Old towns & villages in Japan

Places in Japan of this type, by prefecture.

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• Esashi Inishie Kaido Street Hokkaido
  An old port street of merchant houses, storehouses and temples from Esashi's days of cypress and herring trade with Kitamae ships.
• Motomachi (Hakodate) Hokkaido
  Sloping streets at the foot of Mt. Hakodate lined with churches, consulate-era buildings and the blue-and-yellow Old Public Hall, with views down to the harbour.
• Otaru Canal Hokkaido
  A 1920s canal lined with stone warehouses. Gas lamps light up along the water at dusk.
• Hirosaki Nakacho Samurai District Aomori
  A former samurai quarter north of Hirosaki Castle with hedges and gates on the old street plan. Four samurai houses are open free of charge.
• Nakamachi Komise Street (Kuroishi) Aomori
  An old merchant street with wooden arcades called komise, built to shelter shoppers from snow and sun. Sake breweries still line it.
• Honedera Village Manor Site Iwate
  A farming valley west of Hiraizumi that was once a manor held by Chusonji. Its rice fields and hamlets are protected as an Important Cultural Landscape.
• Kanegasaki Jonai Suwakoji Samurai District Iwate
  A samurai quarter of the Sendai domain’s northern border fort. Hedged lanes and samurai houses keep their Edo-period layout, and a few houses are open to visitors.
• Tono Furusato Village Iwate
  Old L-shaped Nanbu magariya farmhouses moved here recreate a Tono farming hamlet, where you can try rice-cake making, soba and folk-tale telling.
• Murata Storehouse Town Miyagi
  A merchant town that grew rich on safflower trade. Heavy clay-walled shops and gates still face the main street.
• Tome (Miyagi Meiji Village) Miyagi
  A town called 'Miyagi's Meiji Village' for its Meiji-era Western-style school, prefectural office and police station buildings.
• Kakunodate Samurai District Akita
  A street of black-fenced samurai houses under old weeping cherry trees.
• Masuda Town (Uchigura storehouses) Akita
  A merchant town where ornate storehouses (uchigura) hide inside the houses, behind plain shop fronts.
• Hojin no Ie (Former Ariji Family House) Yamagata
  A large thatched farmhouse from the early Edo period at the old border post of Sakaida, believed to be where Basho stayed on his Oku no Hosomichi journey.
• Matsugaoka Pioneer Settlement Yamagata
  Farmland cleared from 1872 by some 3,000 former Shonai samurai who traded swords for hoes; large Meiji silkworm barns still stand and now house a museum and shops.
• Sankyo Warehouses Yamagata
  Nine white-walled rice warehouses built in 1893 beside the river in Sakata, shaded by a row of 150-year-old zelkova trees that kept the rice cool.
• Kitakata Storehouse Town Fukushima
  A town of earthen storehouses built for sake, rice, silk and lacquerware in the Meiji and Taisho eras, with brick warehouses at Mitsuya and farm storehouses at Sugiyama.
• Maezawa Magariya Village Fukushima
  A thatched farming hamlet rebuilt all at once after a fire in 1907, with 13 L-shaped magariya houses where people and farm horses lived under one roof; still lived in today.
• Nanukamachi-dori Street Fukushima
  A street in central Aizu-Wakamatsu lined with storehouses, Western-style buildings and old merchant houses from the Meiji to early Showa eras. It is full of soba shops, cafes, lacquerware and candle shops and sake breweries.
• Ouchi-juku Fukushima
  An Edo-period post town with about 30 thatched-roof houses along one street. Try the soba eaten with a leek.
• Yunokami-Onsen Station Fukushima
  A rare thatched-roof station on the Aizu Railway, with an irori hearth inside and a free footbath next door. It is the gateway to Ouchi-juku.
• Makabe Old Town Ibaraki
  An old castle town at the north foot of Mt. Tsukuba, with storehouses, gates and early-modern shops along its lanes.
• Yuki Storehouse Town Ibaraki
  Home of Yuki-tsumugi silk, a UNESCO-listed craft. Old shop-front storehouses of silk wholesalers, a sake brewery and a miso maker line the streets.
