A merchant's shop of 1875 in Makabe
The Sekine Family Residence Store (関根家住宅店舗, Sekine-ke Jūtaku Tenpo) is a two-story timber shop building at 390 Makabe in Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in 1875 and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2002.
It stands toward the northern end of the old commercial quarter of Makabe, a town below the Tsukuba range whose street grid was already fixed by 1615. The building turns its long eaves side to the road, the arrangement called Hirairi, under a plain gable roof of Kirizuma-zukuri form laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. On the street side the eaves are pushed out a second time by a Geya canopy half a ken deep, about 0.9 meters, so the shop line steps forward before it reaches the road.
That canopy was where trade happened. It gave a covered strip between road and shop in which goods could be set out and a customer could stand out of the rain without stepping inside.
Behind it the ground floor divides in two. An L-shaped Doma of packed earth turns through the plan, and next to it sits the chōba, the raised board floor from which the accounts were kept and business was done. The Agency for Cultural Affairs entry for the Sekine Family Residence Store points to that pairing directly: the open canopy and the L-shaped earth floor together hold the working shape of a Meiji shopkeeper's premises.
What the register picked up
The Sekine Family Residence Store was registered on June 25, 2002, and the registration was gazetted on July 16 of the same year. It appears in the register as one structure, under registration number 08-0060, in the 33rd round of registrations. The criterion applied was that the building is a model of its type of design.
Makabe's reputation rests on storehouse shops. After the great fire of 1837 the merchants here gave up thatch and board roofing and rebuilt in Dozo-zukuri, and the thick plastered kura fronts that followed are what most pictures of the district show. The Sekine Family Residence Store falls on the other side of that divide. It is framed and finished as an ordinary timber Machiya, not as a fireproof storehouse, and Sakuragawa City's own guide to the district calls it a typical Kanto townhouse of the early Meiji years.
Its ordinariness is the reason it matters. A register that took in only the heavy kura would have caught the exceptional buildings of Makabe and lost the common ones. Roughly 100 buildings in the town went onto the register in a concentrated campaign begun in 1999, and the breadth of what was gathered in is part of why the surrounding streets were selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 2010.
The distinction between the two systems is worth keeping straight. This building is registered, not designated: registration is the lighter instrument, aimed at buildings that remain in ordinary use and in private hands.
Reading the front from the road
The footprint of the Sekine Family Residence Store is only 46 square meters, small enough that the whole front reads from one position on the far side of the road. Start with the height of the upper floor. It is low, and the wall above the canopy is shallow, which is what an 1875 shop looks like.
Compare that with the taller two-story townhouses further along the same streets. Those spread in the Taishō era, after the Tsukuba Railway reached Makabe, and they carry deep projecting bracket-work under the upper floor. The Sekine Family Residence Store is the earlier and quieter version of the idea.
Then look at the ground. The canopy posts stand at the edge of the road, and the line they hold is the boundary between public and private that the whole street works to. Where a neighbouring building has lost its canopy, the difference in how the frontage sits is immediate.
Every registered building here carries 2011 in its fabric. The Tōhoku earthquake made Makabe the worst-hit of all the country's preservation districts, with damage recorded to more than 90 percent of the traditional buildings, and repair work has continued for years since. Fresh plaster, re-laid ridge tiles and re-set foundation stones along these streets are that work, not decoration.
The Sekine Family Residence Store also has a companion. The Sekine Family Residence Main House is registered separately and stands directly behind the shop, projecting to one side as a wing. From the road its lower roof shows over the shop's ridge. The two were registered on the same day.
Visiting the Sekine Family Residence Store
The Sekine Family Residence Store is privately held and its interior is not open. Sakuragawa City's map of the registered properties asks visitors to enjoy the buildings from outside and not to enter the sites. There is no admission charge and no reception desk. The visit happens entirely from the public road.
One period of the year changes the character of the streets. The Makabe Hina Matsuri runs annually from February 4 to March 3, when more than 100 households and shops set out displays of hina dolls and admission is free. Which buildings take part varies from year to year, so collect the festival map handed out free in the town during the period rather than assuming that any particular property is open.
Photographing the exterior of the Sekine Family Residence Store from the public road is not restricted. The building is in private use, so keep cameras off the site itself, out of the interiors, and away from residents.
Makabe has no railway station, so the last leg is by bus. From Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line, the Sakuragawa city bus branded Yamazakura GO reaches the town in about 20 minutes; get off at Kamijuku or Shimojuku, each a short walk from the northern part of the old quarter. From Tokyo, take the Tsukuba Express to Tsukuba Station, the Tsukuba North Shuttle to Tsukubasanguchi in about 50 minutes, then the same city bus for a further 20 minutes. Drivers come in on Prefectural Route 41, from the Tsuchiura-kita interchange on the Joban Expressway or the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange on the Kita-Kanto Expressway; the Takajōmachi car park in the town is the nearest paid parking.
The old Tsukuba Railway trackbed is now the Rinrin Road cycle route, which runs along the eastern edge of the quarter and is marked on the city's district map. Cycle hire is available at Iwase Station and at Tsukubasanguchi.
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Q&A
- Can you go inside the Sekine Family Residence Store?
- No. The Sekine Family Residence Store is a private building and its interior is not open to the public. Sakuragawa City asks visitors to view the registered properties from the public road and not to enter the sites. There is no admission fee because there is no admission.
- When was the Sekine Family Residence Store built, and what is its designation?
- The building is dated to 1875 by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which records it as traditionally built in that year. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on June 25, 2002, under registration number 08-0060. Note that this is a registration and not a designation: the two run as separate systems, and the register is the lighter of them.
- How do you get to the Sekine Family Residence Store?
- Take the JR Mito Line to Iwase Station, then the Sakuragawa city bus, Yamazakura GO, about 20 minutes to Kamijuku or Shimojuku. From Tokyo the alternative is the Tsukuba Express to Tsukuba Station, the Tsukuba North Shuttle to Tsukubasanguchi in about 50 minutes, and the city bus for 20 minutes more. There is no station in Makabe itself. Bus stops nearest the old quarter change during the Hina Matsuri traffic restrictions, when the Sakuragawa City Hall Makabe Office stop is used instead.
- Can you photograph the Sekine Family Residence Store?
- Photographing the exterior from the public road is not restricted, and the frontage is designed to be read from there. Because the building remains in private use, do not photograph inside the site or the residents, and do not step onto the property to get an angle.
- Is the Sekine Family Residence Store related to the Sekine Family Residence Main House?
- They are two buildings on the same property, each registered in its own right on June 25, 2002. The store faces the road; the main house is attached to its rear and projects to one side as a wing. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the main house as most likely the original guest reception rooms, connected to the shop, since a separate dwelling once stood on the site.
Basic Information
| Name | Sekine Family Residence Store (関根家住宅店舗) |
|---|---|
| Location | 390 Makabe, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building) |
| Year Designated | Registered June 25, 2002; gazetted July 16, 2002 |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Timber, 2 stories, tiled roof; building area 46 square meters |
| Owner | Private; no owner name recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | Exterior viewing from the public road only; interior not open |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database — Sekine Family Residence Store
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00002746
- 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 — Registered Cultural Properties Map, "Walking Makabe" (PDF)
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/data/doc/1487569963_doc_23_1.pdf
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education — Makabe Preservation District, Sakuragawa City
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- Sakuragawa City — The Makabe Townscape
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
Last verified: 2026.09.07