Tsukamoto Family Residence Storehouse

Tsukamoto Family Residence Miseigura: A Taisho-Era Merchant Storefront in Historic Makabe

Step into the historic merchant town of Makabe in Ibaraki Prefecture, and you will find a remarkable streetscape lined with white-walled storehouses, tiled roofs, and wooden shopfronts that have stood for more than a century. Among these treasures is the Tsukamoto Family Residence Miseigura (塚本家住宅見世蔵), a wooden single-story shop-storehouse built in the middle of the Taisho era (1912–1926). Together with the family's gate, main house, and earthen storehouse, the miseigura forms one of the most photographed and beloved building groups along Makabe's preserved old town. Designated as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, it offers visitors a rare and tangible glimpse into the daily life of a prosperous early-20th-century merchant household.

What Is a Miseigura?

The word miseigura combines "mise" (shop) and "kura" (storehouse), and refers to a uniquely Japanese building type that served as both a place of business and a fireproof refuge for valuable goods. Built with thick mud-and-plaster walls and tiled roofs, miseigura emerged in commercial towns across Japan after devastating fires of the Edo and Meiji periods convinced merchants to invest in safer, more durable architecture. In the streets of Makabe, where a great fire in 1837 prompted a wholesale rebuilding of the town in tile and plaster, miseigura became the defining feature of the merchant landscape.

The Tsukamoto Family Miseigura belongs to this proud tradition. While slightly later than many of its neighbors—built during the relatively peaceful Taisho years—it preserves the same architectural language of dignified simplicity, careful proportion, and craftsmanship that distinguishes Makabe from any other surviving merchant town in eastern Japan.

Historical Background

Makabe traces its origins to the medieval castle town of the Makabe clan, who controlled the area for nearly four centuries. After their relocation in the late 16th century, the town fell under the rule of various daimyo and eventually became a jin'ya (administrative outpost) of the Kasama Domain. With no major city nearby, Makabe flourished as the economic and cultural hub of this fertile inland region, drawing merchants who dealt in textiles, sake, fertilizers, medicines, and the famous Makabe granite quarried from nearby Mount Kaba.

The Tsukamoto family was among the prominent merchant houses of Makabe, and over a span of roughly two decades they built a complex of buildings that survives today as a complete merchant compound. The earliest, the gate, was raised in 1907; the earthen storehouse followed in 1908; the miseigura was constructed in the middle of the Taisho era; and the main house was completed in 1924. Each was designed to fit harmoniously alongside the others, and together they form one of the most coherent surviving examples of an early-20th-century Japanese merchant residence.

Why It Was Designated a Cultural Property

The Tsukamoto Family Residence Miseigura was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on November 8, 2004, alongside the gate, main house, and earthen storehouse of the same residence. The designation recognizes the building's value as a well-preserved example of a Taisho-era merchant shopfront, and especially its role in shaping the historic streetscape of Makabe's Kamishuku-dōri (Upper Inn Street).

The miseigura is not isolated; it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the family's other historic buildings, presenting passersby with an unbroken vista of tiled roofs and white plaster walls. The Agency for Cultural Affairs valued precisely this contribution to the larger townscape. Six years after its registration, in June 2010, the entire Makabe district was selected as a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings—the first such district in Ibaraki Prefecture and the 87th in all of Japan—and the Tsukamoto family compound is one of its anchor properties.

Architectural Highlights

The miseigura is a single-story wooden building measuring roughly five-and-a-half ken (about 10 meters) along the street and two ken (about 3.6 meters) deep, with a building area of approximately 50 square meters. Its gable roof, covered in sankawara pantiles, runs east to west, and the long side faces the street in the hira-iri configuration favored by shop architecture across Japan. A modest lean-to extends along the south side, while the north side connects directly to the main house behind it.

Inside, the floor plan reflects its dual function as shop and storehouse. The space is divided into a doma (earthen-floored work and entry area), an ita-no-ma (raised wooden-floored section), and a chōba—the merchant's seat behind a low wooden lattice where ledgers were kept and customers were greeted. This arrangement is the classic interior of an Edo-to-Meiji style Japanese shop, faithfully carried forward into the Taisho period.

Visiting the Tsukamoto Residence and Makabe

The Tsukamoto Family Residence stands on the main street of Makabe at number 60. The exterior of the miseigura, gate, main house, and earthen storehouse can be admired from the public street year-round, and the entire compound is one of the most photographed scenes in town. Visitors should remember that the residence is privately owned, and access to the interior is generally not open to the public except during certain seasonal events.

The best time to visit is during the Makabe Hinamatsuri (Doll Festival), held annually from early February through March 3. During this festival, more than 160 merchant houses, shops, and homes throughout Makabe—including many of the registered cultural properties—open their entrances to display Hina dolls passed down through generations. It is the rare chance to glimpse interiors otherwise hidden from view, all while strolling a town that feels suspended between past and present.

Surrounding Attractions

Makabe rewards unhurried exploration. Within a short walk of the Tsukamoto residence you will find the Ushioda Family Residence (a textile merchant's compound with the widest shopfront in Makabe), the former Makabe Post Office in a 1927 reinforced-concrete western style, the sake brewery of Nishioka Honten (makers of "Hana no I"), and dozens of other registered cultural properties. The Makabe Denshōkan visitor center provides maps, exhibitions, and helpful guidance in the heart of the historic district.

For travelers willing to extend their journey, sacred Mount Tsukuba lies a short drive to the south. Famous since ancient times for its twin peaks and revered as a sacred mountain in Japanese mythology, Tsukuba offers cable cars, ropeways, hiking trails, and the historic Tsukubasan Shrine. Mount Kaba, source of the celebrated Makabe granite, rises just east of town and gives some sense of the geological wealth that fueled the merchant prosperity visible on every Makabe street.