A large farmhouse on the slope at Tsuji
Sakairi Family Residence Main House (坂入家住宅主屋, Sakairi-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a single-storey thatched farmhouse at 179 Yamashita, Tsuji, in Ishioka City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in the first half of the Meiji era and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2010.
Ishioka City places it in the Tsuji hamlet in the southwest of the municipality, on a low rise that faces south with woodland behind it and bamboo closing off the north and west sides. The main house sits at the centre of the plot. A storehouse occupies the southeast corner, an outbuilding known locally as a madeya stands to the west, a timber shed to the northwest, and a garden with a pond opens to the east.
The building went up in the early Meiji years and was reworked in 1891. What survives is the shape a prosperous farming household in this part of Ibaraki gave its house once the constraints of the Edo period had gone: not a townhouse and not a manor, but a working farmhouse built at the largest scale the form allowed.
Why the house is on the register
Registration took effect on 28 April 2010, with the public notice on 20 May. The entry number is 08-0240 and it belongs to the 67th round of registrations. The criterion cited is the one about contributing to the historic landscape of the country, which is the criterion used for the great majority of registered buildings.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs justifies the listing in two lines: the house conveys the form of the large farmhouses of this district, and the thatched roof, in particular the eaves treatment called toshimono, rewards close looking. Both halves matter. Sakairi Family Residence Main House is valued as a type specimen and as a piece of craft.
A decade later the city added a second layer of protection. On 26 March 2020 the house became No. 3 on Ishioka's register of landscape-important structures, a designation made under the Landscape Act rather than the cultural properties law. The city's assessment describes a plot with greenery on three sides and a pond garden facing the formal Shoin-zukuri rooms, and calls the result a completed form of the district's farmhouse tradition.
What to look at
The roof does most of the work. It is a hipped Yosemune-zukuri roof in thatch, running 21 meters along the front and 9.6 meters deep, over a footprint of 222 square meters. Ishioka City records the same building as 11 and a half ken by 5 ken in the older measure. At the middle of the ridge sits a small raised monitor roof, tiled in Sangawara-buki, the vent that carried smoke out of the house when cooking still happened over an open fire.
Then come down to eye level and look at the eaves. Toshimono is a way of building up the thick lower edge of a thatched roof by laying new and old reed in alternating courses over a base of straw, trimming each course as it goes on. The result is a banded edge, light against dark, several hand-spans deep. It is slow work and it shows.
Inside, the plan splits the building in two. The earth-floored Doma occupies the western third, where the work of the farm came indoors. The eastern part is raised, laid out in six rooms, and wrapped on its outer sides by an Engawa. The formal Zashiki look east across the pond. Anyone who has seen the compact four-room farmhouses of the same period will notice at once how much further this plan stretches.
Visiting Sakairi Family Residence Main House
This is a private home and it is not open. There is no admission, no visiting hours and no interior access, and the plot is enclosed by bamboo and woodland on three sides, so even the exterior view from the public road is partial. Anyone going to Tsuji should treat the lane as a residential street rather than a viewpoint, and stay off the property.
Photography is subject to the same limits. From the public road there is no restriction on photographing the roofline of Sakairi Family Residence Main House, but the garden, the outbuildings and the residents are not fair game, and there is no vantage point that does not involve someone's driveway.
The nearest station is Ishioka on the JR Joban Line, about 10 kilometres east. Driving takes roughly 20 minutes. Bus services into this part of the former Yasato district are thin and do not pass the hamlet, so a car or taxi is the practical option. Tsuji lies in the belt of countryside below Mount Tsukuba's northern ridge, and the approach road climbs gently through fields.
If the thatched architecture of the district is the reason for the trip, Ishioka's landscape register now runs to 14 buildings, most of them thatched farmhouses and gatehouses scattered across the same hills. Several stand closer to the road than Sakairi Family Residence Main House does, and the city publishes the list with photographs and locations.
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Q&A
- Can I visit Sakairi Family Residence Main House?
- No. It is a private residence with no public opening, no admission charge and no interior access. The plot is screened by bamboo and woodland, so even the view from the lane is limited.
- When was Sakairi Family Residence Main House built and registered?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the first half of the Meiji era, with a remodelling in 1891. It became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2010, entry number 08-0240.
- What is the toshimono eaves treatment on Sakairi Family Residence Main House?
- It is a method of building up the thick lower edge of a thatched roof by laying new and old reed in alternating layers over straw and trimming each layer, which leaves a striped band along the eaves.
- How large is Sakairi Family Residence Main House?
- It measures 21 meters along the front by 9.6 meters deep, with a building area of 222 square meters, all under one hipped thatched roof. It is a single storey throughout.
- How do I get to Tsuji, where Sakairi Family Residence Main House stands?
- Ishioka Station on the JR Joban Line is about 10 kilometres east, roughly 20 minutes by car. Local buses do not serve the hamlet, so driving or a taxi from the station is the realistic route.
Basic Information
| Name | Sakairi Family Residence Main House |
|---|---|
| Location | 179 Yamashita, Tsuji, Ishioka City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2010 (Heisei 22) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 21 meters by 9.6 meters; building area 222 square meters; single storey, thatched |
| Owner | Privately owned; owner not published |
| Public Access | Not open to the public. Private residence; interior and grounds closed |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Sakairi Family Residence Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00008095
- Cultural Heritage Online: Sakairi Family Residence Main House
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/211413
- Ishioka City, History and Memory: Sakairi Family Residence
- https://www.city.ishioka.lg.jp/rekishitokioku/hitonoikizukai/page001376.html
- Ishioka City: Landscape-Important Structures
- https://www.city.ishioka.lg.jp/shigoto_sangyo_machi/keikan/page006091.html
Last verified: 2026.09.08