Nothing But Words

A Day in Kawagoe

Kawagoe is a modest size tourist town, located just 30 minutes north of Tokyo by train. We made a family day trip there on a rainy Sunday a few weeks ago, along with Maria’s friend Atsuko. We started with a walk along Chuo Dori, the main street. While it contained a typical mix of tourist shops and restaurants, what made it special were the many kurazukuri (fireproof storehouses), some of which date back to the 1700s. Most Japanese buildings prior to the 20th century were wooden, and they had a habit of burning down, so expensive kurazukuri were built by those who could afford them (they were also used for storing critical items such as rice). They looked like giant safes - the shutters, at least a foot thick, even looked like safe doors. The street was especially charming because even the newer buildings matched the Edo-period style of the kurazukuri. This is what earned Kawagoe it’s nickname “Little Edo.” Edo is the old name for Tokyo, but hardly any of Tokyo’s wooden buildings survived World War II. So visiting Chuo Dori in Kawagoe can give you a sense of what a Tokyo street might have looked like in pre-war Japan.

Another old fashioned part of town is the Kashiya yokocho - a small lane filled with small candy stores selling traditional Japanese sweets and snacks. Kai of course loved it, and three weeks later he’s still working through his bag of candy loot.

[mpiphoto=240,left,scale,300]Kawagoe also attracts tourists with its unreasonably large number of temples and shrines. We visited half a dozen of them, and while they lacked the splendor of the temples and shrines you’ll find in other “temple towns” like Nikko and Kamakura, a couple of them are of particular interest. One is Hikawa shrine. It traces its history all the way back to 514, and it has Japan’s largest wooden shrine gate (15 meters high). Fenced off from public access, but still visible behind the main shrine building, is a much older shrine, with intricate wooden carvings all over it (I’d provide more specific information about it, but I haven’t been able to find any). Also, it is the shrine for the god of marriage, and we were lucky enough to witness a traditional marriage ceremony while we were there.

The other interesting historical site was Kitain temple. Its grounds are home to not only the temple itself, but also the Toshogu shrine (as far as I know, it’s odd to find a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine sharing the same grounds), the only surviving structures of Edo castle (portions of it were moved to Kawagoe before the castle was destroyed), the graves of Kawagoe’s Daimyo (feudal lords) from the 18th and 19th centuries, some nicely landscaped gardens, and - my favorite - the statues representing the 500 Rakan (disciples) of Buddha. Unfortunately, the statues were not open to the public while we were there, so I had to settle for taking pictures of them over a wall.

If you find yourself in the Tokyo area for a week or more, and you’ve already gone to Yokohama and Kamakura, then I’d recommend Kawagoe as a good day trip if you want a break from Tokyo’s hyperactivity. There are a number of different ways to get there by train. We took the Tobu Tojo line to Kawagoe-shi station, and then walked a counter-clockwise loop around the city: north up Chuo Dori, east to Hikawa shrine, south to Kitain temple, and then back west to Kawagoe-shi station. This takes you past Hon-Kawagoe station, which has a lot more going on around it than the much quieter Kawagoe-shi station, so it’s a good place to stop for dinner. And if you want a really full day, Kawagoe also has some museums near Hikawa shrine (we skipped them since we had the kids with us, so I can’t offer an opinion on the museums).

[tags]Japan, Tokyo, Kawagoe, kurazukuri, Kashiya yokocho, Hikawa shrine, Kitain temple[/tags]