• Mashiko Pottery Town (Jonaizaka Street) Tochigi
  The home of Mashiko ware. On the main street, Jonaizaka, about 30 pottery shops, galleries and cafes line a gentle 500 m slope.
• Tochigi City Kuranomachi (Storehouse Town) Tochigi
  A former merchant town that grew on river trade with Edo. Black-plastered shops and white storehouses line the main street and the Uzuma River.
• Akaiwa District (Kuni, Nakanojo) Gunma
  A mountain village of large silkworm-raising farmhouses from the late Edo and Meiji eras, with stone-walled fields, shrines and temples.
• Kiryu Shinmachi Historic District Gunma
  A weaving town laid out about 400 years ago, still lined with merchant houses, storehouses and saw-tooth-roofed textile mills.
• Gyoda Tabi Storehouse Town Saitama
  Gyoda once made about 80% of Japan's tabi socks, and over 70 storehouses built to keep them still stand along the back streets. Some now house cafés and shops.
• Kawagoe Warehouse District Saitama
  Old black clay warehouses and a wooden bell tower, an easy day trip from Tokyo.
• Sawara Old Town Chiba
  Old merchant houses along a willow-lined canal. Take a small boat for the best view.
• Kagurazaka Tokyo
  A former geisha district on a hill above Iidabashi, with stone-paved back lanes such as Kakurenbo Yokocho and Hyogo Yokocho lined with ryotei restaurants, plus many French restaurants.
• Shibamata (Taishakuten and approach) Tokyo
  The old temple town made famous by the "Tora-san" films. A street of traditional sweet and rice-cracker shops leads from the station to Taishakuten (Daikyoji), whose halls are covered in detailed Buddhist carvings.
• Misaki Port & Old Town Kanagawa
  A fishing port town at the tip of the Miura Peninsula. Its shopping streets, dotted with old storehouse-style buildings, keep a Showa-era feel and serve Misaki tuna and other local food.
• Yamate Bluff & Western-Style Houses (Yokohama) Kanagawa
  The hilltop former foreign settlement above Motomachi, with seven free-to-enter Western houses, the Foreign General Cemetery and harbour views.
• Izumozaki Tsumairi Townscape Niigata
  A former post town and port on the Hokkoku Kaido, where narrow, deep tsumairi houses with gable-end entrances line the coast for about 4 km. Ryokan’s family home, the Tachibanaya, stood here.
• Murakami Castle Town Niigata
  An old castle town in northern Niigata, with lived-in merchant townhouses open to visitors and a lane of black wooden fences restored by residents.
• Shukunegi Village (Sado) Niigata
  A shipbuilders' village on a small cove in southern Sado that grew rich from Kitamaebune trade, with over 100 tightly packed houses clad in boat timber.
• Etchu Yatsuo Old Town Toyama
  A hillside town of stone-paved streets, lattice houses and high stone walls; it hosts the Owara Kaze-no-Bon dance festival each September 1–3.
• Gokayama Ainokura Village Toyama
  A quiet mountain village of steep thatched 'praying hands' houses, smaller and calmer than Shirakawa-go.
• Gokayama Suganuma Village Toyama
  A tiny World Heritage hamlet of nine thatched gassho-zukuri houses in a river bend, with a folk museum on rural life.
• Ikuji Spring-Water Town (Kurobe) Toyama
  A fishing town at the edge of the Kurobe River fan where spring water wells up at many shared wash places still used by residents.
• Inami Woodcarving Town & Zuisenji Toyama
  A stone-paved approach lined with woodcarvers' workshops leads to Zuisenji, a large temple decorated with Inami carving.
• Iwase Old Port Town Toyama
  A former Kitamae-bune port with merchant houses and storehouses along the old street, reached by tram or canal boat from central Toyama.
• Johana (Zentokuji & Hikiyama Hall) Toyama
  A temple town that grew around Zentokuji, a Jodo Shinshu temple founded about 530 years ago. The Hikiyama Hall displays the lacquered floats of the Johana Hikiyama Festival year-round.
• Kanayamachi Lattice-front Townscape (Takaoka) Toyama
  Birthplace of Takaoka metal casting, where seven casters were invited in 1609. Houses with fine sengoshi lattices line a 500 m stone-paved street — in 2012 the first casting town chosen as a preservation district.
