What the Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse is
The Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse is a two-storey clay-walled storehouse of the late Meiji era 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 08-0026. Its building area is 33 square metres.
It stands on the south side of the shop, but unlike its northern counterpart it does not touch it. The Agency for Cultural Affairs commentary records a tradition that it was put up some time after the shop was finished, and the shop dates from 1900, so this storehouse is later than that.
The formula is the one used for the north storehouse: a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof with the ridge running east to west, Sangawara-buki pantiles, Dozo-zukuri clay walls, hinged double doors and courses of tile stacked high along the ridge. What differs is size. The Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse covers 33 square metres against the northern building's 20.
Its condition is recorded as good, which half a century of difference in age goes some way to explain. The Yaguchi household had pressed oil and brewed soy sauce in the Edo period and moved into silk reeling once the Meiji era began. This storehouse went up while that filature was growing toward the largest scale in the prefecture.
Why it is registered
The Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse carries the same criterion as its northern twin: not easily reproduced. The judgement rests on the building method, since laying up clay walls in successive coats is barely viable now.
What deserves attention here is that the later building deliberately follows the earlier one. Fifty years separate them, and Makabe's townhouses changed appreciably in that time. The new storehouse was nevertheless built to match the old. Someone chose not to disturb how the compound read from the street.
The result is a pair of similar storehouses flanking the shop to north and south. Repetition of that kind is much of what holds the Makabe streetscape together. Four buildings were registered here in 2000, and five more followed in 2005.
Sakurai falls outside the roughly 17.6 hectares of the Makabe preservation district selected in 2010. That district covers part of the Makabe district proper; Sakurai adjoins it on the north.
What to look at
The lower walls of the Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse are faced with lapped boarding held by notched vertical battens, a treatment called sasarako shitami. Boarding the base of a clay storehouse keeps rain splash off the earth wall behind. The contrast between white Shikkui plaster above and dark weathered boards below is what fixes this building in the eye.
A thick plaster band runs around the wall head under the eaves. It is there to stop fire reaching the exposed rafters, and if you stand close and look up you can see the wall step slightly outward just below the eaves line. Most of the fire precautions in a storehouse of this kind are concentrated in details like it.
The gap between storehouse and shop is meaningful too. The Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse stands clear rather than flush, which reads as a firebreak. The northern storehouse is pressed hard against the shop, so two different judgements sit side by side within one compound.
The ridge is stacked as high here as on the northern building. Two storehouses show matching ridge heights to the road with the shop and the gate set between them, and from the far pavement the whole run resolves into a single elevation.
Visiting
The Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse is privately owned and closed to visitors. Viewing is from the road only, and free. Sakuragawa City reminds visitors that the town's registered properties are private homes and asks that no one enter the grounds. Photograph from the public road.
From Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line, allow about 20 minutes 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, then the Sakuragawa City bus about 20 minutes. By car it is roughly 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange, or about 50 minutes from Tsuchiura-kita along Route 125 and Prefectural Route 41.
The Makabe Takajomachi car park at 279-1 Makabe, Makabe-cho takes 65 cars. Sakurai lies north of it on foot, so allow walking time; the route passes through the old streets in any case.
From 4 February to 3 March the Makabe Hina Matsuri sees more than a hundred households and shops set out dolls and open their street rooms. Entry is free. Participation differs household by household and year by year, so the Sakuragawa Tourism Association is the place to check.
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Q&A
- When was the Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse built?
- In the late Meiji era. The Agency for Cultural Affairs commentary records that it followed the shop, which was built in 1900.
- How does the Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse differ from the north one?
- The form is nearly identical, but the southern building is a size larger at 33 square metres against 20, and its condition is recorded as better.
- What is sasarako shitami boarding?
- Lapped boards held in place by notched vertical battens. It faces the lower walls of the Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse and keeps rain splash off the clay behind.
- Is the interior of the Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse open?
- No. It is private property, so viewing is limited to the exterior from the road.
- How do I reach the Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse?
- About 20 minutes by taxi from Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line, or about 20 minutes by car from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange.
Basic Information
| Name | Yaguchi Family Residence South Sleeve Storehouse |
|---|---|
| Location | 373 Sakurai, Makabe-cho, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 28 April 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 33 square metres |
| 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: 谷口家住宅南袖蔵
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001554
- Sakuragawa City: The Townscape of Makabe
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education: Makabe Preservation District, Sakuragawa City
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-8557/
- 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