A Cultural Property of 1.9 Square Metres
Marui-ke Jūtaku Machiai oyobi Hei・Sodegaki (丸井家住宅待合及び塀・袖垣, the waiting arbor with wall and sleeve fence of the Marui family residence) sits in the garden at Ecchū-machi in Kurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture. Built around 1916, in the fifth year of the Taishō era, it was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on 27 October 2017. The arbor itself covers 1.9 square metres.
That is roughly the floor area of a double bed.
The listing covers three linked elements. A single-storey timber arbor roofed in sheet steel stands at the middle of the eastern boundary of the plot, southeast of the family tea room. From it, timber walls under clay tiles run north and south for a combined eleven metres. And at the northern end, a sodegaki, a short bamboo screen fence of the type that projects like a kimono sleeve from a wall or building, extends for 3.8 metres. Together they form one registered unit, which is why an object smaller than most garden sheds appears in the national cultural property database.
Reading the arrangement from north to south gives the sleeve fence first, then the koshikake-machiai or seated waiting bench, then the setchin, the privy. All three shelter under the same sheet-steel roof. Anyone who has walked a tea garden will recognise the sequence immediately, because it is not decorative. It is the equipment of a tea gathering.
What a Machiai Is For
Guests at a formal tea gathering do not walk straight into the tea room. They enter the outer garden, wait, are called forward, pass through the roji or dewy path, rinse their hands, and only then stoop through the low entrance. The machiai is where the waiting happens: a bench under a roof, positioned so that guests face the garden rather than each other, with the sleeve fence blocking the view of what comes next. The privy beside it belongs to the same choreography. In many tea gardens it is a kazari-setchin, kept immaculate and never actually used, a signal that the host has prepared everything.
Rough Materials, Deliberate Choices
The Agency for Cultural Affairs description singles out the roof structure, and the detail repays attention. The sheathing under the roof is cedar bark. The rafters are round poles with their bark left on. The lathwork between them uses unmilled logs rather than sawn strips. None of this is what a carpenter reaches for when saving money on a small outbuilding; all of it is what a tea garden architect specifies when the intended effect is a mountain hut glimpsed on a path.
Registration came under the first of the three national criteria, buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The property carries registration number 31-236 and was approved in the 88th round of registrations. It reached the register together with five other elements of the same residence: the main house, the detached wing, the earthen-walled storehouse, the tea room, and a separate street-facing wall, all listed on the same day.
The Marui Family and Kurayoshi Tea
Kurayoshi City records the Marui household as the centre of the town's tea ceremony circles from the Taishō period into the early Shōwa years. The main house of 1916 occupies the northwest corner of a long rectangular plot, two timber storeys under tile, its ridge deliberately offset between the western and eastern halves so that the street elevation reads as two overlapping volumes. Inside, the detailing follows sukiya practice, the refined and lightly built manner that developed out of tea architecture.
The tea room is said to reproduce that of the Kyoto tea master Hirai Nihei, though the attribution comes down as tradition rather than as documented fact. Its exterior walls are painted red, an unusual choice for a sōan or grass-hut tea room and one that pairs with the red plaster of the separately registered street wall on the north side of the site. That street wall and the wall in this listing are different structures, a distinction easily lost in summaries: the red one faces the public road, while the eleven metres of tile-capped wall registered here stand inside the garden along its eastern edge.
Behind the garden rises Utsubuki-yama, the wooded hill that shelters central Kurayoshi and once carried the town's castle. The garden was laid out to take the hill as shakkei, borrowed scenery, so that the composition ends not at the fence but a kilometre away.
Visiting Ecchū-machi
The Marui residence is a private property and the interior, including the garden, the tea room and this arbor, is not open to the public. Kurayoshi City states the access status plainly as closed. What a visitor can do is walk the street outside and look at the north elevation, where the red-plastered wall with its charred-cedar boarded base, its diamond-shaped lattice window and its small hinged door in the centre makes one of the more distinctive street frontages in the town. Photography from the public road is fine; the garden is not accessible, so the arbor described here will remain a matter of reading rather than seeing.
