share the same plot behind the house, the front gate opens onto the road, and Takajōmachi car park is a few minutes on foot.
Basic Information
| Name | Murakami Family Residence Main House |
|---|---|
| Location | 232 Takajomachi, Makabe, Makabecho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2005 (Heisei 17) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber, sangawara tiled roof, building area 135 square metres |
| Owner | Private. No owner name recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | Not open. No interior access; exterior visible from the street |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Murakami Family Residence Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004696
- 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
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education: Makabe Preservation District, Sakuragawa City
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- Sakuragawa City: Registered Cultural Property Map (reverse)
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/data/doc/1487569963_doc_23_1.pdf
- Sakuragawa City: Makabe Townscape Volunteer Guides
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/education/syougai_gakusyu/page002208.html
- Sakuragawa City: Yamazakura GO city bus service
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/kurashi/koutsu/page005762.html
- Sakuragawa City: Makabe Denshokan History Museum
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/education/bunkazai/page006835.html
Last verified: 2026.09.08