高屋宿(Takaya inn town): border to Hiroshima prefecture

Takaya inn town is the last inn town on San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido in Okayama prefecture. 

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if the inn town begins at the Toro light by Takaya river(the image after this overview map) or not. 

Without detailed references, it’s hard to know where the inn town begins, but from geographic features such as the river, and how many old houses are surviving, plus road signs related to San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway, this is most likely the east end of the inn town. This is my homework when I visit Takaya inn town. 

According to several websites, the space next to this old house on the right is former Takaya honjin inn ruins.  

This is the monument of Chugoku Region Lullaby, a traditional local lullaby. Chugoku(中国) is the name of the region that encompasses today’s Okayama, Hiroshima, Tottori, Shimane and Yamaguchi prefecture, not to be confused with China. 

In 1928, Taishi Ueno, a singer from Ibara, introduced this lullaby to Kosaku Yamada, a composer. Thus this song became famous. 

Btw Taishi Ueno’s mother was a part of a Christian church choir. 

This sign says “18 cho(=2km) from here to get to Kosan temple. 

Btw from here, Ibara railways Konoriutanisato-Takaya station is close. 

Although Takaya is not as attractive as Yakage or Inbe, certainly the street preserves mixture of late 1800s through mid 1900s scene of old Japan. 

I find the house on the left nostalgic. 

Late Edo/early Meiji style houses continue. 

The tower on the right side of the street is a typical mid-1900s fire watch tower. And there is a map of this community at the bottom of the tower. 

Contrary to inn towns of major tourist sites like Tsumago, there are much fewer businesses such as souvenir shops here in Takaya. 

These houses look modern, but most likely due to reforms? 

Side note: San’yodo before Edo period(1603-1868), the route was considered as one of the most prestigious highways. Consider that before where today’s Tokyo became the political and financial center of Japan, Kyoto was the center of Japan.(Kamakura shogunate was another one that located Japan’s capital to eastern Japan)

Still some more old houses. 

There are two temples directly along the street of Takaya inn town part. One of them is Kosekiji temple. You can only see the gate on the right side of the street view. I am sure that the temple is historical, but I could not find any detailed online data about this temple. 

This Joyato nightlight is possibly the end of the inn town, as the scene after this nightlight changes significantly. 

Joyato nightlights were set up at both gates of inn towns in general. 

When I googled 常夜灯　日本最古(Joyato the oldest in Japan), the one in Noheji, Aomori, was built in 1827. According to one of comments on Google map, this nightlight was built in 1822. So I got confused. 

It looks that the one in Aomori is probably equivalent to today’s lighthouse, while the one on this street view is just a “nightlight”. So it’s most likely the difference of definition although both might say Joyato. 

The next stop is Kannabe inn town. We are entering Hiroshima prefecture. 

References: 

Chugoku Region Lullaby. Wikipedia.com. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABgoku_Region_Lullaby (In English. Accessed in 7/14/2025)

https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%9C%B0%E6%96%B9%E3%81%AE%E5%AD%90%E5%AE%88%E5%94%84 (In Japanese. Accessed in 7/14/2025)