What the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate is
The Yaguchi Family Residence Gate is a late Meiji gate of the yakuimon type in the Sakurai district of Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, entered in the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000 under registration number 08-0027. It is counted as one structure, and it is the only one of the nine registered items here classed as a work of construction rather than a building.
It measures one bay by one bay, with an opening 2.7 metres wide. Board doors hung to swing inward fill the centre, and a small pedestrian opening flanks each side. The roof is a Kirizuma-zukuri gable in Sangawara-buki pantiles. The Yaguchi Family Residence Gate stands in the gap between the shop and the south sleeve storehouse.
On its date the Agency for Cultural Affairs commentary says only that it appears contemporary with the south storehouse. That storehouse is recorded as later than the shop of 1900, so the gate follows as well. The question of how the compound should present itself to the street was evidently settled after the shop was finished.
A Yakuimon carries its ridge forward over two main posts, with a pair of secondary posts behind. Among gate types it ranks high, and it belonged historically to samurai residences and temples. In Makabe, domain regulation kept merchant households from building gates at all during the Edo period. When that restriction lapsed at the start of the Meiji era, gates of this kind went up across the town in quick succession.
Why it is registered
The Yaguchi Family Residence Gate is listed under the criterion for structures that serve as a model of form. Among the many merchant gates raised in Makabe, this one was judged a well-resolved example.
Sakuragawa City points to the prominence of yakuimon gates and board fences as a defining trait of the Makabe streetscape, unusual in a town of merchants. Gates of this rank properly belonged to the warrior class. Their appearance in front of townsmen's houses is what happened once status-based restriction fell away.
Read that way, the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate records a decision as much as a design. The Yaguchi household had made money in silk, and it had both the means to build a gate and the wish to do so.
Four items went on the register together here in 2000: the shop, the two sleeve storehouses and this gate. The Makabe Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, about 17.6 hectares selected in 2010, does not extend as far north as Sakurai.
What to look at
The roof is where the work went. Tile courses build up the main ridge, and further ridges run down from it toward the eaves, their lines picked out in stacked tile. For a structure only 2.7 metres wide that is a great deal of attention, and the reason is that the gate is the first thing to state the standing of the house behind it.
Look at the side openings as well. The central board doors swing inward and were opened for goods and for guests. Everyday coming and going used the small doors beside them. Who you were determined which opening you passed through, and the arrangement of the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate still says so.
Move off the axis. Seen square on, the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate fills the view by itself; step a few paces to one side and it composes with the timber shop on one hand and the white storehouse on the other. The whole logic of a Makabe merchant's plot fits in that one frame.
The gate is registered as a work of construction rather than a building, the same category as fences, bridges and lighthouses. That is why it alone among the nine is counted as one structure rather than one building.
Visiting
The Yaguchi Family Residence Gate belongs to a private house and there is no access beyond it. The gate faces the road, so the exterior can be seen from the street. Nothing is charged. Sakuragawa City asks visitors not to enter private grounds, which means the gate cannot be walked through.
Photography from the public road is fine. The gate stands square to the street, so the far side of the road gives the whole of it. Choose a spot that does not block the pavement or the household's own comings and goings.
Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line is about 20 minutes away by taxi, or about 40 minutes by local bus to the Shimojuku stop. From Tsukuba Station, take the Tsukuba City bus about 50 minutes to Tsukubasan-guchi and change to the Sakuragawa City bus for about 20 minutes. Driving takes about 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange and about 50 minutes from Tsuchiura-kita via Route 125 and Prefectural Route 41. Park at Makabe Takajomachi, 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho, which holds 65 cars.
During the Makabe Hina Matsuri, 4 February to 3 March, more than a hundred houses and shops in the town display dolls and open their street-facing rooms. Viewing is free. Because participation changes from year to year, check with the Sakuragawa Tourism Association before setting out.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Ibaraki
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Yaguchi Family Residence Gate
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Q&A
- What type of gate is the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate?
- A yakuimon, a high-ranking form in which the ridge sits forward over two main posts with secondary posts behind. The opening is 2.7 metres wide.
- When was the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate built?
- In the late Meiji era. The Agency for Cultural Affairs commentary places it around the same time as the south sleeve storehouse, which is later than the shop of 1900.
- Why does a merchant house have a gate of this rank?
- Domain regulation barred merchants from building gates during the Edo period. Once that lapsed, Makabe's merchant households built yakuimon in numbers, and the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate is one of them.
- Can I walk through the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate?
- No. It is the gate of a private house and the grounds are not open. Viewing is from the road.
- Why is the Yaguchi Family Residence Gate counted as one structure rather than one building?
- Because it is registered as a work of construction, the category that also covers fences and bridges. It is the only item of the nine here in that class.
Basic Information
| Name | Yaguchi Family Residence Gate |
|---|---|
| Location | 373 Sakurai, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 28 April 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Opening 2.7 metres wide; 1 bay by 1 bay |
| Owner | Private owner (no owner name recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Not open to the public; exterior visible from the road |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: 谷口家住宅門
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001555
- 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: The Townscape of Makabe
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
- Sakuragawa City: Walking Makabe (registered cultural property map, PDF)
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/data/doc/1487569963_doc_23_1.pdf
Last verified: 2026.09.08