Seki-juku

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

Researched and written by Hinato

Seki-jukuTokaidopreservation districtKameyamapost town

Illustration of Seki-juku, Mie — Illustration — not a photograph

Seki-juku is part of why Mie rewards travelers who read a little before they show up.

Seki was the forty-seventh of the fifty-three stations of the Tokaido, and it is the only one of them where the street survives. About two hundred townhouses from the Edo and Meiji periods stand along 1.8 kilometres between the eastern and western junctions, and the district is nationally designated for preservation.

What is unusual is that it is not a museum street. People live in these houses, the shops sell to residents, and there are no overhead cables because they were buried during the preservation work — which is why photographs of it look implausibly clean. Buildings open to visitors include the Tamaya inn, restored as a museum of Tokaido travel, and the Hyakurokuri teahouse. The street is free and the car parks are free.

Visiting essentials

How long to allow

2 hours

Best season

Year-round

Hours

Street open at all times | House museums keep daytime hours

Closed: Street open year-round | House museums have their own rest days

Admission

Free street and parking | House museums charged separately

Reaching the site

Directions

Seki-cho, Kameyama, along 1.8 km between the eastern and western junctions of the old Tokaido. About a short walk from JR Seki Station on the Kansai Line. Free to walk. The Seki-juku tourist car park has 4 coach spaces, 16 car spaces and 1 accessible space and is free, about a short walk from the street; further free car parks are at the eastern and western junctions. About 200 townhouses from the Edo and Meiji periods stand along the street, which is a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. Individual houses open as museums charge separately.

Beyond the guidebook

**It is the only surviving Tokaido station.** Fifty-three of them; the street survives at one. That is the reason to come rather than the individual buildings. **The cables are buried.** Which is why the sightlines are clean and why photographs of it look staged. It was a deliberate part of the preservation work. **People live here.** The houses are homes and the shops serve residents. Behave accordingly and do not photograph into doorways. **Go into Tamaya.** The restored inn is now a museum of Tokaido travel and explains what a station town actually did. **Five minutes from the station.** Seki is on the JR Kansai Line and the walk from the platform puts you at the end of the street.

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