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Nakamachi Komise Street

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

Researched and written by Hinato

komiseKuroishisnow arcadepreservation districtEdo period

Photo: 掬茶 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

Nakamachi Komise Street has outlasted the version of Aomori it was originally built for, and it shows.

Komise are covered wooden arcades built out from the front of a house over the public footway — a private roof over a public path, put up so that people could move through the town in winter without wading. Snow in Kuroishi is measured in metres, and this is what the Edo period did about it. A whole street of them survives here, which happens nowhere else in Japan at this scale, and the district was designated an Important Preservation District in 2005.

Walking it in winter is the point: the street outside is buried and under the komise it is dry, dim and low-ceilinged, with light coming in sideways through the gaps. The Takahashi house on the street is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property, and one of Japan's oldest sake breweries is a few doors down. It is fifteen minutes on foot from a small private-railway terminus and is not on any international itinerary.

Visiting essentials

How long to allow

60–90 minutes

Best season

December–February for the arcades in deep snow | Year-round for the townscape

Hours

Street open at all times | Individual buildings keep their own hours

Closed: Open year-round

Admission

Free to walk | Individual buildings charged separately

Getting there

Getting there in detail

Nakamachi, Kuroishi. About a short walk from Kuronan-Kuroishi Station on the Konan Railway, reached from Hirosaki. Free to walk. Individual buildings, including the Takahashi house and the sake breweries, keep their own hours and admission.

Historical notes & tips

**Come in winter.** The komise exist because of snow and only make sense with snow on the ground. February is deep and the contrast between the buried street and the dry arcade is the whole experience. **Go inside the Takahashi house.** The nationally designated merchant house on the street shows how the arcade connects to the building behind it, which is not obvious from outside. **Visit a brewery.** Kuroishi has long-established sake makers on and near the street, several of which sell and one of which is among the oldest in the country. Tasting is often possible. **Eat tsuyu yakisoba.** Kuroishi's own dish — yakisoba served in ramen broth — was invented in this town and the originating shop is a few minutes away on foot. **Access is via Hirosaki.** The Konan Railway from Hirosaki takes about half an hour and the walk from the station is fifteen minutes. No car needed.

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