A Taisho Shop That Never Stopped Trading
Okujun Tenpo (奥順店舗, the Okujun Shop Building) is a timber merchant's shop in the Omachi district of Yuki City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in the early Taisho era (1912-1926) and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on 9 February 2005.
It sits immediately west of the older Okujun Misegura, the earthen-walled shop of 1886, and the two frontages read as a pair. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the street-facing block as three and a half ken along the ridge by two and a half ken deep, in two storeys, with a gabled roof of sangawara pantiles and copper sheeting on the external walls. Single-storey wings extend along the east side and across the north rear, and the whole comes to 119 square metres of building area, the largest of the five registered Okujun structures.
The division of labour inside is simple and has barely changed. The ground floor is the shop. The second floor is a single tatami room of about twelve mats. Behind the shop, the ground-floor plan continues into what was once the family's living quarters, now used as offices and other working rooms.
The House Behind the Building
Okujun is a sanchi-donya, a producing-region wholesaler. That role sits between the weaving households scattered across the Yuki area and the retail kimono trade in the cities: the wholesaler commissions and specifies cloth, checks it, and moves it onward. Yuki City's records state that the Okuzawa family had run a tsumugi wholesaling business across generations, and that a branch established by the fifth head of the house became the Okujun of today. The company itself dates its founding to 1907.
The building was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation, with registration number 08-0161, in the 45th round of registrations. Three other Okujun buildings, the detached room, the storehouse and the misegura, were registered on the same day, which is why their numbers run consecutively from 08-0160 to 08-0163.
What makes the shop unusual among registered properties is not its age. It is that the room has kept its original job. The operator describes it as the buying floor that has been in use since the company's founding, and states that traditional transactions are still conducted there. A wholesaler's counter is a specific kind of space, built for unrolling bolts of cloth, examining them in daylight from the open front, and settling terms. That the same counter still performs that function after a century is the substance of the registration.
Details Worth Slowing Down For
Look first at the shutter boxes. On the ground floor, the front is opened across its width except for a half-ken shutter box retained on the west side. On the second floor there are half-ken boxes at both ends, with glazed doors between them. The Agency's record describes the upper openings as hijikake-mado, elbow-rest windows, set at a height where a seated person can lean on the sill and look down at the street.
Then look at the wall surface. Copper sheeting on a Taisho commercial building was both a fire measure and a statement of means. Copper weathers from bright metal through brown to green over decades, so the colour of the cladding is a record of the years the building has stood.
The comparison with the misegura next door is the reason to visit both together. The 1886 misegura is thick-walled earthen construction, dark and heavy. The Taisho shop beside it is a timber frame with a metal skin, lighter, more open at the front, glazed above. Roughly thirty years separate them, and the change in what a prosperous merchant thought a shop should look like is legible from the pavement.
Note before travelling that the shop building itself does not admit visitors. The operator asks that people refrain from entering it, along with the detached room and the storehouse. The frontage is fully visible from the public street and can be photographed from there. The rest of the compound, run as the Tsumugi no Yakata museum at Yuki 12-2, is open free of charge from 10:00 to 16:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 17:00 at weekends and public holidays, with last admission thirty minutes before closing. It closes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and over the New Year. The archive room and the dyeing and weaving experiences carry a separate fee. Yuki Station on the JR Mito Line is about ten minutes away on foot, and twenty free parking spaces are available.
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Q&A
- Can visitors enter the Okujun Shop Building?
- No. The operator asks visitors not to enter the shop building, the detached room or the storehouse, as they remain in commercial use. The exterior can be seen and photographed from the public street, and the Tsumugi no Yakata museum in the same compound is open to the public.
- When was the Okujun Shop Building constructed?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the early Taisho era, giving a range of 1912 to 1925. Yuki City describes it as having been built after the adjacent misegura of 1886. It was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on 9 February 2005, registration number 08-0161.
- What is the Okujun Shop Building still used for?
- It remains Okujun's buying floor. The company, a Yuki-tsumugi wholesaler founded in 1907, states that the traditional transactions carried out there since its founding continue in the same room. The ground floor is the shop, the second floor a twelve-mat tatami room, and the rear wings serve as offices.
- Why are the walls of the Okujun Shop Building covered in copper?
- Sheet copper over a timber frame was a fire-protection measure common in early twentieth-century commercial buildings, and also signalled the owner's standing. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the external walls as copper-sheeted, distinguishing the shop from the plastered and earthen-walled buildings around it.
- How far is the Okujun Shop Building from Yuki Station?
- About ten minutes on foot from the north exit of Yuki Station on the JR Mito Line, according to the operator. From Tokyo, change at Oyama onto the Mito Line. Rental bicycles are available at the station, and the compound has free parking for twenty vehicles including coaches.
Basic Information
| Name | Okujun Tenpo, the Okujun Shop Building (奥順店舗) |
|---|---|
| Location | 9-2 and 12-2 Omachi, Oaza Yuki, Yuki City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 08-0161 |
| Year Designated | Registered 9 February 2005, gazetted 28 February 2005 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two storeys with single-storey wings, timber frame, pantile roof, building area 119 m². Street block three and a half ken by two and a half ken |
| Owner | Okujun Co., Ltd. (no owner name published in the Agency's database) |
| Public Access | Exterior only. Entry to the building is not permitted |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database - Okujun Tenpo
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004501
- Yuki City - Registered Tangible Cultural Properties: Okujun Co., Ltd.
- https://www.city.yuki.lg.jp/kosodate-kyouiku/shougaigakushuu/bunkazai/bunkazai/tourokuyuukei/page003228.html
- Tsumugi no Yakata - Okujun Shop
- https://www.yukitumugi.co.jp/guide/okujun-store/
- Tsumugi no Yakata - Access and opening hours
- https://www.yukitumugi.co.jp/access/
Last verified: 2026.08.04