• Uchikawa Canal (Shinminato) Toyama
  A 3.5 km canal through the Shinminato fishing quarter, lined with moored boats and crossed by more than ten distinctive bridges.
• Yamachosuji Merchant Street (Takaoka) Toyama
  Fireproof earthen-walled merchant houses rebuilt after the 1900 fire line this street, along with a brick bank and the Mikurumayama float hall.
• Yoshihisa Townscape Toyama
  A rice-trading town that grew around the Kaga domain's largest rice storehouse in Etchu. Houses with fine samanoko latticework and white plaster walls, dating from the late Edo to early Showa periods, line the old road.
• Higashi Chaya District Ishikawa
  Wooden teahouses with fine lattices, where geisha still perform. Try gold-leaf ice cream.
• Kaga Hashitate Ishikawa
  A village of Kitamae-bune shipowners' houses behind walls and stone steps of pale green stone, near the coast.
• Kaga Higashitani Hamlets Ishikawa
  Four former charcoal-making hamlets in the hills above Yamanaka, with red-tiled farmhouses topped by smoke vents among fields and forest.
• Kazuemachi Chaya District Ishikawa
  A small teahouse quarter on the Asano River with narrow lanes and wooden lattices. Quieter than Higashi Chaya, just across the river.
• Nagamachi Samurai District Ishikawa
  Lanes of ochre earthen walls and stone paving where middle-ranking Kanazawa samurai lived; in winter the walls are wrapped in straw mats.
• Nishi Chaya District Ishikawa
  The smallest of Kanazawa's three geisha quarters: one short street of latticed two-storey teahouses and old restaurants, quieter than Higashi.
• Shiramine Village Ishikawa
  A heavy-snow mountain village with storehouse-style homes of ochre walls and tall narrow windows, led by the old headman's Yamagishi house.
• Teramachi Temple District Ishikawa
  The largest of Kanazawa's three temple quarters, with about 70 temples and shrines along two old roads south of the Sai River.
• Kumagawa-juku Fukui
  A post town on the Saba Kaido, the old road that carried mackerel from Wakasa to Kyoto, with houses of many styles along the street.
• Mikuni-minato Old Town Fukui
  A port town that grew rich on Kitamae-bune coastal trade from the Edo to Meiji periods, with latticed machiya and merchant houses.
• Obama Nishigumi & Sanchomachi Fukui
  The old western quarter of Obama, where the former teahouse street Sanchomachi keeps red-ochre lattices and old ryotei restaurants.
• Akasawa-juku Yamanashi
  A mountain hamlet of inns that once served pilgrims walking between Mt. Minobu and Mt. Shichimen. Old wooden inns still line the slope.
• Saiko Iyashi no Sato Nenba Yamanashi
  About 20 thatched farmhouses rebuilt by Lake Saiko with Mt. Fuji behind, now housing craft workshops, a small museum and shops.
• Aoni Village (Hakuba) Nagano
  A mountain hamlet above Hakuba where old farmhouses with (iron-covered) thatched roofs line the slope above stone-walled rice terraces, facing the Northern Alps.
• Narai-juku Nagano
  A Nakasendo post town in the Kiso Valley, the highest of the eleven Kiso post towns, with a long street of preserved wooden inns and shops.
• Obuse Town and Hokusai Museum Nagano
  A small town known for chestnuts, Hokusai and flowers. The Hokusai Museum shows paintings and festival-float ceilings by the artist, who stayed here in old age.
• Shimoguri Village Nagano
  A mountain hamlet at 800–1,100 m called the 'Tyrol of Japan', where houses and fields cling to slopes of up to 38 degrees, facing the Southern Alps.
• Tsumago-juku Nagano
  An Edo-period post town on the Nakasendo, the first in Japan to be named a preservation district (1976). The street runs about 1 km.
• Unno-juku Nagano
  A post town on the old Hokkoku Kaido with about 100 Edo-era inns and later silkworm-raising houses along a stream-lined street.
• Gujo Hachiman Gifu
  A castle town of clear rivers and waterways, home of the Gujo Odori dance held on over 30 nights each summer.
• Hida-Furukawa (Seto River and White-Walled Storehouses) Gifu
  The heart of the old castle town of Hida-Furukawa, where white-walled storehouses line a small canal full of carp, near temples and sake breweries.
