card-story-edo-highway-b.webpThe Edo Road and Daigahara-juku
In a post town on the Koshu Kaido, the travelers' time still lingers.
Daigahara-juku was a post town on the Koshu Kaido, the road between Edo and Shinshu. A sake brewery and a former inn still stand on its street, so a simple walk lets you follow the road that Edo-period travelers took.
The road between Edo and Shinshu
The Koshu Kaido was one of the Five Routes of the Edo period[2]. It became an official highway in 1618. It ran about 220 km from Edo to Shimosuwa, with 45 post towns, and joined the Nakasendo at Shimosuwa[1].
Daigahara-juku is described as the 24th post town on the Kai Province stretch of the road. The town is about 1 km long. The road was once covered in white sand and lined with pine trees[3]. The town prospered as a stop in the Edo period, and in 1986 the old Koshu Kaido here was listed among Japan's 100 Best Roads[4].
Buildings that keep the post town's memory
Along the street is a marker for the site of the honjin, the main inn for lords, with a stone lantern inscribed "Akiba Daigongen"[5]. Old houses and storehouses still stand along the old road, keeping the shape of the post town[4].
Be a traveler in today's Daigahara
A post town's job was to give travelers a bed and send them on their way. Among this site's sample places, you can stay at Kuraya Post-town InnSample, an old merchant house in the post town, with dinner of rice cooked in spring water and a morning walk through the town.
Nearby in Mukawa are Komasumi BrewerySample, where you can tour a sake brewery, and Komaya Japanese SweetsSample, where seasonal sweets are served in a small tea room. Walk the old road, look at the storehouses, buy something sweet. Pass through the post town slowly, as Edo travelers once did.
Where to experience this story
A street of old houses and storehouses. The city's Daigahara parking lot has about 60 free spaces for cars[4].
city-h19che0002.webpSee · Hakushu
Daigahara-juku (Edo post town)
Walk an Edo-period post town on the old Koshu Highway.
Tip
Walk slowly and look at the latticed fronts and storehouses where life on the Edo highway still shows.
Tabizen guide B (name)- Price guide
- Free
- Languages
- Checking with venue
- Closed
- Open all year
A sample brewery. Tour the Meiji-era storehouse and the well, then taste at the shop.
komasumi-intro-s1.webpDrink · Mukawa
Komasumi BrewerySample
Tasting and a brewery tour at a farm-to-bottle sake brewery.
Tip
Komasumi has grown its rice and brewed its sake in one family for five generations, a brewery that starts in the paddy. Beyond the shop, look at the fields around the brewery and the well that supplies its water. Seeing how field, water and brewhouse connect makes choosing a bottle more fun.
- Price guide
- Tasting from ¥300 a glass. Brewery tour ¥500 (booking required). Rice-planting day ¥3,000 (late May; booking required)
- Languages
- Japanese
- Closed
- 31 Dec–3 Jan
A sample sweets shop. Seasonal sweets with matcha in the tea room at the back.
place-8024-hero.webpEat · Mukawa
Komaya Japanese SweetsSample
Seasonal Japanese sweets and a small tea room.
Tip
Komaya’s fresh sweets change shape and colour every month. Ask the staff at the case what each one depicts. You can take them away, but fresh sweets are best eaten the same day, in the tea room.
- Price guide
- Fresh sweets from ¥350, tea room ¥800
- Languages
- Japanese
- Closed
- Thursdays
A sample inn. Three rooms in a restored merchant house in the post town.
place-8018-hero.webpStay · Hakushu
Kuraya Post-town InnSample
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.
- Price guide
- From ¥26,000 per person per night with dinner and breakfast (2 guests)
- Check-in
- 15:00–18:00
A sample restaurant. A lunch set of dishes made with the brewery's koji and sake lees.
place-8013-hero.webpDrink · Hakushu
Taru-no-Ma Brewery DiningSample
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.
- Price guide
- Lunch ¥1,800–2,400
- Languages
- Japanese
- Closed
- Tuesdays (next day if a holiday), New Year
How to experience it
Private tour
Walk Daigahara-juku with a guide and hear the stories of the brewery and the old inn.
Self-guided
Walk the streets of Daigahara-juku and the honjin marker at your own pace.
Sources
- 道の歴史：近世の道 五街道（国土交通省） www.mlit.go.jp Checked: 2026-10-24
- 甲州道中一里塚跡（杉並区 文化財案内標示板） www.city.suginami.tokyo.jp Checked: 2026-10-24
- モデルコース⑩ 往時の面影残す白砂と名水の台ケ原宿コース（山梨県） www.pref.yamanashi.jp Checked: 2026-10-24
- 台ヶ原宿（富士の国やまなし観光ネット、2026-09-15時点の情報） www.yamanashi-kankou.jp Checked: 2026-10-24
- 一道一会 北杜市／甲州街道（台ヶ原宿）（山梨県） www.pref.yamanashi.jp Checked: 2026-10-24