Mie · KameyamaNo.912★★Open in map →
Seki-juku
— A surviving Tokaido post town in Mie
On the old Tokaido between Nagoya and Kyoto, Seki-juku keeps a street of Edo- and Meiji-era townhouses that people still live in. You can walk it from one highway fork to the other in half a day.
- FromNagoya Station
- ~65 minJR local line, change at Kameyama
- Get off atSeki Station (JR Kansai Main Line)
- On foot
- Seki-juku
The sweet spot
Seki-juku is known to Japanese travellers of the old highways and appears in Mie's own tourism material, so it is not undiscovered. What keeps it quiet is geography: the Tokaido's modern successors, the Shinkansen and the expressway, both bypass the old road here. The people on the street are the people who came for the street.
Where it is
17 more notes in Mie · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Higashi-no-oiwakethe eastern entrance, where the Ise Betsu-kaido leaves the Tokaido
- Tamaya Historical Museuman Edo-period inn kept as a museum, with the gear and paperwork of highway travel
- Jizo-inthe temple at the middle of the post town, the halfway mark of the walk
- Nishi-no-oiwakethe western entrance, where the Yamato-kaido turns off toward Nara
How to actually get there
- Nagoya Station → Kameyama (JR Kansai Main Line).
- Kameyama → Seki (change to a Kamo-bound train; about 65 minutes from Nagoya in total).
- Seki Station → walk north to the old Tokaido street.
- Walk west from Higashi-no-oiwake past Jizo-in to Nishi-no-oiwake, then back the same way.
- Nagoya to Seki, changing at Kameyama
- Take the JR Kansai Main Line west from Nagoya Station to Kameyama, then change to a Kamo-bound train for Seki — about 65 minutes from Nagoya in total. Kameyama is the boundary station between JR Central and JR West, so allow a little time for the change.
- Back the same way from Seki Station
- Return Seki to Kameyama, then change for the Nagoya-bound line. The timetable is posted on the platform; pick your return train when you arrive, not after the walk.
About the place
The street runs east to west along the old Tokaido, from the eastern fork to the western fork. The preserved stretch is about 1.8 kilometres long. Roughly 200 townhouses built between the Edo and Meiji periods stand along it, most of them two storeys with the entrance on the long side. It is a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, but not a reconstruction: people live behind the lattices, and the shops trade behind the same frontages they always had. Walking to one end and back is the visit.
How to enjoy it
The length takes about thirty minutes one way at a browsing pace, and two hours if you stop at the museums. Check the return departure on the timetable at Seki Station before you start walking rather than after. The street runs east to west, so late-afternoon light comes straight along it and the run of tiled roofs reads at its clearest.
Background & history
Under the Tokugawa road system Seki was the forty-seventh of the Tokaido's post stations, counting out from Edo. It prospered because two other highways left the Tokaido here. At the eastern fork the Ise Betsu-kaido turned off toward the Ise Shrines; at the western fork the Yamato-kaido turned off toward Nara. Travellers had to stop and choose, and inns filled the town. In 1984 the state designated the townscape a preservation district, and repairs since then have followed the old frontages.
Before you go
- Cash
- Walking the street costs nothing. IC cards such as ICOCA work at Seki Station, but carry cash for the museums and the small shops along the old road.
- Before you go
- This is a lived-in neighbourhood, not an open-air museum. The rooms behind the lattices are private homes, so keep to the road and stay out of doorways and side lanes.
- Another way
- Coming from the Kansai side or from Ise, reach Kameyama on the Kansai Main Line or the Kisei Main Line and change there; Seki lies west of it on the same line.
- After you get off
- From Seki Station walk north; within a few minutes the old Tokaido crosses your path, running east to west. Turn right for the eastern fork, left for Jizo-in and the western end.