Ecchū-machi lies just east of Kurayoshi's old commercial quarter. From Kurayoshi Station, the city loop bus reaches Fukuyoshichō in about fourteen minutes, and the site is a six-minute walk from there. Drivers will find parking at the Akagawara or Shirakabe Dozōgun visitor lots.
What Is Open Nearby
Five minutes on foot brings you to the Utsubuki-Tamagawa Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings, selected in 1998 and extended in 2010, where white-plastered storehouses with red Sekishū pantile roofs line the Tamagawa canal. Several are open as shops and cafés, and the stone bridges across the canal are among the most photographed spots in Tottori Prefecture.
Utsubuki Park, at the foot of the hill that this garden borrows, is a short walk south and is known for cherry blossom in April and for maples in November. The Kurayoshi Museum in Nakanochō holds the archaeological material from the Hōki provincial capital site and the registered folk collection of local threshing tools. If the tea connection interests you, the Kurayoshi Tourism and Convention Association publishes a walking map of the town's registered buildings, which is the most efficient way to see how many survive within a few blocks.
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Q&A
- Can I visit the Marui-ke Jūtaku Machiai oyobi Hei・Sodegaki?
- No. The Marui family residence is private and its interior and garden are closed, so the waiting arbor cannot be viewed. Kurayoshi City lists the property's public access status as closed. The street-facing red wall on the north side of the site can be seen from the public road.
- What exactly does the listing Marui-ke Jūtaku Machiai oyobi Hei・Sodegaki include?
- Three elements registered as one unit: a single-storey timber waiting arbor of 1.9 square metres with a sheet-steel roof, timber walls under clay tiles running eleven metres north and south of it, and a bamboo sleeve fence 3.8 metres long. They sit at the centre of the eastern edge of the plot.
- Why does a tea garden need a machiai like the one at the Marui residence?
- A formal tea gathering begins with a wait. Guests sit on the covered bench in the outer garden until the host calls them, then follow the roji path to the tea room. The sleeve fence screens the view ahead, and the adjoining privy completes the standard set of garden fittings.
- When was the Marui-ke Jūtaku Machiai oyobi Hei・Sodegaki registered, and what else was registered with it?
- It was registered on 27 October 2017 under number 31-236, in the 88th registration round. Five further elements of the same residence entered the register that day: the main house, the detached wing, the storehouse, the tea room and a separate street wall.
- How do I get to the Marui residence in Ecchū-machi from Kurayoshi Station?
- Take the Kurayoshi city loop bus from the station to the Fukuyoshichō stop, about fourteen minutes, then walk roughly six minutes. The site is on the eastern edge of the old town, five minutes on foot from the Utsubuki-Tamagawa preservation district.
Basic Information
| Name | Marui-ke Jūtaku Machiai oyobi Hei・Sodegaki (丸井家住宅待合及び塀・袖垣) |
|---|---|
| Location | 2149 Ecchū-machi, Kurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building); registration no. 31-236 |
| Year Designated | Registered 27 October 2017 (88th registration round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Arbor: single-storey timber, sheet-steel roof, 1.9 m². Wall: timber, tiled, 11 m long. Sleeve fence: bamboo, 3.8 m long |
| Owner | Private (not published in the national database) |
| Public Access | Closed. Garden and interior not open; street-facing wall visible from the public road |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Maruike Jutaku Machiai oyobi Hei, Sodegaki
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012017
- Cultural Heritage Online: Maruike Jutaku Machiai oyobi Hei, Sodegaki
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/245738
- Cultural Heritage Online: Maruike Jutaku Shuoku (main house)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/222844
- Kurayoshi City, Cultural Properties of the Uwanada, Seitoku and Meirin Districts
- https://www.city.kurayoshi.lg.jp/gyousei/div/kyouiku/bunkazai/1/1/5/
- Kurayoshi City, Registered Cultural Properties of the Nation
- https://www.city.kurayoshi.lg.jp/4237.htm
- Kurayoshi Tourism and Convention Association, Kurayoshi Cultural Property Walking Guide (PDF)
- https://www.kurayoshi-kankou.jp/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/bunkazai_sanpo.pdf
Last verified: 2026.08.21