South Miyagi · MurataNo.823★Open in map →

Murata Storehouse Townscape

historyOff the trail — and worth it

Murata's main street keeps the shop-storehouses and gates that safflower money built, standing in pairs down both sides of a working road. Miyagi named it the prefecture's first preservation district for traditional buildings.

FromOgawara Station (JR Tohoku Main Line)
Bus, then a short walkBus from Ogawara Station
Murata Storehouse Townscape

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is not a hidden place. Miyagi named it the prefecture's first preservation district and signposts it as such. It is simply small and off the Shinkansen line, so most travellers crossing southern Miyagi pass it on the expressway without knowing the street is there.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Kura Tourist Information Centerthe visitor desk on Motomachi, and the natural place to begin the street
Motomachi rowpaired shop-kura and gates down the southern half of the district
Murata Merchant Yamasho Memorial Housethe grandest of the merchant properties, gate and storehouse kept as one frontage
Aramachi rowthe northern half of the district, carrying the same gate-and-kura rhythm

How to actually get there

Sendai Station → Ogawara Station (JR Tohoku Main Line).
Ogawara Station → Miyakou bus toward Murata and Kawasaki.
Get off at Chuo, on the storehouse street itself.
Walk Motomachi and Aramachi, then return by the same bus.

Bus from Ogawara on the Tohoku Main Line: Ogawara Station sits on the JR Tohoku Main Line south of Sendai. From the station forecourt a Miyakou bus runs inland toward Murata and Kawasaki; get off at the Chuo stop and the storehouse street begins there. The ride is the only leg that needs planning, because the walk itself starts at the stop.
Return from the Chuo stop: Take the same bus back toward Ogawara Station and rejoin the Tohoku Main Line for Sendai. Read the posted times at the stop before you start walking the street rather than after, since this is a rural route and the stop is the only one you will use.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Murata grew where the road to Sendai forked toward the Yamagata basin, and its merchants made their money moving safflower dye to the Kamigata cities and to Edo. What they built with it still lines the street. Each frontage pairs a two-storey shop-kura, plastered white with a lattice of namako tiling low on the wall, with a heavy tiled gate carved under its eaves. The preservation district covers 7.4 hectares of that pattern. It is not a museum street; the buildings sit on an ordinary through road with everyday shops still trading among them.

How to enjoy it

The street is a public road, so the walk needs no ticket and no opening hour. The buildings that open to visitors keep their own days, and the tourist information centre on Motomachi is where to confirm what is unlocked before you set off. Allow time to look upward, because most of the carving sits under the gate eaves rather than at eye level.

Background & history

Murata stood at a fork on the road between Sendai and the Yamagata basin, and its merchants bought safflower across the southern plain and shipped it to the Kamigata cities and to Edo. The trade brought money back, and the money went into fireproof building: earthen walls, namako tiling low on the frontage, and window shutters finished in the kakeko manner so that flames could find no seam. Miyagi selected the street in 2014 as its first Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, citing a merchant town of unusual design quality.

Before you go

Cash: Walking the street costs nothing. The buildings that open to visitors set their own admission and their own days off, and the Kura Tourist Information Center on Motomachi holds the current list.
Good to know: The townscape is an ordinary public road in use, so it stays walkable in every season. Individual buildings may be shut on weekdays. Traffic uses the same street, so keep to the footway when you stop to look up at the gates.
Another way: Miyakou also runs a highway bus from Sendai on its Murata and Zao line, which reaches the town without a change. By car the town lies inland from the Tohoku Expressway, and the tourist information centre on Motomachi can point you to parking.
After you get off: From Ogawara Station the bus toward Murata and Kawasaki sets you down at the Chuo stop, which is on the storehouse street itself. Motomachi runs south from there and Aramachi north, so the district can be walked out and back without doubling far.