Ushioda Family Residence Wakigura: The Oldest Storehouse of the Tsuruya Estate
Set back from Gojinya-mae-dori, north of the shop and its towering wing and separated from them by an open lot, stands a plainer two-storey storehouse that many passers-by never reach. Yet the wakigura, the side storehouse of the Ushioda family, is the oldest of the four listed buildings on the property, and it tells a quieter story about how a large merchant household actually lived.
The Ushioda, who traded as Tsuruya in kimono cloth and dry goods, held broad grounds in the centre of Makabe, the old castle town below the north side of Mt. Tsukuba. Their prosperity was not only a matter of the shopfront the public saw. Behind and beside the selling floor lay the working core of the estate, and the wakigura belonged to that private world rather than to the street.
Records place its construction at 1897 or earlier, in or before the thirtieth year of Meiji, which makes it older than the shop storehouse of 1910 and the wing of 1912. Where those two buildings faced outward as commerce, the wakigura is classed officially as a residence, a small but telling distinction that marks it as part of the family's domestic life.
Why the Building Is Registered
The wakigura was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in November 1999 under registration number 08-0019, alongside the three other Ushioda structures. The listing recognises buildings that would be hard to reproduce, and here the value lies in completeness rather than in any single showpiece.
Built in two full storeys of earthen-walled construction with a gabled pantile roof, the storehouse has a compact footprint of about 58 square metres. A great cloth merchant needed more than a handsome shop: he needed secure, fire-resistant space to keep stock, household goods and valuables, and the surviving arrangement of shop, wing and side storehouse lets us see that layered use of the grounds intact. Because the wakigura predates its neighbours, it also preserves an earlier moment in the growth of the estate, before the family rebuilt its street frontage in the late Meiji years.
What to Look For on a Visit
Read the wakigura in relation to the rest of the site. Its position, drawn back from the road behind an open space, is itself the point: storehouses of this kind were kept away from the bustle and the fire risk of the street, close to the family's living quarters. Standing where the open lot meets the storehouse, you can sense the depth of a merchant plot that runs far back from its narrow public face.
The plainness rewards a patient eye. Without the black plaster of the shop or the clapboard of the wing, the wakigura shows the storehouse in a more elemental form, its earthen walls and gabled roof shaped for storage and endurance. For travellers who come to Makabe during the town's celebrated doll festival, the wakigura offers a chance to step past the photogenic shopfront and understand the whole estate as a place where people worked, stored and lived for generations.
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Q&A
- What does wakigura mean?
- It means side storehouse. The name describes a storehouse set apart from the main shop and wing, here positioned to the north of them across an open lot.
- Is the wakigura really the oldest of the four buildings?
- Yes. Records date it to 1897 or earlier, making it older than both the shop storehouse of 1910 and the wing storehouse of 1912.
- Why is it classed as a residence rather than commerce?
- Unlike the street-facing shop and wing, which are recorded under commerce, the wakigura belonged to the private, domestic side of the estate, so it is listed as a residence.
- How is it different from the other storehouses to look at?
- It is plainer. It lacks the black plaster of the shop and the clapboard skin of the wing, showing the storehouse form in a simpler, more utilitarian guise.
- Where exactly does it stand on the property?
- It sits to the north of the shop and wing, set back from Gojinya-mae-dori behind an open lot, closer to the family's living quarters than to the street.
Basic Information
| Name | Ushioda Family Residence Wakigura (Ushioda-ke jūtaku wakigura) |
|---|---|
| Location | 189 Makabe, Makabe-machi, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), reg. no. 08-0019 |
| Registered | 18 November 1999 |
| Built | 1897 (Meiji 30) or earlier |
| Structure | Two-storey earthen-walled construction, gabled pantile roof, floor area approx. 58 m², 1 building |
| Setting | Set back north of the shop and wing within the Makabe preservation district |
References
- Cultural Heritage Online — Ushioda Family Residence Wakigura
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/181313
- Agency for Cultural Affairs National Cultural Properties Database
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001403
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education — Ushioda Family Residence Misegura and three others
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6510/
Last verified: 2026.07.06