A town that thrived as a post station on the Koshu Highway in the Edo period. Old houses and storehouses line the old road, with a sake brewery and Japanese sweet shops.
How to enjoy it
Step onto the old road that runs beside today’s highway and walk slowly. Look at the eaves and the storehouses, and you can picture the bustle of travellers passing through.
Step onto the old road that runs beside today’s Koshu Highway and you find old houses and storehouses, with an atmospheric sake brewery and Japanese sweet shops. It feels like slipping back in time to the old highway.
This stretch of the old Koshu Highway was chosen by the Ministry of Construction as one of Japan’s 100 finest roads in 1986.
Daigahara thrived as a post station on the Koshu Highway in the Edo period. The road must once have been busy with travellers in straw sandals and leggings.
Hours
Open all day
Closed
Open all year
Contact
0551-42-1351
Hokuto City Tourism Division
place-8013-hero.webpDrink · Hakushu
Fermented dishes made with the brewery’s koji and sake lees.
Tip
Taru-no-Ma is run by a post-town sake brewery. The koji and lees in the food come from the brewery next door. If you don’t drink, follow the brewery’s flavours through amazake and its brewing water.
place-8018-hero.webpStay · Hakushu
A restored Meiji-era merchant house in the post town, rented whole. One group a day, up to 6.
Tip
Kuraya keeps the bones of the merchant house it once was. Look up at the beams over the earthen-floored entrance and at the lattice of the old counting room. Walk the post-town street once in the evening and once in the morning to see its quieter side.
place-8012-hero.webpExperience · Hakushu
Matcha with spring water in a pine-grove tea room.
Tip
You rinse your hands and mouth at the stone basin before entering. Each step of etiquette is shown to you, so there is nothing to memorise. Ask why the bowl is turned before drinking; the answer opens up the thinking behind tea.
place-8017-hero.webpDrink · Hakushu
Tour and tasting at a small valley distillery.
Tip
Being small, the whole process from mashing to filling casks is visible in one building. The tasting lines up the same spirit at different ages, so you can follow what the cask does. Drivers get a non-alcoholic malt soda instead.
