A Farmhouse from Kiso, Rebuilt Beside a Suwa Miso Brewery
Marutakagura Tenpo (丸高蔵店舗, also written Marutaka-gura Tenpo), the shop building of the Marutakagura miso brewery at Takashima in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, is a two-story wooden structure of the early Taisho era, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) on 28 October 2011.
The building measures roughly 10 metres along its ridge and 16 metres in depth, with a floor area of 262 square metres. Its gabled roof, now clad in sheet iron, is entered at the gable end, and the whole composition follows honmune-zukuri, a farmhouse form of central and southern Shinshu recognisable by its broad, low-pitched gable turned toward the road.
According to the brewery, the house was dismantled at Yabuhara in the Kiso valley and re-erected here in 1918, three years after the two storehouses that stand to its south. Suwa lies over a mountain pass from Kiso, and moving a large timber house across that distance meant numbering every post and beam, carting them by road, and raising the frame again on new foundations. Japanese carpentry made such transfers ordinary rather than remarkable, and a good deal of what survives from the Taisho period in provincial towns arrived this way.
The company converted what had been its office into a retail space in 2006 and opened it to customers in April 2007.
Why the Building Is Registered
Registration under the Japanese system differs from designation as an Important Cultural Property. Registered Tangible Cultural Properties are buildings generally over fifty years old that merit preservation while remaining in everyday use, and owners keep considerable freedom to repair and adapt them. Marutakagura Tenpo carries registration number 20-0392 and was accepted under the criterion covering structures that contribute to the historic character of the national landscape.
That criterion is worth taking literally here. The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered three buildings on this plot at the same session: the shop, then the Kissawa storehouse and the Kajikazawa storehouse ranged southward behind it. The official commentary treats them as a set, describing the row as the defining element of a street that has kept its older grain. Remove any one of the three and the argument for the other two weakens.
The shop plays a particular role in that row. It is the building the street sees first, and it is the only one of the three built as a dwelling rather than for storage. Its domestic proportions soften the approach to the tall plastered walls behind it.
What to Look For from the Street
The front faces west onto the road. Deep eaves run along the ground floor at both front and back, and a bay window projects at the centre of the upper storey. Those two features do most of the work: the eaves throw a band of shadow across the lower wall through the middle of the day, and the bay breaks the gable into panels of light and shade that shift as the sun moves. Stand across the road in late afternoon and the façade reads almost as relief sculpture.
Compare its silhouette with the storehouses to the south. The shop is timber, its walls showing board and post; its neighbours are dozo, thick-walled and finished in white lime plaster. Three buildings, one plot, two completely different construction traditions, all of them Taisho.
One practical point matters before you plan a visit. The shop known as Sen no Mizu, which sold the brewery's miso and soy sauce and later ran a small restaurant, closed permanently on 22 February 2024. The buildings are private working property and are not open to the public. What remains available is the exterior, viewed from the public road, which is how the registration describes the buildings' value in any case.
The site sits along Namiki-dori about ten minutes on foot from JR Kamisuwa Station, walking in the direction of Takashima Castle. The castle grounds are a short distance further and make the natural pairing for an hour in this part of town. By car, the drive from the Suwa interchange on the Chuo Expressway takes roughly fifteen minutes.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Nagano
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Marutakagura Tenpo
- [ Matsumoto Castle & Kamikochi Hiking Tours ]
Q&A
- Can visitors go inside Marutakagura Tenpo?
- No. The shop that occupied the building, Sen no Mizu, closed on 22 February 2024, and there is no public interior access. The building can be seen from the road outside.
- Where is Marutakagura Tenpo and how do I reach it?
- It stands at Takashima 1-chome in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, about a ten-minute walk from JR Kamisuwa Station toward Takashima Castle. Drivers reach it in about fifteen minutes from the Suwa interchange of the Chuo Expressway.
- Is photography of Marutakagura Tenpo allowed?
- Photographing the exterior from the public road is unrestricted. The site is a working private property, so avoid entering the grounds or photographing over fences and into work areas.
- What does honmune-zukuri mean in the case of Marutakagura Tenpo?
- It is a traditional farmhouse type of the Matsumoto and Kiso districts of Nagano, marked by a wide gable facing the front and an entrance at the gable end. This building came from Yabuhara in Kiso, which is where the form belongs.
- How does Marutakagura Tenpo relate to the two storehouses beside it?
- All three were registered together on 28 October 2011. The shop stands at the north end of the row, with the Kissawa storehouse and then the Kajikazawa storehouse continuing to the south.
Basic Information
| Name | Marutakagura Tenpo (丸高蔵店舗) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1-2952-1 Takashima, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 20-0392 |
| Year Designated | Registered 28 October 2011 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 10 m along the ridge, 16 m in depth; floor area 262 sq m; two stories, timber frame, sheet-iron roof |
| Owner | Ajihyakumi Co., Ltd. (as recorded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs) |
| Public Access | Not open to the public. Exterior viewing from the public road only. The Sen no Mizu shop closed on 22 February 2024. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Marutakagura Tenpo
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00008995
- Cultural Heritage Online: Marutakagura Tenpo
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/207975
- Marutakagura official website
- https://www.suwa-marutaka.jp/
- Shinsyu-ichi Miso: Marutakagura
- https://www.shinsyuichi.jp/marutakagura
- Shinsyu-ichi Miso: notice of the closure of the Sen no Mizu shop
- https://www.shinsyuichi.jp/company/topics/detail/102
Last verified: 2026.08.05