• Iwamura Castle Town Gifu
  An Edo-period castle-town street lined with old merchant houses, lattice fronts and a sake brewery, in the quiet hills of eastern Gifu.
• Kawaramachi District (Nagara River) Gifu
  An old river-port quarter by the Nagara River with lattice-fronted townhouses and storehouses, now home to cafes, sweet shops and Gifu fan makers.
• Magome-juku Gifu
  A stone-paved post town on the old Nakasendo road. Walk the forest trail to Tsumago (about 8 km).
• Mino Udatsu Townscape Gifu
  A merchant town whose roofs carry raised firewalls called udatsu, a sign of wealth, along streets laid out about 400 years ago.
• Shirakawa-go Gifu
  Japan's best-known village of steep thatched 'praying hands' farmhouses, in a snowy mountain valley.
• Takayama Old Town Gifu
  Dark wooden merchant houses, sake breweries and morning markets in a mountain town.
• Hanazawa no Sato Shizuoka
  A quiet hill hamlet of about 30 old houses with stone walls and wooden siding, along the ancient Yakitsube path.
• Perry Road (Shimoda) Shizuoka
  A short lane beside a small stream in Shimoda, lined with old namako-wall houses and willows. Commodore Perry's men walked here in 1854.
• Arimatsu Aichi
  A Tokaido town of shibori tie-dye merchants, rebuilt after a 1784 fire with thick plaster walls and tiled roofs. Inside Nagoya city.
• Asuke Old Town Aichi
  A merchant town on the old salt road to Shinano, rebuilt after a 1775 fire with plastered townhouses, storehouses and narrow lanes. Aichi's first preserved historic district, next to Korankei.
• Handa Canal Warehouse District Aichi
  Black-boarded brewery storehouses line the Handa Canal, which once carried sake and vinegar to Edo. The Mizkan Museum and Meiji-era merchant houses are nearby.
• Inuyama Castle Town Aichi
  The old town south of Inuyama Castle, spared from war, keeps its castle-era street plan, with merchant houses, festival-float museums and food stalls.
• Kamagaki no Komichi (Seto) Aichi
  A 400 m lane in the old pottery town of Seto, lined with walls built from stacked kiln tools, a sight found only in Seto.
• Shikemichi Old Merchant Street Aichi
  A merchant quarter by the Hori River near Nagoya Station, with earthen storehouses on stone walls built after a great fire in 1700 to stop flames.
• Tokoname Pottery Footpath Aichi
  A hilly walk through Tokoname's old pottery district, past brick chimneys, kilns and slopes paved with pipes and broken pots.
• Gojoban Yashiki Samurai Row Houses Mie
  Two long row houses built in the late Edo period for samurai guarding Matsusaka Castle. People still live here; one house is open to visitors.
• Oharai-machi & Okage Yokocho Mie
  An old pilgrim street of wooden shops right outside the Inner Shrine. Try akafuku rice cakes and Ise udon.
• Seki-juku Post Town Mie
  A 1.8 km stretch of the old Tokaido highway where about 200 Edo-to-Meiji era townhouses still line the street.
• Gokasho Kondo Merchant Village Shiga
  A farming village where Omi merchants built their main homes; several of the large houses and gardens are open inside.
• Hachiman-bori Canal (Omihachiman) Shiga
  The canal that served the castle town of Omihachiman and its merchants. White-walled storehouses and old houses line its stone banks.
• Sakamoto Temple Town Shiga
  The town at the foot of Mt. Hiei, lined with retired monks' residences behind dry-stone walls built by local masons.
• Samegai-juku and the Jizo River Shiga
  A Nakasendo post town where the clear, spring-fed Jizo River runs beside the old street. Baikamo water flowers bloom in it in summer.
• Sugaura Lakeside Village Shiga
  A secluded fishing village on a cove of north Lake Biwa, cut off by steep hills. Thatched gates still stand at its east and west entrances.
• Fushimi Sake District & Jikkokubune Boat Kyoto
  An old river port known for its spring water, where white-walled sake breweries line the canal. Small Jikkokubune boats carry visitors past them to the Misu lock.
