Yaeyama Minzokuen Former Makishi Family Residence Main House

What Is the Former Makishi Family Residence Main House?

The Yaeyama Minzokuen Former Makishi Family Residence Main House (八重山民俗園旧牧志家住宅主屋, Makishi-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a Ryukyuan-style house built in 1923, now standing in Ishigaki Yaima Village at Nagura, Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on December 5, 2007.

Ishigaki City records that it was the residential half of a combined clinic and home in the Okawa district of town, and that it was moved here in 1980. The folk park, Yaeyama Minzokuen, opened the following year, which makes this the earliest of the village's four registered houses to arrive. That is also why its official name carries the park's old title. Today the village simply calls it the Makishi house (Makishi-tei). It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 123 m², registration number 47-0058.

The man who built it, Makishi Sotoku, was a physician. According to the city, he studied for six years in Naha and six on the Japanese mainland, qualified as a doctor, and returned to Ishigaki to open a practice in 1913. A multilingual guide produced with the city adds that he went on to serve as Ishigaki's first mayor after the Second World War.

Why the Makishi House Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Makishi house as the living quarters of a clinic-and-residence and singles out the way its space is handled. The main roof is hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) and laid with full round-and-flat tiles (Hongawarabuki), with a small hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof over the entrance alone. Inside are three front rooms, ichibanza with an alcove and shelves, nibanza and sanbanza, wrapped by a veranda corridor, with deep Amahaji eaves along the front and sides.

The key move was to leave out the intermediate posts between rooms. With the eaves and ceilings set high and few posts in the way, the house opens into one airy interior. Ishigaki City says that when it was new, its size and finish went well beyond what people in Yaeyama expected of a house. The rooms measure 10 tatami mats for ichibanza, 7.5 for nibanza with its decorative shelves, and 10 for sanbanza, with a 5-mat board-floored back room behind.

What to Look For at the Makishi House

Begin at the entrance. Set beyond the back room of sanbanza, it was taken from the clinic building when that was dismantled and refitted here, according to Ishigaki City. Its intricate carved decoration is the work of Makishi Soho, the doctor's father, a cabinetmaker and lacquerer by trade. So the front door of the old clinic now greets visitors to the family's living quarters. The clinic itself was also moved into the village; the multilingual guide identifies it as the building now called Geionkan.

Once inside, notice the height of the ceilings and how few posts interrupt the rooms. Looking from ichibanza through to sanbanza, the three rooms read almost as a single space, which is exactly the openness the Agency describes. Outside the veranda, the deep amahaji eaves take the edge off the island sun.

The timber is first-rate: inumaki (Podocarpus) and Ryukyu ebony for posts and finishing, and island hardwoods such as mokkoku and fukugi for the beams and frame.

Visiting the Makishi House

The Makishi house is open to view during Ishigaki Yaima Village hours, and you may step up into the rooms. Entry is covered by the village admission ticket; hours, fees and directions are on the Ishigaki Yaima Village page.

This is the stage for the village's folk song show, held four times a day (10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.) and lasting about 20 minutes. Hearing the sanshin in these rooms is part of the appeal, but the house fills up during performances, so come between shows if you want to study the building. Typhoons and other conditions can cancel a show.

You may photograph the show, though the village asks you to keep other guests out of frame. Personal photography needs no permission, while climbing the stone walls and flying drones are prohibited.