Gojo Shinmachi

Shinmachi-dori runs for about 750 m along the north bank of the Yoshino River in Gojo, and on a weekday it is very quiet. That is the appeal. The houses are plastered white, with lattice fronts and the narrow slatted mushiko windows of the Edo period, and here and there a tall wall or a small alley breaks the line. This was the old Kishu Kaido, the road to Wakayama that the Kishu lords used on their journeys to Edo, and Gojo did well as a merchant and post town on it.

The plan of the street goes back to 1608, when the lord Matsukura Shigemasa laid out a new castle town, the shinmachi or new town, next to the older village of Gojo. Matsukura was moved on in 1616 and the area came under the shogunate, but the merchants stayed. In December 2010 the district, about 7 ha with 143 buildings counted as traditional, became a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings.

The house most people come for is the Kuriyama residence, an Important Cultural Property. A ridge tag found during repairs dates it to 1607, and it is said to be the oldest house in Japan whose building year is known. It is still a family home, so you look at it from the street. Two buildings on the street are open, both free. The Machinami Densho-kan is a house from the Meiji or Taisho era with displays on the town's history (9:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:00, closed Wednesdays and from 25 December to 5 January). The Machiya-kan is a late-Edo townhouse restored with its well and kitchen hearth, and has material on Kimura Tokutaro, the lawyer and politician born in Gojo (closed Mondays and Thursdays).

Be realistic about it. This is a lived-in street, not a museum quarter, with few shops or cafes and almost no English, and an hour is enough for most people. I would stop here on the way south to Yoshino or before the long Yagi-Shingu bus to Totsukawa, which passes through Gojo, rather than make a day of it.