Gokasho Kondo Cityscape

Gokasho Kondo Town is located in Higashi Omi City in central Shiga Prefecture. The Gokasho-Kindo area is known as a place associated with the Omi merchants. The main residences of the Omi merchants and traditional farmhouses have been selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings by the national government because of their outstanding historical landscape.

The Omi merchants of the Gokasho Kondo district expanded their sales channels, mainly in kimono, cotton and silk products, from the late Edo period to the pre-war period of the Showa era. Even today, long-established textile trading companies with their roots in this area are still active.

As you walk along the streets, you can feel the history of the Omi merchants with the boat-board fences and white-walled warehouses. Colored carp are swimming gracefully in the waterways where clear water flows, and you can enjoy a relaxing time.

In the Kondo area, two Omi merchants' residences (Shigeru Tonomura's and Jungoro Nakae's) and the Kondo Machinami Preservation Exchange Center are open to the public, where you can learn about the appearance of the Omi merchants' main residences.