East Kochi · MurotoNo.875★★Open in map →

Kiragawa Townscape

— A charcoal port's white walls in eastern Kochi

historyOff the trail — and worth it

A charcoal-shipping town on the Pacific coast of eastern Kochi, kept as a national preservation district. Two halves sit side by side: white-plastered merchant houses near the water, and inland lots walled in beach stone against the storms.

FromKochi Station
~2 hrBus from Nahari Station
Get off atKiragawa Gakkodori bus stop (Kochi Tobu bus)
On foot
Kiragawa Townscape

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Kiragawa is a designated district and it is signposted, so it is not undiscovered. It is simply a long way down a long coast. Most of the traffic on the road to Muroto Cape goes straight past, and the trains stop at Nahari, a bus ride short of here. The people who do get off have usually come on purpose, which is why the streets stay quiet on an ordinary weekday.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Kiragawa Machinami-kanan old house opened as the information point, standing in front of Onda Hachimangu
Onda Hachimanguthe town's tutelary shrine, its approach looking down toward the sea
Miya-no-uchi ishiguroa stretch of the stone walling that rings the inland houses
Matsumoto Housea merchant house on the corner of the old highway, marked by its front storehouse
The old Kiragawa post officea pseudo-Western front on the highway, its ridge tile stamped with the postal mark

How to actually get there

Kochi Station to Nahari Station on the JR Dosan Line and the Tosa Kuroshio Railway Gomen-Nahari Line.
Nahari Station to Kiragawa Gakkodori by Kochi Tobu bus toward Muroto. Check the return time at the stop.
Walk in from the highway and start at the information house in front of Onda Hachimangu.
Take the inland lanes for the stone walls, then drop toward the sea for the plastered machiya.

Kochi to Nahari by rail, then the coast bus: From Kochi Station the Dosan Line runs east to Gomen and the Tosa Kuroshio Railway's Gomen-Nahari Line carries on to Nahari, with rapid services running right through from Kochi. At Nahari the Kochi Tobu bus continues down the coast toward Muroto, and Kiragawa Gakkodori is a stop along the way.
Back to Nahari, or on to Muroto Cape: The same bus route runs both directions, so Kiragawa works either as a turn-back from Nahari or as a break on the way to the cape. Services on this stretch are not frequent. Read the return times off the pole before you walk into the town.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The preservation district covers 18.3 hectares and reads as two neighbourhoods rather than one street. Along the old Tosa highway near the sea, machiya stand gable-end to the road on long narrow plots, their fronts finished in Tosa lime plaster and stepped with mizukiri-gawara, small tiled eaves set into the wall to throw rainwater clear before it can soak in. Behind the main house sits a separate kitchen block, then storehouses and a bath, joined by covered walkways. Inland the pattern changes to squarish farmhouse lots, each ringed by ishiguro, dry-stacked or mortared walls of beach cobble and river stone.

How to enjoy it

An hour walks both halves at a normal pace, longer if you stop at the information house, which keeps its own hours and can arrange a local guide by advance booking. Nothing here is ticketed, so the town is open whenever you arrive. The white plaster looks best when the sun is low, and there is free parking beside the district for anyone driving.

Background & history

Timber and firewood shipped out of Kiragawa long before charcoal did. From the Meiji era the hills nearby yielded ubame oak, and Kiragawa charcoal became one of the country's best binchotan. Boats carried it to the Osaka and Kobe markets and came home loaded with everyday goods, and that two-way trade paid for the town standing now. The state selected the district as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings on 31 October 1997.

Before you go

Cash: The streets cost nothing and there is no ticket to buy. The information house is free to enter, and the guided walk it arranges needs booking ahead. Bring cash, because this is a small town and the nearest roadside station is out along the highway.
Good to know: The town itself has no closing time, but the information house does, and it keeps its own days. This coast takes typhoons head on from summer into autumn, and the buses stop when the weather turns. There is very little shelter along the streets.
Another way: By car it is a straight run down Route 55, with free parking beside the district. Coming the other way, Kiragawa is the last town of any size before Muroto Cape, which makes it an easy break on a coastal drive.
After you get off: Get off at Kiragawa Gakkodori. The old town lies one street back from the highway rather than on it, so walk in from the road and the plastered fronts begin almost at once.

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