A Shop and Home on the Old Tokaido
Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House (長谷川家住宅店舗及び主屋, Hasegawa-ke Jūtaku Tenpo oyobi Shuoku, sometimes written Hasegawake Jutaku) is a combined shop and dwelling in the Kozu district of Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, completed in 1927 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (登録有形文化財) on 9 June 2004. It faces the line of the old Tokaido highway, today National Route 1, and comprises a single two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a footprint of 157 square metres.
Odawara's cultural properties office records that the house opened as a ceramics shop. The frontage measures roughly six ken, the traditional Japanese building module, which comes to about eleven metres of shop face along the road. Business occupied the ground floor; the family lived above.
The roof is irimoya, a hipped form with gables at the upper level, covered in sangawara pantiles. The ridge runs parallel to the street, an arrangement called hirairi, so the long eaves side rather than a gable end greets passers-by.
Rebuilt Four Years After the Earthquake
The date rests on physical evidence. An inscription survives on the ridgepole, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs cites this munagi-mei as establishing 1927 as the year the frame was raised. For a building of this period, that is unusually firm ground.
The year matters. On 1 September 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake ruptured beneath Sagami Bay, a short distance offshore from Odawara. Collapse and fire removed much of the town's building stock in a single afternoon. What stands here now went up four years later, and the national heritage database describes it as a good example of a post-earthquake reconstruction townhouse in Kozu.
Kozu itself has been a place of movement for a long time. The name refers to the harbour that once served the provincial seat of Sagami. The Tokaido carried travellers past this spot through the Edo period, and after 1887 the railway followed. Kozu Station is still the junction where the Gotemba Line leaves the Tokaido Main Line. A merchant house going back up so quickly after 1923 says something about how little the traffic through here paused.
Registered, Not Designated
Japan protects historic buildings under two distinct systems, and the difference is easy to miss in translation. National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties are designated: the state judges them exceptional and requires permission before any alteration. Registered Tangible Cultural Properties fall under a lighter framework introduced in 1996, based on notification rather than permission, and built around the assumption that an owner will keep using the building.
That framework suits modern architecture, which usually remains in daily service. The Hasegawa property carries registration number 14-0083 and belongs to the 42nd round of registrations, listed on 9 June 2004 and gazetted on the 24th of that month. One criterion was applied: that the building contributes to the historical landscape of the country. The assessment rewarded its part in a streetscape rather than any singular flourish of design.
Reading the Front: Dashigeta Eaves and a Mukuri Roof
Stand on the pavement and look up. The eaves reach out much further than the wall below them.
They are carried by a method called dashigeta-zukuri, in which purlins are pushed out past the face of the building and the eaves rest on their projecting ends. The cut ends line up across the front in a row, throwing a band of shadow under the roof. Odawara's heritage notes point out that this construction appears on many buildings along the road through Kozu, so what looks like one family's choice is really a local habit. In a region of wet summers, a deep eave keeps rain off the shop front and off customers standing in it. The practical answer became the facade.
The second detail is the shape of the roof itself. It carries a gentle mukuri, a convex swell in the roof plane, the opposite of the concave sori curve familiar from temple architecture. Sight along the ridge from one side and the slope reads not as a straight line but as a slight bulge. The deviation amounts to only a few dozen centimetres, yet it softens the whole mass. Carpenters in the Kanto region used mukuri on townhouses and on sukiya-style teahouse architecture, and here the curve a craftsman judged by eye in 1927 is still the curve you see.
Visiting: A Private House Seen from the Street
The building is private property and the interior is closed. Viewing means the exterior, from the public pavement along National Route 1. Please stay off the site itself and resist looking through windows. The registration system works precisely because owners continue to occupy and use these buildings, and a steady stream of visitors treating a family home as an attraction would undermine that.
Getting there is simple. From JR Kozu Station on the Tokaido Main Line, walk out to Route 1 and head west for about five minutes. The route is flat, with the hillside rising behind the town and the sea a short way off in the other direction.
Photography from the public road is fine. Keep residents and interiors out of the frame, and leave the tripod behind rather than setting it up on a working pavement.
One more thing worth the extra two minutes: directly across the highway stands the Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse (registration 14-0084), a timber-framed stone building of 1916 registered on the same day. A storehouse that stood through the 1923 earthquake faces a shop rebuilt after it, across the width of one road. Seeing the pair together makes the decade between them legible in a way neither building manages alone.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House in Odawara?
- No. The building is in private hands and the interior is not open. Viewing is limited to the exterior from the public pavement along National Route 1, and visitors should not enter the property.
- How do I reach the Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House, and what is the nearest station?
- The nearest station is JR Kozu on the Tokaido Main Line. From there it is roughly a five-minute walk west along National Route 1, the old Tokaido. The address is 3-13-4 Kozu, Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture.
- When was the Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House built, and how is the date known?
- It dates to 1927. An inscription on the ridgepole records the raising of the frame, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs relies on that inscription for the date. The building went up four years after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
- What does Registered Tangible Cultural Property mean for the Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House, and how does it differ from National Treasure status?
- Registration is a notification-based system introduced in 1996, lighter than the permission-based designation applied to National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. It is designed for buildings that remain in everyday use, which is why most listings are modern. This property holds registration number 14-0083 from the 42nd round.
- Is there another cultural property near the Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House worth combining with a visit?
- Yes. The Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse stands across the highway, a timber-framed stone structure of 1916 registered on 9 June 2004 under number 14-0084. It is also viewable from the outside only.
Basic Information
| Name | Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House (長谷川家住宅店舗及び主屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 3-13-4 Kozu, Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration no. 14-0083; 42nd round; criterion: contributes to the historical landscape of the nation |
| Year Designated | Registered 9 June 2004; gazetted 24 June 2004 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey timber construction, tiled roof, building area 157 sq m; irimoya roof, hirairi orientation, sangawara pantiles |
| Owner | Private (no owner name listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Closed to the public; exterior visible from National Route 1 |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004127
- Odawara City: Registered Tangible Cultural Property, Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House
- https://www.city.odawara.kanagawa.jp/field/lifelong/property/tourokubunkazai/kenzoubutsu/tourokuhasegwatenpo.html
- Odawara City: Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Structures)
- https://www.city.odawara.kanagawa.jp/field/lifelong/property/tourokubunkazai/kenzoubutsu/
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: Tangible Cultural Properties (Structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/
Last verified: 2026.08.13