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

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 Yamad...

七日市宿(Nanokaichi inn town) is in Ibara city of Okayama prefecture. Information wise, unless you get books about this inn town or San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway route, there is not much you can find online. Bloggers have written about this town, but I could not find anything concrete as far as my online research went.  Here is the overview.  Right before entering Nanokaichi inn town, there is a monument of Hiyoshi bridge. This stone monument is commemorating the first bridge of Hiyoshibashi in 1857. There was no bridge prior to this. The current monument be was built in 1926.  On the lower side of the satellite image, you will notice that the old San’yodo route starts with nowhere. This is because there was a boat pier for cross-river boat rides in Edo period.  The original San’yodo merges with modern-day Saigoku Kaido/San’yodo route here.  The blue route is 東城往来(Tojo orai highway). The actual route is very complex, so I am not digging into it in this page.  ...

We are continuing on tracking down Saigoku Kaido/pre-modern San’yodo route and the medieval San’yodo route.  The route basically follows national R-486, and along with Oda river(the big river on the bottom of pictures).  The trail goes a bit off from R-486, and the medieval route eventually splits off for north.  The medieval route goes on rice and veggie fields.  Saigoku Kaido route goes straight westward.  I wonder why the medieval San’yodo takes a weird shape, not simply going straight westward. What were there?   Going along the bottom of mountains must be easier to find directions back in medieval time I guess.  Now both routes are merged. Then I found a section that have series of old houses.(around the center of the following Google map, starting off from the splitting point from R-486) Several bloggers have pointed out that this is 今市宿(Imaichi unofficial inn town), which supported Nanokaichi inn town.  Due to lack of info, I will just post...

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.