History of Kiso-Fukushima

After Tokugawa Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara was won in 1600, he created his military government in Edo (Tokyo). He constructed 5 main routes connecting Edo and other major regions in Japan. He made two routes between Edo and Kyoto, the Tokaido and Nakasendo.

The Tokaido trail on the Pacific Ocean side was shorter, but a part of the route was often closed. This happened because of flooding, and while the Nakasendo is longer, it is less likely to be closed due to weather circumstances. Kiso-Fukushima was the 37th post town out of 69. In 1623, a checkpoint was placed in the town to check the passers-by.

Sekisho, Former Checkpoint

This checkpoint is in the northern part of the town. Local officials checked mostly weapons and ladies. Wives and first sons of feudal lords had to live in Edo as hostages by the order of the Shogun. So if the wives tried to escape from Edo, it was regarded as a sign of attack.

Access: 20-minute walk from Kiso-Fukushima Station. They reconstructed the gate and turned the office into a museum.
Fee: 300 yen for adults / 150 yen for junior high school and elementary students
(There are discounted combination tickets if you visit one or two other facilities)
Hours: 8 am – 5.30 pm (shorter opening hours from November to March)

Yamamura Daikan Yashiki

The post towns used to be managed by the local people but because there was a checkpoint, Kiso-Fukushima was governed directly by the Shogunate. Magistrate Yamamura came from the Owari-Tokugawa family, which was one of the three branch relatives of the Tokugawa Shogun. You can still see part of their remaining office building from 1723 and its garden. They exhibit historical documents, calligraphy, everyday utensils, a replica of a dinner, and so on.

Access: 15-minute walk from Kiso-Fukushima Station
Fee: 300 yen for adults / 200 yen for junior high school and elementary students
(There are discounted combination tickets if you visit one or two other facilities)
Hours: 8.30 am – 4.30 pm (closed on Thursday from December to March)

Old Town

The downtown area is preserved exactly as it was in the Edo period. There are traditional wooden houses on both sides of the street. A Matsuri Museum introduces the local festival held in July every year, and they exhibit the portable shrine. You can visit it without paying an entrance fee.

Gakeya-Zukuri Hanging Houses

Along the Kiso River, there are about 30 houses whose riverside parts are hanging over the river. After the feudal time ended, as traffic got busier the road needed to be broadened. So the existing houses needed to be pushed back. To avoid having to shrink the houses, they expanded the houses toward the river. You can take a good picture of this interesting sight from the bridge.

Kozenji Temple

Kozenji is a Zen Buddhist temple of the Rinzai sect. It was founded in the mid 15th century by the Kiso Family. And it later became the family temple of Magistrate Yamamura. The most attractive point of this temple is its Zen garden. It is not an old garden, but a modern dry landscape garden designed by the famous garden architect Shigemori Mirei in 1963.

The title is ‘Kanuntei’, which means ‘garden to see the clouds’. With the mountains in the background, the garden looks like a sea of clouds. It is one of the largest dry landscape gardens in Japan. They have three more gardens, one of them is a pond garden designed by tea master Kanaori Sowa.

Access: 20-minute walk from Kiso-Fukushima Station
Fee: 500 yen for adults / 300 yen junior for high school and elementary students
(There are discounted combination tickets if you visit one or two other facilities)
Hours: 8.30 am – 4.30 pm

Accommodation in Kiso-Fukushima

If you want to walk on the Nakasendo Trail, it is convenient to stay in Kiso-Fukushima. There are many accommodations within walking distance from the train station. Most of them are Minshuku (Japanese-style family inns smaller than ryokan), and you need to take off your shoes at the entrance.

Access to Kiso-Fukushima

From Shinjuku (Tokyo), take the Chuo line to Shiojiri (express train), then change to the Chuo-Saisen line to Kiso-Fukushima. It takes about 3.5 hours.
From Nagoya, take the Chuo-Saisen line (express train) to Kiso-Fukushima directly. It takes about 1.5 hours.

Your Japan Tour

As seasoned Japan experts, we can help you create your perfect Japan tour including parts of the Nakasendo Trail. A guide can accompany you to the trail and walk together explaining the history if you wish. Check out our group tours and private tours, or contact us to start planning your unforgettable holiday to this fascinating country. Japan is full of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, culture, history, nature, and delicious food!

