What the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House Is
The Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House (塚本家住宅主屋, Tsukamoto-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a wooden dwelling of 2 stories built in 1924 in the Makabe district of Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 8, 2004 under registration number 08-0152.
It stands on the western part of the family compound, set back behind the misegura that faces Kamijuku-dori. A misegura is a shop given the thick plastered walls of a storehouse, so at this address the business met the street while the household lived behind it. The roof is Yosemune-zukuri, covered in Sangawara-buki tiles, with the ridge running north to south. The building covers 147 m².
The lower part of the wall is laid in stone up to about waist height, and everything above it is finished in white Shikkui plaster. A raised plaster band called a hachimaki runs around the building under the eaves. Where stone gives way to plaster, a single horizontal line is drawn across the whole facade.
Why It Was Registered
The registration criterion applied here is the one for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. On the same day in 2004, three more structures on the same plot entered the register: the misegura (08-0151), the storehouse (08-0153) and the gate (08-0154). The Tsukamoto compound therefore holds 4 registered buildings, not one.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out 2 qualities in the main house. The 3 Zashiki rooms on the upper floor survive largely in their original condition, and the building joins the misegura and the gate in forming a broad expanse of tiled roofs. The first point concerns the building on its own, the second its role in the streetscape. The Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House was valued for both.
Six years after the registration, on June 29, 2010, the Makabe townscape was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. The area covers roughly 17.6 hectares. It was the 87th such district in Japan and the first in Ibaraki Prefecture, and this house sits inside its boundary.
Reading the Roofs and Walls
The misegura carries its ridge east to west; the main house carries its ridge north to south. Two roofs at right angles to each other stack up one behind the other, so from Kamijuku-dori the tiled surfaces read as overlapping planes at different heights. That layering is what the official description means by a broad tiled roofscape.
A hipped roof has no triangular gable wall. On a street where Kirizuma-zukuri storehouses line up gable after gable, the four sloping faces announce from the outside that this particular building is where people lived.
The stone base is practical work. It keeps rain splashing off the ground away from the foot of the earthen wall. Sakuragawa is granite country, and quarrying grew into a full industry here during the Meiji era, so stone was close at hand. No source consulted for this article records where the stone in this particular plinth was cut.
The 3 zashiki rooms on the upper floor are interior spaces and cannot be seen from the road. What a visitor can follow from outside is the rhythm of the upper openings and the plaster band running above them, which is a fair amount of information about a house whose rooms stay private.
The date matters too. During the Taisho era the Tsukuba Railway reached Makabe and the station opened, and 2-story townhouses with projecting bracketed eaves spread through the town. The Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House belongs to that moment of rebuilding, when merchant families were replacing older structures with taller ones.
Visiting the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House
The house is privately owned and still lived in. There is no interior access. Viewing is from Kamijuku-dori only, and it costs nothing. The area beyond the gate is private ground and is not open to visitors.
Photography from the public road is unrestricted. Pointing a lens through the gate or at the windows is another matter, and is best avoided out of respect for a family at home.
The one period when interiors along this street sometimes open is the Makabe Hina Matsuri, held annually from early February to March 3. More than 100 houses and shops display sets of hina dolls, and admission is free. The most recent edition ran from February 4 to March 3, 2026. How far any individual household opens its rooms changes from year to year, so the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House may or may not be among them. Check the Sakuragawa Tourism Association listings before travelling.
Getting there: a taxi from Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line takes about 20 minutes. By public transport from Tsukuba Station on the Tsukuba Express, take the Tsukuba city bus for about 50 minutes to Tsukubasanguchi, then change to the Sakuragawa city bus bound for the Iwase government building for about 20 minutes. By car it is about 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange on the Kita-Kanto Expressway, or about 50 minutes from the Tsuchiura-kita interchange via Route 125 and Prefectural Route 41. The Makabe Takajomachi car park (279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho) holds 65 cars; its 4 spaces for large vehicles must be booked in advance through the Sakuragawa city urban development section. Streets around the venue are closed to traffic on some days during the doll festival.
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Q&A
- Can you go inside the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House?
- No. The building is privately owned and still in use as a home, so the interior is closed. You can look at the exterior from Kamijuku-dori at any time, and there is no admission charge.
- When was the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House built and when was it registered?
- It was built in 1924, in the Taisho era. It was entered on the national register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on November 8, 2004, with the registration number 08-0152.
- Where on the street can you actually see the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House?
- It stands behind the misegura that fronts Kamijuku-dori, so from the road you see its tiled roof rising behind the lower building and the upper part of its white plastered wall. Standing in front of the gate gives the clearest view of how the roof levels step back.
- How do you reach the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House, and is there parking?
- A taxi from JR Iwase Station takes about 20 minutes, and buses from Tsukuba Station take roughly 70 minutes with one change at Tsukubasanguchi. Drivers need about 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange. The Makabe Takajomachi car park nearby holds 65 cars.
- What other cultural properties stand near the Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House?
- Three more registered buildings share the same plot: the misegura, the storehouse and the gate, all registered on the same day in 2004. Along the street they run west to east as misegura, gate, storehouse, with the main house set back behind them. The arrangement itself shows how a merchant compound was organised.
Basic Information
| Name | Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House (塚本家住宅主屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 60 Makabe, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), registration number 08-0152 |
| Year Designated | Registered on November 8, 2004 (Heisei 16) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, 2 stories, tiled roof, building area 147 m² |
| Owner | Private individual (name not disclosed) |
| Public Access | Interior closed, exterior viewable from Kamijuku-dori |
References
- Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House, National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004322
- Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House, Cultural Heritage Online
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/169632
- Tsukamoto Family Residence Main House, Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6364/
- Tsukamoto Family Residence Gate, Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6370/
- Makabe Preservation District, Sakuragawa City
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/education/bunkazai/city_bunkazai/kuni_bunkazai/page003423.html
- The Makabe Townscape: location, access and parking, Sakuragawa City
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
- Makabe Preservation District, Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- Makabe Hina Matsuri dates, Ibaraki Tourism Association
- https://www.ibarakiguide.jp/event.php?mode=detail&code=1074
Last verified: 2026.09.07