Fall Foliage Hikes in Kakunodate!

It is a one-minute walk from JR Kakunodate Station to Kakunodate Tourist Association. Here you can get a free brochure introducing various sightseeing information, learn about the festivals and activities held at the time, etc. You can also buy local products on your return trip.

There are many samurai houses of all sizes in the pavilion, all of which are residences of samurais and celebrities living between the 18th century and the 19th century. Dressing in Japanese kimono will certainly add a special flavor to your maple viewing experience!

Kimono rentals are available from the Tatetsu House.

You will first visit Odano House, which is the simplest among all the famous samurai houses. Although the gable board (hafu) and the fish-shaped board (gegyo) decorating the roof were no longer there after the reconstruction following the fire in Meiji 33 (1900), the fall foliage looks enchanting.

The scenery around the Odano House is characterized by giant maple trees, the tallest of which is up to 66ft. A master of Akita ranga painting was born in the house: Odano Naotake.

The Kawarada House was the family residence of Kawarada, who was a descendant of the Ashina clan, and moved from Fukushima’s Aizu to Kakunodate with the family of Ashina. The existing building was constructed during the mid Meiji period, and the architectural style of samurai (buke) houses in the Edo period remain the same until this day.

The Kaharada family is characterized by a secluded courtyard with fresh green in summer and maple red in autumn. Walking in the courtyard full of fallen leaves, you can not help but forget the noise of the outside world.

The Iwahashi family also served the Ashina clan and occupied a rather wide area for being as "superior warrior" family. It was later used as the shooting place of the Japanese "period drama" (Jidaigeki) Film - The Twilight Samurai.

Kakunodate is dotted with so many wooden houses, so fire is especially dangerous. The huge fire that occurred in Meiji 33 (1900) destroyed such renowned residences as the above mentioned Odano House. But, the Iwahashi House survived the fire for its roofs made with shingles of shakes (thick wooden boards made of cedar) and its well in the courtyard.

With chestnuts, red pines, maples and oaks planted in the courtyard, the House is highly recommended among many samurai houses for viewing of fall foliage. It is said that an oak tree there is more than 250 years old, which is very rare in Akita Prefecture.

The Aoyagi household was once a vassal of the Satake clan, the most influential family at Kakunodate; After the efforts of generations of owners, and the Aoyagi Houseis now recognized as the most spacious and luxurious residence among the samurai houses in Kakunodate. Later, The Hidden Blade, a Jidaigeki movie was filmed here.

The Aoyagi House covers an area of 3,000 tsubo (about 10,000 square meters). There are about 600 varieties of plants grown in the spacious courtyard, with beautiful scenery all the year round. The whole residence adopts black-painted batten fences (sasarako-bei) and fall leaves stretching out of the wall as if in and greet passers-by.

On After entering the broad courtyard from the front door, you will be greeted with Wells, a rice barn, an armory on the north side, and according to the identity of visiting guests and divided into the front door porch and side porch, the main room for the master dedicated bedroom, do not receive guests, the whole residence is very imposing.

Now the residence is established with the Kaitai Shinsho (literally New Text on Anatomy) Memorial Hall, the Akita Folk Museum (Kyoto-kan), the Samurai Tool Museum (Buke Dogu-kan), the Western Style Museum (Yofu-kan), the Museum of the Photos on the Closing Days of the Tokugawa Shogunate Regime (Bakumatsu Photo Museum) and the Period Experience House, and about 30,000 valuable ancient cultural relics are publicly available.

The Aoyagi family was related by marriage to the Odano family mentioned above, so there is a stone statue of Odano Naotake, an artist from the Odano family.

On the first floor of the Western Style Museum, there is a café, which offers “Nanban-cha” (actually coffee) (500 yen) brewed with the sacred water that flowed into the pavilion hundreds of years ago (“Shinmei” water) and various types of dessert; beside the Museum of the Photos on the Closing Days of the Tokugawa Shogunate Regime, there is the Morinoshoku Sai-kan, where you can savor Inaniwa Udon, the traditional food of Akita. It is recommended to have lunch and rest your feet here.

Among the existing samurai houses in Kakunodate, the Ishiguro House at the northernmost end of Samurai House Street is most ancient. There are also many fir trees in the gardens, illiard branches, etc., with many trees lasting more than 250 years.

Relative to the luxurious Aoyagi House, the characteristic of Ishiguro House is to have more primitive temperament. With the main building, doors, walls and earthen storehouses representative of the Edo period, the House built in the architectural style of the period between the 18th century and the 19th century is well preserved.

Among the samurai houses in Kakunodate, the Ishiguro House had the most distinguished pedigree. The courtyard now only has ancient trees and ancient buildings, occasionally with moss spreaded on some paved path. The perfect reproduction of the simple and unsophisticated samurai house is inevitably fascinating.

The Kakunodate Birch Craft Densho-kan was built to exhibit the renowned birch craft of Akita Prefecture. Any festival event held at Kakunodate is surely accompanied with a variety of activities or exhibitions in the museum.

Birch crafts refers to the mountain cherry tree bark paste together, and make such fine objects as tea canisters, stationery and other daily necessities by experienced artisans. There are birch craftsmen demonstrating the skills in the museum, in addition to the experience of making with your own hands!

By the way, Kakunodate Birch Craft Densho-kan is also known for sakura viewing. If you visit in the spring, you can enjoy the beauty of the cherry trees on both sides of the gate and the cherry blossoms in the garden.

The Matsumoto House differs greatly in architectural style with all the other samurai houses mentioned above. Matsumoto came from a scholar family, at that time belongs to the "lower samurai residence", so slightly humble. Like the Iwahashi House, the Matsumoto House was also a shooting location for the Jidaigeki movie The Twilight Samurai.

Featuring a thatched roof and fenced walls made of cedar bark, it is the only house in Akita that perfectly preserves this architectural style. Therefore, it was recognized as the designated cultural heritage of Akita Prefecture.

The Nishinomiya family was the largest family of wealthy merchant and landlord in Kakunodate. From the Meiji period to the Taisho period, a library and a rice barn were built in the broad courtyard, both now together with the main building, have been transformed into a famous scenic spot representing Tamachi Bukeyashiki Street.

Many historical documents and cultural relics are now on display in the Library; Japanese-style commodities are sold in the rice barn; the front storehouse is transform into a conference room; the northern storehouse is a café; the gakko storehouse sells local tsukemono (literally “pickled things”) and specialties, while the main building is a dining room for tourists and high-grade matcha is also sold there.

The Shinchosha Memorial Museum of Literature is a MUST-VISIT photo scenic spot ! The wall is engraved with the opening paragraph of Snow Country (Yukiguni) by Yasunari Kawabata, the first Japanese author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The earth lay white under the night sky. The train pulled up at a signal stop.” It is a paragraph that almost every Japanese can recite. Readers will feel as if they are also entering into the snow country.

The ones who have read this novel might ask, The stage of "Snow country" is Niigata Prefecture, why it mentioned in this article on Kakunodate? In fact, Shincho Bunko and the author of the Snow Country became known to every family after the publication of the first edition of "Snow country". And Sato Giryo, the founder of Shinchosha, the publisher of Shincho Bunko, came from Kakunodate.

Founded in 1853, Audo Workshop is a workshop mainly making miso and soy sauce brewing. This red-brick warehouse adopts a fire protection design.

The store sells heiry-passed miso and soy sauce, as well as a variety of pickles and other local products, and offers free samples of heiry-passed traditional miso of Akita Prefecture.