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Misaki Shitamachi
— tuna-town streets behind the fishing port
A Showa-era downtown of kura storehouses, a dye shop open since 1833, and tuna restaurants — one street back from Misaki's busy harbor market.
Misaki is one of Japan's well-known tuna ports. Just east of the harbor sits Shitamachi, its old downtown quarter. Storehouse-style buildings and low-roofed shops give the streets a retro Showa-era feel — the 1926–1989 era — and film crews often shoot here. Tuna restaurants line the lanes, and among the shops is Mitomi Dye Shop, hand-dyeing fishing banners since 1833.
Why it stays quiet
Most visitors stop at the market hall by the water and never walk the streets behind it, and there is little English signage or mapping for the old quarter, so it stays quiet and local.
Background & history
When tuna fishing peaked in the 1960s, Shitamachi was said to have had three movie theaters. Repeated fires led owners to rebuild in kura style — thick-walled, fire-resistant storehouses. One survivor is Chakkirako Misaki Showakan, a merchant house that traded from the Edo period until 2002 and is now open to the public.
What to look for — in walking order
- Mitomi Dye Shop
- hand-dyed fishing banners in business since 1833, the only such maker in Kanagawa
- Kura storehouses
- thick-walled, fire-resistant buildings that define the quarter's Showa-era look
- Chakkirako Misaki Showakan
- Edo-period merchant house, open until 2002 and now a small free-to-view museum
- Tuna restaurants
- small diners serving locally landed Misaki tuna along the downtown lanes
How to enjoy it
Walk in from the Urari Marche market and go one or two streets back to find the Showa-era shopfronts. If timing allows, come for the Chakkirako folk dance on 15 January — a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage event — or the Miura Yoichi night market in August.
How to actually get there
- Shinagawa Station -> Misakiguchi Station (Keikyu Line, about 90 min)
- Misakiguchi Station -> Misaki-ko / Misaki port (Keikyu Bus from Bus Stop No. 2, about 15-20 min)
- Misaki-ko stop -> the old quarter (walk one block inland, a few min)
- Keikyu train + Keikyu Bus
- Shinagawa Station in Tokyo -> (Keikyu Line toward Misakiguchi, about 90 min) -> Misakiguchi Station -> (Keikyu Bus toward Misaki-ko / Misaki port from Bus Stop No. 2, about 15-20 min) -> Misaki-ko (Misaki port) stop. Total about 105-110 min. The bus runs several times an hour in the daytime and is the last stop on the line.
- return by the same route
- Take the Keikyu Bus from the Misaki-ko stop back to Misakiguchi Station, then the Keikyu Line to Tokyo. Buses run regularly through the afternoon; services thin out in the evening, so check the day's return times at the stop when you arrive.
Before you go
- Cash
- The bus and train take IC cards (Suica / PASMO). Many small diners and the dye shop are cash-first, so carry some cash too.
- Closing days
- This is a working port with people living and working in the streets; give way to port workers unloading boats and do not enter private doorways.
- Another way
- If you come at dawn on a Sunday, an early-morning market runs near the fish hall.
- After you get off
- From the Misaki-ko stop, walk past the market hall and one block inland into the old streets; explore from there on foot.