West Okayama · YakageNo.620★★Open in map →

Yakage-juku Post Town

— Sanyodo post town with both of its old inns intact

historyOff the trail — and worth it

Two Edo-period inns for travelling lords stand on one street here, and both are Important Cultural Properties. No other post town in Japan still has the pair. Between them runs a lived-in row of plastered townhouses.

FromOkayama Station
~1 hrJR, then the Ibara Railway
Get off atYakage Station (Ibara Railway Ibara Line)
On foot
Yakage-juku Post Town

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Yakage is not overlooked. It is a nationally designated district with a roadside station at one end and a town that markets itself. What catches visitors out is the pairing: the two inns run on different schedules, so the thing that makes Yakage unique is only whole on some days. Get the day right and the street stays unhurried, because the small railway that reaches it brings people in waves rather than a steady stream.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Former Yakage Honjin Ishii Residence663highland / CC BY-SA 4.0

Former Yakage Honjin Ishii Residencethe lord's inn near the west end, with its formal gate and the family's sake storehouses behind
Yakage Machiya Exchange Centera converted townhouse two minutes east, now the town's visitor hall
Former Yakage Wakihonjin Takakusa Residencethe reserve inn about four hundred metres further east, also an Important Cultural Property
Roadside Station Sanyodo Yakage-jukuthe gateway building at the eastern edge, with local produce and the district's parking

How to actually get there

Okayama Station → Soja Station by JR.
Soja Station → Yakage Station on the Ibara Railway Ibara Line.
From the station, walk south to the old Sanyodo, then turn west to the main inn.
Follow the street back east past the exchange centre to the reserve inn and the roadside station.

JR to Soja, then the Ibara Railway: Okayama Station → Soja Station by JR, then the Ibara Railway Ibara Line, which begins at Soja, out to Yakage. About an hour in all. The Ibara Line is a small third-sector railway rather than a JR route, so services are spaced out; read the return board before you leave the platform.
Returning from Yakage Station: Trains back toward Soja leave from the same elevated platform. Yakage Station has a small staffed ticket window rather than gates, so buy or top up before boarding. Evening services thin out, so fix your return train before you settle into a cafe.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The old Sanyodo ran east to west across this part of Japan, and Yakage was one of the staging posts along it. What survives is a preservation district of about eleven and a half hectares: one long street of plastered townhouses, narrow lanes running off it, and near the western end the inn where daimyo slept. Behind that inn stands a merchant's compound of storehouses, because the family who held the post also brewed sake. Most of the front rooms along the street are now cafes, shops and small lodgings. It reads as a street people still use, not a preserved set.

How to enjoy it

The main inn opens at nine and closes at five, an hour earlier from November through February, so a morning arrival leaves the afternoon for the street itself. At the main inn, look for the separate ceremonial gate: rank decided which door a traveller used, and the gate was not for everyone. Then walk east slowly, because the interest here is in doorways and lanes rather than in any single view.

Background & history

Yakage grew as a staging post on the Sanyodo, the highway that linked the capital region with western Japan, and the families who ran its inns were merchants first. The Ishii family held the main inn and worked a sake business from the same walled compound, while the Takakusa family kept the reserve inn further down the road. Town records include a Satsuma bride passing through late in the Edo period on her way to marry a Tokugawa shogun. The street was designated a national preservation district in December 2020.

Before you go

Cash: The main inn charges five hundred yen for general admission and less for children; the reserve inn is cheaper again. The shops and cafes along the street are independent businesses, so carry cash as well as a card.
Good to know: The main inn closes on Mondays, moving to the following day when a Monday falls on a public holiday. The reserve inn opens on fewer days than the main one and for a shorter window. If seeing both is the point of the trip, confirm the reserve inn's days before travelling.
Another way: By car it is about twenty minutes from the Kamogata interchange on the Sanyo Expressway. The roadside station at the eastern end of the district holds the parking, which makes it the natural place to start if you drive.
After you get off: Yakage Station sits on an elevated line north of the old highway, in a station building styled after the post town itself. Come down to street level and walk south; in five to ten minutes you meet the old road, with the main inn a short way to the west.