• Ine Boathouses Kyoto
  About 230 boathouses line Ine Bay at the water's edge, with boats stored below and living rooms above.
• Miyama Kayabuki no Sato Kyoto
  A hamlet in the hills of Nantan where most houses still wear thick thatched roofs above rice fields and a river.
• Saga-Toriimoto Old Street Kyoto
  A sloping street of thatched and townhouse-style homes on the old pilgrim road to Mt. Atago, beyond the Arashiyama crowds.
• Hozenji Yokocho Osaka
  Two narrow stone-paved lanes in Minami lined with old restaurants and bars. The moss-covered Fudo statue, splashed with water by worshippers, stands at Hozenji Temple.
• Tondabayashi Jinaimachi Osaka
  A temple town laid out in the 1500s around Koshoji Betsuin, with a grid of streets lined by Edo-period merchant houses.
• Izushi Castle Town Hyogo
  A former castle town in northern Hyogo with the Shinkoro clock tower, merchant houses and the old Eirakukan theatre. Known for sara soba served on small plates.
• Kitano Ijinkan (Kobe) Hyogo
  Hillside streets of Meiji and Taisho-era Western houses built for foreign residents after Kobe's port opened, some open to visit.
• Murotsu Port Town Hyogo
  A port town with 1,300 years of history, one of five harbors laid out in the Nara period. Old merchant houses now serve as the Murotsu Folk Museum and Murotsu Kaieki-kan.
• Sakoshi Old Port Town Hyogo
  A port on Sakoshi Bay that prospered with the Kitamaebune trade. Old houses line the stone-paved main street down to the harbor, with the 1830s port office and its sea-view room.
• Sasayama Castle Town Hyogo
  A castle town in Tamba with samurai residences, the rebuilt Oshoin hall of Sasayama Castle and the Kawaramachi street of merchant houses.
• Tatsuno Castle Town Hyogo
  A small castle town known for light soy sauce brewing, with white-walled storehouses and old merchant houses along quiet streets.
• Gojo Shinmachi Street Nara
  A street founded as an Edo-period castle town, where houses from the early Edo period to the Taisho era stand side by side.
• Imaicho Nara
  A former temple town of the 16th century where blocks of Edo-period merchant houses still line the grid of streets.
• Naramachi Nara
  The old merchant quarter south of Sarusawa Pond, with narrow lanes of wooden townhouses, small museums, cafés and craft shops.
• Uda Matsuyama Nara
  An old castle town in Ouda whose wide merchant houses date from the Edo period onwards, with a castle gate still standing.
• Yamanobe-no-Michi Trail Nara
  Said to be Japan's oldest road, this path follows the eastern foothills of the Nara Basin from Isonokami Jingu to the Miwa area, past ancient tombs, shrines, orchards and farm stalls.
• Kuroe Lacquerware Town Wakayama
  A home of Kishu lacquerware for over 400 years. Craftsmen's houses stand at an angle to the street in a "saw-tooth" pattern, and some townhouses keep Kyoto-style lattice fronts.
• Yuasa Old Town Wakayama
  Said to be the birthplace of Japanese soy sauce, this town keeps streets of brewers' houses and earthen storehouses. It is Wakayama's only preservation district.
• Itaibara Village Tottori
  A mountain hamlet in a narrow valley that still looks as it did in the late 1950s, with the thatched Fujiwara House, old farmhouses, a water mill and a charcoal kiln hut.
• Kurayoshi White-Walled Storehouses Tottori
  White storehouses with red tile roofs line a small canal with stone bridges.
• Shikano Castle Town Tottori
  A castle town laid out by the Kamei clan in the Warring States period, with old merchant houses, canals built by the Kamei and little Jizo lanes. The castle-ruin park has about 500 cherry trees.
• Tokoroko Village Tottori
  A farming village at the foot of Mt. Daisen, centered on the 18th-century house of a former village headman family.
• Mihonoseki Aoishidatami Street Shimane
  The old shrine town of Miho Shrine, where a lane paved with bluish stones in the late Edo period still runs past old houses.
• Omori Ginzan Townscape Shimane
  The old administrative town of the Iwami Ginzan mine, where samurai and merchant houses and temples stand together along a quiet valley street.
