Streets of Hino

This old town area of central Hino once flourished during the Edo period as a castle town, and later as a merchant town. Here, one can see the vestiges of bygone times along the district streets of Okamotocho, Shimizu, Shinmachi, and Okubocho with their extended wooden fences bordering merchant magnate estates. The houses have magnificent whitewashed earthen warehouses and sajikimado windows, built just for watching the Hino Festival from the comfort of their homes. These line of houses are distinctive in that they are lined up in a zig-zag pattern similar to saw-teeth. This is typical of the castle town street designs of the civil war Sengoku period.