South Chiba · KatsuuraNo.932★★Open in map →
Katsuura Morning Market
A street market in a Boso fishing port, trading for more than four centuries and still finished before lunchtime. Its quirk is the address — the venue swaps from one street to another halfway through each month.
- FromTokyo Station
- ~1 hr 40 minLimited express
- Get off atKatsuura Station (JR Sotobo Line)
- On foot
- Katsuura Morning Market
The sweet spot
Katsuura is close to two hours out of Tokyo and the market is finished before midday, which sits awkwardly inside a day trip. That is why it has stayed the town's market rather than a sightseeing stop, even though the three-great-markets label makes it well known inside Japan.
Where it is
50 more notes in Chiba · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Nakahonmachi Asaichi-dorithe street the market fills from the sixteenth to the end of the month
- Kakuo-jithe temple standing at the head of the Nakahonmachi market street
- Shimohonmachi Asaichi-dorithe street used from the first of the month to the fifteenth
- Tomisaki Shrinea lantern-lined stone stairway climbing straight off the lower market street
How to actually get there
- Tokyo Station → Katsuura Station (JR limited express Wakashio, about 1 hour 27 minutes).
- Katsuura Station → the market streets (walk about 10 minutes toward the port).
- Check the date before you set out: the 1st to the 15th is Shimohonmachi Asaichi-dori, the 16th onward is Nakahonmachi Asaichi-dori.
- Limited express Wakashio from Tokyo
- Tokyo Station →(JR limited express Wakashio, about 1 hour 27 minutes)→ Katsuura Station, then about 10 minutes on foot. The Keiyo Line platforms the Wakashio leaves from are five levels below the main concourse, so allow extra time inside Tokyo Station. Sotobo Line local trains also reach Katsuura.
- Return from Katsuura Station
- Walk back up to Katsuura Station and take the Wakashio toward Tokyo. Departures here are spaced far more widely than in the city, so check the board when you arrive in the morning and settle your return before the market packs up.
About the place
The market runs along the streets of central Katsuura, a fishing port on the Pacific side of the Boso peninsula. It has no permanent site. From the first of the month to the fifteenth it occupies Shimohonmachi Asaichi-dori, the street at the foot of Tomisaki Shrine; from the sixteenth to the end of the month it shifts to Nakahonmachi Asaichi-dori, by Kakuo-ji temple. The sellers are the growing and fishing households themselves, and the tables turn over with the season — bamboo shoots and wild greens in spring, chestnuts and sweet potatoes in autumn, daikon and cabbage in winter, with fresh and dried fish through the year.
How to enjoy it
The tourism association gives the trading hours as roughly 6:30 to 11:00, with sellers setting up from 6:00 and leaving as their stock goes. Come near the start for the widest choice of fish, or between 8:00 and 9:00 when the street has the most people in it. Either way the market decides the shape of the day, not the other way round.
Background & history
The market was opened in 1591 by Uemura Yasutada, then lord of Katsuura castle, as a place where the fishing and farming households of the district could trade with each other. The tourism association's own account says it ran daily in any weather, moving between the streets of the town on a set cycle; the two-street rule kept today is what remains of that rotation. Wajima in Ishikawa and Miyagawa in Takayama are its usual companions in the three-great-markets list.
Before you go
- Cash
- The market is held on public streets and there is nothing to pay to walk in. The stalls are small open stands run by individual sellers, so carry cash. Two municipal car parks sit within a short walk of the market streets.
- Before you go
- Closed every Wednesday and on 1 January. Rain does not stop it, though fewer sellers turn out; typhoon-strength weather does. Everything is outdoors, and trading finishes in the late morning whether or not stock remains.
- Another way
- A highway bus, the Tokyo-Katsuura line, leaves Bus Terminal Tokyo Yaesu and reaches Katsuura Station in about two hours. By car it is roughly 40 minutes from the Ichihara-Tsurumai interchange.
- After you get off
- From Katsuura Station, walk about 10 minutes toward the sea. The old centre of town between Kakuo-ji and Tomisaki Shrine is where both market streets lie.