• Shiomi Nawate (Matsue Samurai District) Shimane
  A 500 m lane along Matsue Castle's moat lined with samurai houses and old pines; a mid-ranking samurai residence over 280 years old is open inside.
• Tsuwano Tonomachi Street Shimane
  The heart of the castle town called Little Kyoto: white plaster walls, canals full of carp, a Catholic church and the old domain school.
• Ashimori Old Town Okayama
  A quiet former domain town of the Kinoshita clan, founded by the brother of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife Nene. Latticed merchant houses line the street, with a chief retainer's samurai house and the daimyo garden Omizuen.
• Fukiya Furusato Village Okayama
  A mountain town built on red ochre (bengara) wealth, with uniform red roof tiles and lattice fronts; called the birthplace of 'Japan Red'.
• Imbe (Bizen Pottery Town) Okayama
  The home of Bizen ware, one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, with kilns, workshops and galleries around the station and brick kiln chimneys.
• Katsuyama Historic Townscape Okayama
  A former castle and post town on the Izumo Road where more than 100 hand-dyed noren curtains hang along an 800 m street.
• Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter Okayama
  White-walled storehouses and willows along a canal. Ride a small boat through the old town.
• Shimotsui Old Port Town Okayama
  A port town that thrived in the Edo period as a stop for Kitamaebune trading ships and a crossing point for pilgrims to Konpira. Old merchant houses and herring storehouses remain.
• Tsuyama Joto Historic District Okayama
  Merchant houses along the old Izumo Road east of Tsuyama Castle, including a restored machiya and a museum of Western learning.
• Yakage Post Town Okayama
  An Edo-period post town on the old San'yo road where both the main inn for feudal lords and its back-up inn still stand.
• Joge White-Walled Townscape Hiroshima
  A post town on the old Iwami silver road that was ruled directly by the shogunate. Its main street keeps storehouses and merchant houses with white and namako walls and lattice windows.
• Mitarai Townscape (Osakishimojima) Hiroshima
  An island port that thrived in the Edo period as ships waited for wind and tide, with merchant houses, old teahouses and temples on narrow lanes.
• Onomichi & Senkoji Temple Hiroshima
  A hillside town of steep lanes, temples and cats. Take the ropeway up to Senkoji for sea views.
• Saijo Sake Brewery Street Hiroshima
  Seven sake breweries within walking distance of Saijo Station, with white-walled storehouses, brick chimneys and tasting rooms.
• Shiraichi Old Town Hiroshima
  A hillside town that grew up below Hakusan Castle in the Warring States period and later thrived on a cattle and horse market. Tiled merchant houses line its streets, including the former Kihara House, built in 1665.
• Takehara Townscape Preservation District Hiroshima
  Called the 'little Kyoto of Aki', a town that grew rich on salt-making in the Edo period, with large merchant houses along quiet streets.
• Tomonoura Hiroshima
  A port town where ships waited for the tides, keeping its Edo-period stone lantern, harbor steps and old merchant houses.
• Chofu Castle Town Yamaguchi
  The old castle town of the Chofu Mori lords, with earthen-walled lanes, samurai houses and Kozanji, where Takasugi Shinsaku raised his troops.
• Hagi Castle Town (Horiuchi) Yamaguchi
  The former samurai quarter of the Mori lords, with earthen walls, old gates and summer orange trees. Part of a World Heritage listing.
• Hamasaki Port Town (Hagi) Yamaguchi
  Hagi's old port district at the mouth of the Matsumoto River, with over 100 merchant houses from the Edo to early Showa periods.
• Sasanami-ichi Post Village Yamaguchi
  A rural post village halfway along the old Hagi Okan road, where houses with red Sekishu roof tiles line the route lords once took.
• Yanai White-Walled Streets Yamaguchi
  About 200 m of stone-paved street lined with white-walled Edo-period merchant houses, decorated with local goldfish lanterns.
• Nagoro Scarecrow Village Tokushima
  A tiny village where over 300 life-size scarecrows outnumber the people.
• Ochiai Village & Viewpoint Tokushima
  Old farmhouses on a steep mountainside. See the whole village from the viewpoint across the valley.
