Old Routes of Japan: Tracking down Japan off the beaten path from the eyes of a Japanese native

Going from Yakage to Nanokaichi inn town, I noticed that Google map shows a clear route of medieval San’yodo, almost parallel to Saigoku Kaido/pre-modern San’yodo route. So I decided to track down a little bit.  Plus, I also found an unofficial inn town called 堀越(Horikoshi).  Without further ado, here are overviews of routes. The yellow one is Saigoku Kaido/pre-modern San’yodo highway. The blue one is medieval San’yodo. FYI I have not done good research about medieval San’yodo highway because medieval highway routes are not my original focus. However, since the medieval route is so visible in this section, I am adding a bit over the next few articles.  Starting from westerd edge of Yakage inn town… The medieval highway route goes more on the north side, along the shape of the bottom of mountains.  Saigoku Kaido route goes straight west.(more toward 8 o’clock direction)  The medieval route merges with Saigoku Kaido/pre-modern San’yodo route here.  For most p...

Some of pictures of Yakage from our trip in 3/2025.  The town map.    Yakage at Sunset.  Yakage at night.  Yakage in the early morning.  Ishii honjin.  Inside the honjin. 

Yakage inn town is the only inn town in Japan of which both surviving honjin and wakihonjin from Edo period are registered as nationally designated Important Cultural Properties.  Yakage inn town itself has been certified as an  Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings by the Agency of Cultural Affairs, Japan. Among all San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway inn towns, Yakage is certainly one of highlights.  Eastern edge of Yakage has a small free parking for tourists, on the right.  This part looks like you see anywhere else in Japan, but wait for the next street view.  Edo-time old houses stand in line. Yakage has many businesses like craft workshop, bakery, restaurants, souvenir shops, sweet shop etc.  Ichiruzuka distance marker used to be here. I am not sure if actual Yakage inn town begins right after Ichiruzuka or not. Or ichiruzuka just happened to be there.  These house house on the right is a newspaper delivery office....

Seriously, I thought of skipping Kawabe inn town. However, I felt compelled to touch the reality of an inn town by the water.  Kawabe inn town has virtually gone, not because of modernization or WWII. Shinmoto, Oda and Takahashi river merge here are n Kawabe, which caused flooding multiple times historically. The most recent one was 2018 Japan Floods.  Look at the overview map.  Ichiruzuka distant marker right before Kawabe inn town used to be here.  When it comes to old houses like the ones from Edo time or Meiji period, these are probably the only ones in this inn town now.  By the way, because of municipal mergers in 2000s, called the Great Heisei Mergers, this area, which used to be Mabi town, became a part of Kurashiki city. Yes, the same Kurashiki city which has famous Bikan historical district.  I couldn’t tell with which temple this graveyard is associated with. There is  Byodoji temple across the street with no online data.  Kawabe honjin...

After going over the strenuous Utsunoya pass, you will get to Okabe inn town soon.  Okabe is fairly a long inn town. Let’s check it out! For more details, check out the reference section.  So there is a mystery about Edo-side guard gate. Google map and a road sign on the picture show this location. On the strip map provided by AMZ Environmental Design Research Office, the sign for Edo-side guard gate is located right after crossing Okabe bridge. The. I found an old map and compared. See the link below. The old map is  https://stroly.com/viewer/1631168167  (古地図で見る駿州の旅【岡部宿編】Posted by Sunshu Travel Japan Heritage Promotion Council Secretariat. Stroly.com)  The old map is 東海道分間絵図(Tokaido Bunken Ezu). And this map agrees with the road sign and Google map. There used to be Masugata square here.  There is a small toro light.  This is where AMZ’s map pointed out as Edo-side guard gate. It does make sense to have a gate right by the river though. But right begi...