Masuda Uchigura

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

Researched and written by Hinato

MasudauchiguraYokotepreservation districtplasterwork

Akita · Yokote

39.2074°N, 140.5413°E

Masuda Uchigura survives on maintenance and memory as much as on its original construction — that tension is part of the visit.

Masuda's merchants were rich on tobacco, silk and finance, and they built their storehouses inside their houses. An uchigura is a full plastered kura — the kind that normally stands separate in a yard — enclosed within a timber sheath and roofed over so that it sits in the back half of the dwelling, reached along an interior corridor. Snow here reaches two metres and more, which is the reason: everything valuable stayed under one roof.

From the street you see nothing. The frontages on Nakananukamachi-dori are ordinary gabled shopfronts from the Meiji to early Showa period, designated an Important Preservation District in 2013, and the extraordinary part is thirty metres behind them — lacquered black plaster, polished pillars, gilded fittings, done by plasterers competing with each other. A number of houses open to visitors; most are still lived in, and once a year they all open at once.

Before you go

Opening hours

Street open at all times | Individual houses keep their own hours and some require booking

Closed: Varies by house

Admission

Street free | Individual house viewing around ¥200–400 — confirm at the information centre

Best time to visit

Year-round | February for deep snow that explains the design | Autumn for the Kura no Hi open day

Time to allow

1.5–2.5 hours

How to reach it

Getting there in detail

Masuda, Masuda-machi, Yokote. Car recommended, or by bus from JR Jumonji Station. Several houses along Nakananukamachi-dori are open to visitors; some charge around ¥200–400 and some require booking, and the information centre with parking on the street can tell you which are open on the day. The Masuda Kura no Hi event opens all the uchigura at once, once a year in autumn.

Historical notes & tips

**The street tells you nothing.** The whole point is thirty metres inside each building. Walking the frontages and leaving is the standard mistake — you have to go in. **Ask at the information centre first.** Which houses are open varies by day, some need booking, and charges differ. The centre on the street has the current list and the car park. **Look at the plasterwork.** Black polished lacquer plaster, competitive between families, with gilded metal fittings. This is the highest-grade left-hand plaster work in northern Japan and it exists because merchants were showing off to each other indoors. **Snow is the explanation.** Two metres and more. Everything about the plan — the interior corridor, the sheath over the kura, the roof continuity — is an answer to that. **One day a year they all open.** The Masuda Kura no Hi in autumn. Dates are published by Yokote city; if you can time a visit for it, do.

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