• Sadamitsu Two-tier Udatsu Townscape Tokushima
  Old merchant houses in Sadamitsu topped with rare two-tier "udatsu" firewalls, decorated with plaster relief art, carved gable boards and ornate ridge tiles.
• Teba Island Tokushima
  A tiny car-free island 15 min by boat from Mugi, where a fishing village of traditional wooden houses survives. About 70 people live here.
• Wakimachi Udatsu Townscape Tokushima
  A street of white-walled merchant houses built by indigo traders on the Yoshino River, many topped with decorative 'udatsu' firewalls that showed off their wealth.
• Hiketa Old Town & Sanshu Izutsu Yashiki Kagawa
  An old port town of soy sauce and sake merchants, with red-walled breweries along the main street. Izutsu Yashiki, a restored merchant house, offers wasanbon sugar-mould making.
• Kasashima District, Honjima Island Kagawa
  The old harbour town of the Shiwaku seafarers on Honjima. Bent lanes and T-junctions built against raiders are lined with white-walled, lattice-windowed houses from the late Edo to early Showa periods.
• Tomari Stone Wall Village Ehime
  A small fishing village on a steep slope where houses hide behind stone walls built up to the eaves against typhoons and winter winds. Narrow lanes wind between the walls.
• Uchiko Old Town Ehime
  A street of old wax-merchant houses. The 1916 Uchiko-za kabuki theater is closed for major repairs until around 2029.
• Unomachi Old Town (Uwa) Ehime
  A former post town with old merchant houses along one street. The 1882 Kaimei School, a Western-style schoolhouse, is an Important Cultural Property.
• Aki Doi Kachu Samurai District Kochi
  A former samurai quarter in Aki with lanes of stone walls and hedges, where the Nomura family samurai house is open to visitors.
• Kiragawa Old Town Kochi
  A Pacific coast town of merchant houses from the Edo to early Showa eras. White plaster walls with rows of rain-shedding tiles protect them from storms.
• Akizuki Castle Town Fukuoka
  A quiet former castle town called the 'little Kyoto of Chikuzen', with samurai houses and a cherry-lined avenue leading to the castle site.
• Mojiko Retro Fukuoka
  Red-brick and western-style buildings from the early 1900s on the Kanmon Strait. A 5-minute ferry crosses to Honshu.
• Yame Fukushima White-Walled Townscape Fukuoka
  Clay-walled merchant houses from the Edo period line the old streets of Yame, a town known for tea, lanterns and handmade paper.
• Yanagawa River Cruise Fukuoka
  A boatman poles you along willow-lined canals past old walls. In winter, the boats have heated kotatsu tables.
• Arita Porcelain Town Saga
  Birthplace of Japanese porcelain. Walk past old kiln-brick walls and potteries; huge pottery fair in early May.
• Hizen Hamashuku Sake Brewery Street Saga
  A former post town on the Nagasaki Kaido with white-walled sake breweries along one street and thatched fishermen's houses near the Ariake Sea.
• Okawachiyama Pottery Village Saga
  A valley of about 30 kilns below craggy peaks, where the Nabeshima lords once had their finest porcelain made in secret.
• Shiotatsu Townscape Saga
  A former river port and post town on the Nagasaki Kaido, with large white-plastered merchant houses and stone river walls.
• Dutch Slope (Higashi-Yamate) Nagasaki
  A stone-paved slope in the former foreign settlement of Higashi-Yamate, lined with Western-style houses from the Meiji era.
• Hirado Temples and Church View Nagasaki
  Walk up a stone-paved slope and see the green spire of St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church rise above the tiled roofs of three temples, Hirado's signature view of East meeting West.
• Kojiro Koji Samurai District & Nabeshima Residence Nagasaki
  A quiet samurai quarter with clear water channels, hedges and stone walls. The Nabeshima family's residence and garden are open inside.
• Nakaoyama Pottery Village Nagasaki
  A hillside village in Hasami where many potteries are gathered. Remains of one of the world's largest climbing kilns, brick chimneys and old back lanes keep the feel of a pottery town.
• Shimabara Carp Streets and Samurai Houses Nagasaki
  In Shimabara, the "city of water", colourful carp swim in spring-fed channels through the Shinmachi district. West of the castle, the preserved Shimo-no-cho samurai lane has a water channel down the middle and three houses open free.
