These streets represent the Yanai City during the Edo period. Yanai prospered as the storehouse for the Iwakuni domain. The town bustling with carts loaded with produce traversing its streets. Approximately 200 meters of streets are preserved with the white-walled lattice-windowed merchant stores and street shops. This area has been designated a National Important Preservation District of Historic Buildings, with many places to see including the merchant museum, Muroyanosono; the Important Cultural Property, Kunimori residence; and the former house of Kunikida Doppo. Prior to the summer Kingyo, gold fish, Festival, goldfish shaped lanterns are hung under the eaves and create a dream-like atmosphere.
This historic district in Asuke-cho, Toyota City was selected as Aichi Prefecture's first National Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. It once prospered as a post town on the Ina Kaido Highway. The machiya merchant houses stretching for about two-kilometers were rebuilt after a big fire in 1775 with a fire-resistant plaster finish called Nurigome-zukuri.
This Iwamatsu district of Tsushima Town, Uwajima City along the Iwamatsu river once prospered as a shipping center. There are old merchant houses, sake breweries, and ryokan inns built from the Meiji into the Taisho eras, and are maintained today to preserve the traditional atmosphere of that port town. It's known for being the setting of Shishi Bunroku's novel Ten'ya Wan'ya.
The Ozu District of Ozu City prospered as a castle town until the end of the Edo period. Beginning in the Meiji period, it had a booming sericulture and silk spinning industry. Having avoided the ravages of war, the district retains the centuries-old townscape from this time. Visitors can walk the streets and see the rows of merchant houses with namako walls.
This street is located in Ozu, Ozu City, which flourished as a castle town before developing a booming sericulture and silk-spinning industry in the Meiji period. It is lined with many well-preserved buildings from this period including merchant houses and samurai residences. Well-known for its charming townscape, the street occasionally serves as a filming location for movies and television dramas.
This neighborhood in the Kawanoishi District of Honai-cho, Yawatahama City retains many well preserved buildings from the Meiji to early Showa periods. One of these buildings is the red brick warehouse of Toyo Boseki, which was established in 1887 as the prefecture’s first spinning company. Others include the Shiraishi Wataro Yokan, an example of Giyofu (quasi-western) architecture, as well as the Ehime Sanshu building, a National Tangible Cultural Property. Visitors can feel the industrial history of the town.
The name of a village along the Nakasendo Road connecting Tsumago and Magome inns, located on the Magome side of Magome Pass at an elevation of 790 m. Until the Edo period, many people who lived in the village used oxen to transport goods, and the village was crowded with people called "Ushikata" (cattlemen). Even today, about 20 houses still stand side by side, and many people stop by on their way to hike over Magome Pass.
This important preservation district of historic buildings is located in Murata Town, Shibata County. Long ago the region prospered as a trading hub on the highway that connected Sendai and Yamagata. Even now, it retains rows of storehouses owned by the merchants of Murata, who engaged businesses such as the safflower trade. The Kura no Machi Murata Hotei Festival is held here every October.
Shake-machi is a townscape of about 30 houses along the Myojin River in Kamigamo Shrine, the only townscape in Japan designated as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings under the name "Shake-machi. The green of the garden, the mountain range in the distance, the Myojin River, and the town houses all combine to create a neighborhood that still retains its long tradition and style.
A street in Tamachikamicho, Kakunodate-machi, Semboku City. This is the area where the retainers of the Satake clan, governors of the Akita domain, lived and the townscape appearance with its black wooden fences of the past has been preserved. There are lots of sights to take in while strolling down the street including samurai residences such as the Nishinomiya Residence or the Shinchosha Memorial Literature Museum built to honor Sato Giryo, founder of Shinchosha Publishing Co.
Nakamachi, which today still has a unique scenery such as Sawara cypress hedges and fences, was the area where most samurai residences were located in the castle town of Hirosaki castle. It has a land area of about 10.6 hectares, and it has become important as a place that conveys the scenery of the samurai residences of the Edo period (1603-1868).
This town, located in the center of Nagano Prefecture, developed on the large curve of the Narai River's flood plain in the south-central part of what is now Shiojiri City crisscrossed by the river and the Nakasendo Road. People have lived in the region since ancient times, but it began being maintained as a part of the Nakasendo Road by the Tokugawa shogunate government in 1602. The many highly distinctive buildings in the area speak of its history as a center for lacquer work. The town's main street is occupied by many store buildings and is connected directly to the Kinsai-cho neighborhood where artisans gathered, resulting in a townscape deeply colored by a history as a location where the entire lacquer work process, from production to sale, was conducted.
Obuse's open gardens were started in 2000 with the aim of using flowers to promote community and to promote the image of Obuse as a town of flowers to area visitors. The open gardens are entirely voluntary, created on the initiative and good will of each garden's owner. Many of the gardens allow people to freely enter them; note that the gardens are situated on the land of private homes, so please take care be mindful of your manners and have fun interacting with others through flowers!
The Jinyakoji is a pleasant sightseeing spot with calm rows of houses, a historic alley where the Edo Shogunate's deputy magistrate's office was once located, and you can feel the vestiges of those days; the camp's markers and the old stone shrine of Jinyan Inari (Shrine of Inari) remain as they were during the Edo period. The "Japanese Light Museum" located at the end of Jinya Lane is also a must-see.
"This retro-style area is located facing Sakaimachi Street. It conveys the glory of Otaru's historic past to the present era and embodies the concept of ""Cityscape is industry. Cityscape is culture."" In the time of the early Showa, business leaders, conglomerates and the great merchants known as Japanese shipping kings established a gorgeous mansion atop the hill behind the plaza. So that, it is said that the road leading to the hill was named ""Success-slope"", and the bottom of the slope was named ""Pre-success"" with the meaning of being one step short of success.I The area surrounding the plaza is wrapped in a retro atmosphere, almost as if it had slipped into the past, and first-time visitors are said to experience the nostalgia. Some of the buildings that have deteriorated with the passing of time and household items have been collected and restored to display the lifestyles of the people of the time."
“Akiyamago,” spreading from Sakaemura, Shimominochi-gun, Nagano Prefecture to Tsunan in Nakauonuma-gun, Niigata Prefecture, is one of the top one hundred secluded areas in Japan, and is a mountainous region seeped in rich nature. You can enjoy beautiful scenery every season such as cherry blossoms in spring and the area covered in snow in winter, but especially the scenery of changing colors of the autumn leaves is superb.
Uda-Matsuyama originally developed as a castle town after the construction of Akiyama Castle by the Akiyama Clan during the warring states period. The area was selected as an Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 2006 for its well-preserved scenic townscape. Its rows of vintage townhouses have made Uda-Matsuyama a popular spot to walk and explore.
This expansive historic townscape on Tosa Street in Takatori Town is still home to original samurai residences and townhouses from when the town prospered as the castle town of Takatori Castle. Visitors can feel the atmosphere of these ancient times. In March each year, there is an event called Machiya no Hina-meguri in which hina dolls are displayed in the area's homes.
This historic district in which a majority of the townhouses have been carefully preserved still appears as it did during the Edo period. It was selected as an Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 1993. Taking a walk through the town will make you feel like you've stepped back through time to when the town was so prosperous that it was said that 70% of the money in Yamato is gathered in Imai.
This is an area in Aomori Prefecture hosting 33 temples of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism. The second lord of the Hirosaki Domain, Tsugaru Nobuhira, ordered temples to gather along the southwestern side of the Hirosaki Castle precincts in 1610. As these temples of the same school sprouted up like a forest along the tree lined road, it created a temple town unlike any other in Japan.