Kiso-Fukushima Area Map

History of Nakasendo

Nakasendo is an old trail constructed 400 years ago by the Tokugawa Shogunate as one of the major routes between Edo (Tokyo now) and Kyoto. When Tokugawa placed the shogunate in Edo, they started a new policy called Sankin-kotai, which meant that all the 250 daimyo (feudal lords) had to come to Edo every other year to show loyalty to the shogun. The real reason was to keep any of their vassals from becoming too wealthy and thus powerful. To operate this policy, the shogunate needed to construct roads from all over Japan to Edo.

The busiest road was between Edo and Kyoto where the Emperor lived. They made two routes to connect these two most important cities. One is called Tokaido which follows the coastline of the Pacific Ocean. The total length was about 490 km with 53 post towns in between. But there were big rivers without bridges on the road, so they sometimes had to wait for the river to go down for a week or more. The Nakasendo was longer than the Tokaido at about 530km in length, with 69 post towns. Though walkers needed to pass mountain roads, they were at least not bothered by any rivers.

Post Towns

Post towns were very important to the travelers, especially for the daimyo groups. Daimyo with large territories brought 4,000 people with them on the way to Edo. The most important role of the post town was to offer enough accommodations for all of them.

Each town had one Honjin, the accommodation for the most important person, who was of course the daimyo. The Waki-honjin was for the second-rank officers. Lower ranked vassals needed to share small accommodations with many people. Sometimes the big groups had to divide into small groups and used two or three post towns on the same night.

There was a post town after every 8km of road. Fast-walking groups walked more than 30km per day, passing 3 post towns per day. The slower walkers did only about 20km per day. Another important role of the post town was to offer horses to transport baggage, so they didn’t have to prepare many horses at the start of their trip. They could rent horses and transporters in each town.

Unfortunately, because of the modernization of the highways all over Japan, not many post towns have been preserved. Thankfully, however, you can see some of the most well-preserved ones in Nagano and Gifu because these towns are in the mountains. The land here is not so valuable, so project and city developers didn’t have much interest in these areas. Let’s learn a bit more about the most popular and mostly intact post towns.

Tsumago

Tsumago was the 42nd post town counting from Edo. It is the best-preserved post town in Japan. It was here that they started the townscape preservation movement of Japan. Tsumago has been designated as a preservation district containing important traditional structures.

This means that today you can still feel the authentic atmosphere of the old post roads from the Edo Period here. Electrical wires, TV antennas, and telephone poles were hidden from sight along the main road and as a result, Tsumago looks much like it did in the 18th century.

Magome

Magome is the next post town from Tsumago, so the distance between them is about 8 km. This town is a part of Gifu Prefecture. It is well-preserved, too. The difference is that Tsumago town is flat while Magome town spreads on a slope. So they have a very different atmosphere.

Magome has become very popular because of author Toson Shimazaki, who was born in Magome. He wrote the very popular novel ‘Yoakemae’, meaning ‘before dawn’. Shimazaki was born into the family who exploited the Honjin (main accommodation) right after the Meiji Restoration, so he experienced the changing of history. He vividly described these drastic changes in his book.

Narai

Narai is very easy to access. Only a 3-minute walk from JR Narai Station, you are already in the middle of the old post town. This town is very well-preserved, too. There are several inns where you can stay overnight. The town becomes very quiet and dark, so you will truly feel as if you have been transported back in time to the Edo period.

Hiking on Nakasendo Trail

You can walk a part of the Nakasendo trail in Nagano and Gifu Prefectures. The most popular walk is the trail between Tsumago and Magome. You can enjoy these two most well-preserved towns. The distance is about 8 km and the total elevation gain is about 400 meters. It takes about three hours in total. On the way, you will pass through the cedar forest, rice and vegetable fields, small villages, and waterfalls. You will get a feel for how the local people live. If you walk from Tsumago, just before arriving at Magome, there is a viewpoint to see beautiful Mt Ena (2,191m).

Your Japan Tour

As seasoned Japan experts, we create perfect Japan package tours including destinations like the Nakasendo Trail. Check out our group tours and private tours, or contact us to start planning your unforgettable holiday to this fascinating country. Japan is full of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, culture, history, nature, and delicious food!