• Shitsu Village, Sotome Nagasaki
  A coastal village where Hidden Christians kept their faith in secret. Shitsu Church, built in 1882 by Father de Rotz, stands on the hill above.
• Misumi West Port Kumamoto
  One of the three great Meiji ports, opened in 1887 and designed by Dutch engineer Mulder with Japanese stonemasons. The 756 m stone quay, drains and Meiji buildings remain, and it became part of a World Heritage site in 2015.
• Sakitsu Village (Amakusa) Kumamoto
  A fishing village where Hidden Christians kept their faith alongside Buddhism and Shinto. A Gothic church stands among the houses by the harbour.
• Bungotakada Showa Town Oita
  A shopping street revived in the style of the 1950s–60s, where each shop shows an old treasure and sells a signature product. It won the 2017 Asian Townscape Award.
• Kitsuki Castle Town Oita
  A samurai town built on two ridges with the merchant street in the valley between, linked by stone-paved slopes such as Suya-no-saka.
• Mameda-machi, Hita Oita
  The old merchant quarter of Hita, a shogunate-ruled town, with Edo-period street layout, storehouses, sake breweries, shops and cafés.
• Niouza Historic Road Oita
  Lanes cut through a hill of volcanic tuff below Usuki Castle, lined with tall stone walls, tiled roofs, white walls and temples. The sunken lane in front of the former Shinkoji temple is the classic view of Usuki.
• Tashibunosho Osaki Rice Terraces Oita
  A farming valley where the layout of a medieval estate, about 1,200 years old, survives in its paddies, hamlets and small shrines.
• Mimitsu Historic Port Town Miyazaki
  A port town that traded with the Kyoto-Osaka region from the Edo to Meiji periods, with white-walled storehouses, stone paving and old shipping-agent houses.
• Obi Castle Town Miyazaki
  The castle town of the Ito clan for about 280 years, with stone walls, samurai houses and a moss-covered cedar grove on the old main enclosure.
• Shiiba Village & Tsurutomi Yashiki Miyazaki
  A remote mountain village tied to Heike refugee legends. Its 300-year-old farmhouse, Tsurutomi Yashiki, has a 25 m long single-row layout.
• Chiran Samurai Residence Gardens Kagoshima
  A samurai quarter with neatly clipped hedge-lined lanes. Seven of its gardens, which borrow the shape of nearby Mt. Hahagatake, are open to visitors.
• Iriki Fumoto Samurai Residences Kagoshima
  A samurai quarter at the foot of Kiyoshiki Castle, with round river-stone walls topped by tea and maki hedges and thatched gates. Quieter than Chiran.
• Izumi Fumoto Samurai Residences Kagoshima
  A samurai town laid out about 400 years ago on Satsuma's northern border, with a grid of lanes, river-stone walls, hedges and old gates. Some houses are open to visitors.
• Kamo Great Camphor Tree & Kamo Fumoto Kagoshima
  A camphor tree of about 1,500 years at Kamo Hachiman Shrine, rated Japan's largest tree in a 1988 national survey. Samurai-house lanes with stone walls lie nearby.
• Kareigawa Station Kagoshima
  A wooden station building opened in 1903, the oldest in Kagoshima Prefecture. The unstaffed station draws visitors, and a station bento is sold in the building on weekends and holidays.
• Bise Fukugi Tree Road Okinawa
  Lanes through the old village of Bise, lined with fukugi trees planted as windbreaks around the houses.
• Shuri Kinjo-cho Stone Path Okinawa
  A roughly 300 m stretch of Ryukyu limestone paving going down a slope, part of the Madama-michi, the main road built in the 16th century to link Shuri with Naha Port and southern Okinawa. Red-tiled houses line the path.
• Taketomi Island Village Okinawa
  A small island near Ishigaki where red-tiled houses, coral-stone walls and white sand lanes make up a village that is still lived in.
• Tonaki Island Village Okinawa
  A small island village of red-tiled houses set below street level, white sand lanes and old fukugi tree avenues, with no convenience stores.

Sea, coast & islands · Mountains, lakes & falls · Gardens, parks & flowers · City sightseeing · Hot-spring towns · Shrines & temples · Castles & historic sites · Museums, zoos & aquariums