Kura no Machi

The black walls and warehouse buildings stand side by side for more than 100 meters, and a sightseeing boat cruises leisurely along the Tomoehagawa River in front of the buildings, symbolizing “Koedo Tochigi” and “Kura-machi.

Tochigi City has prospered since the Edo period as a post town on the Nikko Neihinsha Kaido highway, and the Tomoehagawa River was known as the commercial capital of the northern Kanto region for its boat transportation to and from Edo during the Edo and Meiji periods, and the water transportation made Tochigi prosperous.

Even today, imposing black-lacquered storehouses, white-walled storehouses, and merchant houses still remain along the banks of the Tomoehagawa River that runs through the city and along the Kura-no-Machi Main Street in the city center, reminding us of the prosperity that once existed.

There is a 4-km long Kura-no-Machi promenade from Tochigi Station to Shin-Tochigi Station, along which visitors can stroll while viewing the storehouses and the Tomoeha River.

Kura-no-Machi is the name given to the historical landscape that stretches across the Tochigi area (formerly Tochigi-cho, Tsuga-gun, Shimono-kuni and surrounding areas) of Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture.

This area is called “Kura-no-Machi” because many buildings from the late Edo period to the modern era, especially those in the dozo style, remain. This area is also called “Little Edo” along with Kawagoe and Sawara.

Tochigi City Kura-no-Machi once developed as a base for boat transportation, utilizing the Tomoehagawa River. In the Edo period (1603-1867), the Nikko-Nikko Seiheishika Kaido (Nikko Imperial Road) passed through the area, and Tochigi-juku, the 13th stop along the road, flourished.

Merchant houses lined the streets, forming the foundation of the landscape. The area also prospered as an economic center, with the number of warehouses increasing after the Great Fire, and the Tochigi Prefectural Government temporarily being located there during the Meiji period.

Most of the buildings that remain today were constructed from the end of the Edo period to the middle of the Meiji period. During the war, the area was spared from air raids, so Western-style buildings from the Taisho and early Showa periods also remain.

However, with the progress of modernization, the townscape faced the danger of disappearing. However, since the end of the Showa period, the area has been designated as a project by Tochigi Prefecture and has been undergoing landscaping and maintenance, and is being utilized as a tourist resource while being protected as a cultural asset.

The Tomoehagawa River also faced water quality and quantity problems during the Showa period, but through the release of carp and maintenance projects, improvements were made and the river has become part of the beautiful scenery.

The 48-hectare area including this warehouse district was selected as one of the 100 best cityscapes in 1995 as “Tochigi City Historical Townscape Formation District. In addition, the Kaemon-cho district to the north was designated as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 2012.

Characteristics of Storehouse Town

Kura-machi, located in Tochigi Prefecture, has developed by benefiting from boat transportation along the Tomoehagawa River and land transportation along the Nikko Seiyoji Kaido. In the past, shipping wholesalers lined the riverside, but today only the Tsukada and Yokoyama families remain along the riverside, and the distribution of warehouses is mainly concentrated along the main street (Seiyoji Kaido).

After the Kyoho period (1716-1736) of the Edo period (1603-1868), the construction of storehouses and lacquered houses was encouraged as a fire prevention measure, and warehouse buildings appeared in Edo and other cities in the Kanto region. Traces of such buildings can still be seen in Kawagoe, Sawara, and Yuki.

The warehouses in Tochigi are part of this trend, and while they retain many of the characteristics of warehouses in the Kanto region at the end of the Edo period, they are unique in that they have fewer kannon-opening windows on the second floor than the warehouses in Yukino.

The roof is covered with pier-tile roofing, and clay tiles from nearby Hakomori are used. Black plaster is the preferred color for the mise-en-warehouses facing the street, not only to give them a stately appearance, but also to add soot and oil to make them more water-repellent.

However, the bulk of the storehouse is the storage room behind the mise-en-scene storehouse, and white plaster is used here. Most of the buildings date from the end of the Edo period to the mid-Meiji period, and are modest in scale and construction compared to the grand storehouses in Kawagoe.

In general, the number of stone storehouses tends to increase as one approaches Otani-machi in Utsunomiya City, but in Tochigi, with the exception of the Yokoyama family’s stone storehouse, earthen storehouses are the main type.

There are also several wooden Western-style buildings built between the Taisho and early Showa periods still in existence, including the former Tochigi Town Hall Building (Tochigi Municipal Literature Museum), Tochigi Hospital (Kyorinkai Tochigi Central Clinic), and the former Tochigi Station Building (relocated as the entrance to the Magokoro Super Car Museum).

The reason why historical buildings remain in this area is that the Tochigi Prefectural Office was once located here, but was relocated to Utsunomiya, thus avoiding excessive modernization of the city, and also because the area was spared from being destroyed by fire during the war.