Uda Matsuyama

Most of Uda Matsuyama is one long street, and the first thing you notice is how wide the houses are. Kyoto townhouses are narrow and deep; here the frontages are broad, because the families who lived in them needed room to process plants. The town grew up below Uda Matsuyama Castle. When the castle was pulled down in 1615 after the Osaka campaigns, the town kept going as a market for the Uda area, trading Uda paper, Yoshino kuzu starch and, above all, medicines. In 2006 about 17 hectares were made an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, with about 600 metres of houses from the Edo period to the early Showa era: lattice fronts, small plastered upper windows and firewalls between neighbours.

The best stop is Morino Kyuyakuen. In 1729 Morino Tosuke, the 11th head of a kuzu-making family, went plant hunting with a shogunate herb official and was given rare herbs, which he planted on the slope behind his house. The Uda tourism association calls it the oldest private medicinal herb garden in Japan. It has been a national historic site since 1926 and grows about 250 species. Entry is 500 yen and it opens 9:00 to 16:30, with irregular closures. The garden is on a hillside, so there is some uphill walking. Come in late March or early April for the katakuri. The family's kuzu shop is on the same site.

Kusuri no Yakata is the old house of the Hosokawa family, medicine wholesalers from 1806 and the mother's family of the founder of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical. Look for the big Tenjumaru sign on the front. It costs 310 yen, cash only, and closes on Mondays and Tuesdays.

At the west end, the black-painted Kuromon gate dates from Fukushima Takaharu's time as castle lord, in the early 1600s. The castle ruins are a 15 to 20 minute climb on a narrow, steep path from behind Kasuga Shrine.

Honestly, this is a slow place, with a few old-house cafes and not much nightlife. Matabei-zakura, the weeping cherry in Hongo, is about 20 minutes' walk from the Ouda bus stop.