Tsumago-juku

Tsumago-juku is one of the best-preserved post towns of Edo-period Japan: a single street of dark timber inns and shops with latticed fronts and deep eaves, threaded along the old Nakasendō highway in the Kiso Valley. Walking it, one sees almost nothing of the twentieth century, because the town decided, earlier than anywhere else in Japan, that its old buildings were worth more than new ones.

Tsumago lies in Nagiso, at the southern end of the Kiso District of Nagano Prefecture. It was the forty-second of the sixty-nine stations on the Nakasendō, the inland road linking Edo (Tokyo) with Kyoto, and before that a stop on the Kisoji trade route through the valley. Travellers, officials and feudal lords on their processions stayed here, and the town prospered on their custom. When railways and modern roads bypassed it, Tsumago declined. In 1968 residents began a restoration effort, and by 1971 about twenty houses had been restored; the same year the community adopted a charter pledging that no property would be sold, rented out or destroyed. In 1976 Tsumago became one of the first districts designated by the state for the preservation of groups of traditional buildings.

Among its buildings are the honjin, the inn reserved for high-ranking travellers, reconstructed in 1995, and the waki-honjin, the secondary inn, which is original and was named an Important Cultural Property in 2001. Kōtoku-ji temple, founded in 1500, has floors built to squeak like a nightingale and an old weeping cherry, and the ruins of Tsumago Castle stand on a hill above the town. A preserved section of the Nakasendō continues through forest and over the Magome Pass to Magome-juku, the neighbouring post town, a walk of roughly 8 to 9 km.

Getting there

Tsumago-juku lies about 13 km from Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture. The nearest airport is Shinshu-Matsumoto Airport (MMJ), about 72 km away. The closest railway station is Nagiso on the JR Chūō Main Line, a short bus ride from the town, and buses also link Tsumago with Magome.