Nakasendo Trail Area Map

Magome’s Townscape

Magome offers a side of Japan that many travelers never get to see, a mountain town where water wheels spin slowly in front of ryokans, and where the bells of Buddhist monks collecting alms from shopkeepers echo through the narrow streets as afternoon approaches. Although Magome and Tsumago are similar, it is said that while Tsumago has rugged authenticity, Magome is its beautified version.

Both Tsumago and Magome served as post stations located on the Nakasendo Route, which is one of the five routes that connected Edo and other larger and smaller towns in the Edo Period. The Nakasendo linked Edo and Kyoto through the inland area and had 69 post stations in total. Tsumago was the 42nd station while Magome was the 43rd, adjacent to the Kisoji Route that is surrounded by picturesque mountains and forests.

Between Tsumago and Magome is an ideal hiking course of a part of the Nakasendo route. The distance is about 8 kilometers, with a height difference of about 400 meters. You can enjoy walking in the cedar forest, waterfalls, rice and vegetable fields, and small villages. You can see the rural life of the local people by following the trail.

Shimazaki Toson

Shimazaki Toson is a name that is strongly connected with Magome, he was a highly regarded writer who was born in the area and described Magome in his book “Yoakemae” meaning before the dawn. The Honjin/Toson Memorial Museum is, therefore, a highlight you can’t skip while you are here. If you visit the graveyard nearby, you can find the Toson’s grave.

Other Attractions

If you want to learn more about the town’s history in general, you should visit the Wakihonjin museum.  For a scenic view of the town and its surrounding mountains, the Magome Observatory is a good spot. You can enjoy a nice view of the Kiso Mountain Range. The highest peak is Mount Ena which is 2,191 meters high. Near the observatory, there is an old Kosatsuba which is a bulletin board to indicate the orders from the shogunate.

If you are lucky enough to make it here, a visit to Magome is sure to be a highlight of your trip to Japan.

Magome Access Information

Access from Nagiso (南木曾) Station (JR): Take a local bus to Jinba  (陣場), it takes about 30 minutes.

Magome Area Map

Townscape Preservation Movement

After WW2, Japanese people started to realize that historic buildings and towns are very much worth preserving. Instead of the usual rebuilding of places into more modern structures that happens continuously throughout Japan, most notably in larger cities, buildings and sometimes whole village parts were starting to get preserved.

Tsumago Post Town was in fact the start of the townscape preservation movement of Japan. Tsumago has been designated as a preservation district containing important traditional structures, which means that today you can find the authentic atmosphere of the old post roads in the Edo Period here. Electrical wires, TV antennas, and telephone poles were hidden from sight along the main road and as a result, Tsumago looks much like it did in the 18th century.

Nakasendo Route

Both Tsumago and the also famous Magome served as post stations located on the Nakasendo Route, which is one of the five routes that connected Edo and other larger and smaller towns in the Edo Period. The Nakasendo linked Edo and Kyoto through the inland area and had 69 post stations in total. Tsumago was the 42nd station while Magome was the 43rd, adjacent to the Kisoji Route that is surrounded by picturesque mountains and forests.

Tourist attractions in Tsumago

Post towns were built to accommodate travelers, especially the daimyo or feudal lord groups. There used to be about 250 daimyo all over Japan and they had to come to Edo every other year to show loyalty to the shogun. When they travel to Edo, they brought many samurai, sometimes as many as 3,000.

Lower-rank samurai had to share the small rooms, but there were special accommodations for daimyo and high-rank samurai. They were called Honjin (main hotel) and Waki-honjin (sub hotel). Tsumago preserves the original Waki-honjin, so it is a very precious experience to see it.

You can also visit the post office which has an old façade and old post box, the Terashita townscape, Koi-iwa (carp rock), Shimosagaya (inn for low-rank samurais), Hayashi’s Residence. Kosatsuba is also interesting to see. It is a bulletin board that indicates the orders from the shogunate.

Tsumago still has permanent residents who live by the following rules: don’t sell, don’t lend, and don’t destroy. Because of this, the residents make sure that future generations can still enjoy the preserved Edo spirit.

Your Japan Tour

As seasoned Japan experts, we can help you create your perfect Japan tour including destinations like Tsumago. Contact us to start planning your unforgettable holiday to this fascinating country full of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, culture, history, nature, and delicious food!

Tsumago Access Information

Access from Nagiso (南木曾) Station (JR): Take a local bus to Tsumago (妻籠), it takes about 10 minutes. Then it is a 5-minute walk to the post town.

Tsumago Area Map