Murata Town Street with Kura (storehouses)

Murata, located between Sendai and Yamagata, used to flourish for a long time as a business town. The main product was Safflowers which is a convenient raw material for dyestuff and cosmetics. Yamagata was a major place of production and was successful in commercial transactions through shipping business to Tokyo and Osaka. In the center of the town, the scenery of a pair of gorgeous shops with gates remains telling of a past flourish. This sophisticated scenery of the town is called a small Kyoto in Michinoku area and was designated as an important preservation district of historic buildings in 2014 ( the 26th of Heisei period) for the first time in Miyagi Prefecture.

One of the houses for wealthy merchants in the town, the current Yamasho Memorial Museum, and a reused formal shop building, Yamani tourist information center are open to the public. The whole town becomes lively during the events such as “Miyagi Murata town Pottery Market” and “the Hotei festival each held in October, and Murata Hina-dolls tour in merchant's houses held in March.