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KAWAGOE |
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Saitama-ken, immediately northeast of the capital, comes in for a
lot of stick as an achingly dull place. This is a gross generalization
and, if anything, the prefecture should be high on your list of place to
visit because it's home to the old castle town of KAWAGOE , an
interesting and highly enjoyable quick day-trip, only 40km north of
Tokyo. Although it doesn't look promising on arrival, Kawagoe's compact
area of sights, around 1km north of the main station, is aptly described
as a "Little Edo", and can easily be toured in a few hours, although
once you've browsed the many traditional craft shops and paused to
sample the town's culinary delights you'll probably find the day has
flown by. This would certainly be the case on October 14 and 15, when
Kawagoe's grand matsuri is held, one of the most lively festivals in the
Tokyo area, involving some 25 ornate floats (called dashi ) and hundreds
of costumed revellers.
Kawagoe's fortunes owe everything to its strategic position on the
Shingashi River and Kawagoe-kaido, the ancient highway to the capital.
If you wanted to get goods to Tokyo, then called Edo, they more than
likely had to go via Kawagoe, thus the town's merchants prospered as a
result. They accumulated the cash to build fireproof kurazukuri , the
black, two-storey shophouses the town is now famous for. At one time
there were over 200 of these houses, but their earthenware walls didn't
prove quite so effective against fire as hoped (nor were they much use
in the face of Japan's headlong rush to modernization). Even so, some
thirty still remain, with sixteen prime examples clustered together
along Chuo-dori, around 1km north of the JR and Tobu stations, protected
as Important Cultural Properties.
Along Chuo-dori, around 200m before the main enclave of kurazukuri ,
you'll pass a small shrine, Kumano-jinja , beside which is a tall
storehouse containing a magnificent dashi float; this is your only
chance to inspect one up close outside of the annual festival. At the
next major crossroads, on the lefthand side, is the old Kameya okashi
(sweet) shop, warehouse and factory. These buildings now house the
Yamazaki Museum of Art (daily except Thurs 9.30am-5pm; ¥500), dedicated
to the works of Meiji-era artist Gaho Hashimoto. Some of his elegant
screen paintings hang in the main gallery, while in the converted kura
(storehouses) there are artistic examples of the sugary confections once
made here. If this gets your mouth watering, you'll be glad to know
entry includes a cup of tea and okashi .
Heading up Chuo-dori, you'll pass several craft shops, including
Machikan , which specializes in knives and swords (costing anything from
¥20,000 to ¥800,000), and Sobiki Atelier , which sells woodwork. On the
left, take a moment to duck into Choki-in , a temple with a statue of an
emaciated Gandara-style Buddha in its grounds along with a pretty lily
pond and sculpted bushes and trees. Back on the main street, the
Kurazukuri Shiryokan (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; ¥100) is a museum housed inside
an old tobacco wholesaler's, one of the first kurazukuri to rebuilt
after the great fire of 1893. In the living quarters you can squeeze
around the tiny twisting staircase that leads from the upper to the
ground level, and in one of the kura , view turn-of-the-century
firefighting uniforms and woodblock prints of the fires that ravaged the
town.
On the right, opposite the museum, you won't miss the Toki-no-Kane , the
wooden bell tower, rebuilt in 1894, that was used to raise the alarm
when fires broke out. Now an electric motor powers the bell that rings
four times daily. Take the turning on the left after the bell tower and
follow it down until you reach Yoju-in , another handsomely wrought
temple with pleasant grounds. Just north of here is the Kashiya Yokocho
, or confectioners alley, a picturesque pedestrian street still lined
with several colourful sweet and toy shops - another great place to
browse for souvenirs.
It's a 500-metre hike east of the Kurazukuri Shiryokan, along the main
road, to reach the scant remains of Kawagoe Castle, now mainly parkland
and the grounds of the senior high school, but still containing the vast
Honmaru-goten , the former residence of the daimyo . Inside is a museum
(Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; ¥100) containing mainly archeological artefacts, but
it's the building itself, dating from 1848, that is the main attraction,
with its Chinese-style gabled roof, spacious tatami rooms and gorgeous
painted screens.
Heading south from the castle grounds you'll soon strike Naritasan
Betsu-in , an otherwise unremarkable shrine that comes to life on the
28th of each month, when it hosts a busy flea market.
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