North Miyazaki · HyugaNo.523★Open in map →
Mimitsu Historic Port Town
— An Edo shipping port kept as a preservation district
A preserved port town at the mouth of the Mimi River in northern Miyazaki, where shipping agents once sent timber and goods up to Osaka and Kyoto. White plaster walls, stone-paved lanes and narrow fire-break alleys still set out the old grid.
- FromHyugashi Station
- ~45 minJR local, then a 25 min walk
- Get off atMimitsu Station (JR Nippo Line)
- From there
- Mimitsu Historic Port Town
The sweet spot
Mimitsu is a small district sitting between two larger destinations, and its station is unstaffed and a good walk out of town. Limited expresses run straight past. The quiet comes from the size of the place and its position off the fast line, not from obscurity: the streets are signposted, restored and open to walk.
Where it is
18 more notes in Miyazaki · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Tateiwa Shrinea waterfront shrine to the departing emperor and the deities of safe voyage
- Birthplace of the Japanese Navy monumenta stone marker and anchor set beside the shrine in the war years
- Hyuga City Museum of History and Folkloredocuments and everyday tools from the trading years, on the middle street
- The tsukinuke lanesnarrow cut-throughs between the main streets, kept clear as fire breaks
- Mimitsu Port quaythe working waterfront the whole town was laid out to serve
How to actually get there
- Hyugashi Station to Mimitsu Station (JR Nippo Line southbound local; limited expresses do not stop).
- Mimitsu Station to the preservation district (walk north about 25 min, or take a taxi from Hyugashi in about 20 min instead).
- Start at the quay with the shrine and the navy monument, then work back through the parallel streets.
- Finish at the history museum on the middle street before it closes for the day.
- JR Nippo Line, south from Hyugashi
- Hyugashi Station to Mimitsu Station on a southbound JR Nippo Line local, then about 25 minutes on foot north into the old streets. Limited expresses do not stop at Mimitsu, so take a local. If the timings do not suit, a taxi from Hyugashi Station reaches the district in about 20 minutes.
- Return from Mimitsu Station
- Walk back south-west to Mimitsu Station and take a northbound local to Hyugashi, where the limited expresses call. The station is unstaffed with no ticket window and services thin out, so photograph the departure board when you arrive rather than trusting to luck later.
About the place
Mimitsu stands on the bank of the Mimi River where it opens to the Pacific, roughly halfway up the Miyazaki coast. Under the Edo shogunate it served the Takanabe domain as its port for trade with Kamigata, the Osaka and Kyoto region, and the shipping agents who ran that trade built the town you walk today. Their houses face parallel streets running back from the water, joined by narrow cut-throughs the townspeople called tsukinuke and kept clear as fire breaks. Gabled fronts and eaves-side fronts stand next to one another in the same row, so the street line keeps shifting as you go. The quarter is protected as a national preservation district in the port-town category.
How to enjoy it
Walk in from the quay rather than the highway, so the shrine comes first and the streets step back from the water in the order they were built. Build the visit around the museum, which keeps daytime hours and shuts on Mondays, and leave the lanes for afterwards since they are open whenever you are. If you can match the old-calendar first day of the eighth month, the Okiyo festival re-enacts the departure and the town sells its ofunade dango.
Background & history
Mimitsu's older claim is mythological. The Hyuga legends have Kamuyamato-Iwarehiko, later counted as the first emperor Jimmu, setting out east by sea from this beach. Tateiwa Shrine on the waterfront enshrines him alongside the Sumiyoshi deities of safe voyage and keeps a rock said to have been his seat. The hurried departure is why the quarter is called the village of standing stitches, from a story in which the women sewed clothes on their feet to get the fleet away. Japan selected the townscape as a preservation district in 1986.
Before you go
- Cash
- The streets, the lanes and the shrine cost nothing to walk. The history museum on the middle street charges admission, keeps daytime hours and closes on Mondays. Mimitsu Station is unstaffed, so follow the boarding instructions posted at the platform.
- Before you go
- This is an exposed river mouth on the Pacific side, and typhoons in late summer and early autumn can shut the coast down. Most of the buildings are private homes, so keep to the street. The lanes are stone-paved, narrow and awkward for wheeled luggage.
- Another way
- Coming down the line from the north, Mimitsu is the stop after Minami-Hyuga. Drivers leave the Higashi-Kyushu Expressway at the Hyuga interchange, about 13 minutes away, and park free on the port quay.
- After you get off
- From Mimitsu Station, head north on the road toward the port. The old streets begin near the quay, about 25 minutes on foot.