A Walk from Inari to Momoyama

Anyone who visits Fushimi Momoyama can see the streetscapes that retain their old historical appearances. The present road system was laid out starting at the end of the 16th century, when the castle town was developed. Canals branching off rivers like the Horikawa, once the outer moat of the castle, and the Uji flow through the town, and walking paths have been developed alongside them. There are many historical sites to see, such as ones connected with Takayama Ukon, the Christian daimyo who was recently beatified by the Pope, the site of the Terada-ya Inn, the Gokonomiya Shrine with its main gate that used to be the front gate of Fushimi Gate, and the site of the Fushimi Magistrate's Office, which was responsible for administration and justice during the Edo period. The streets of Fushimi are filled with history at every turn.

The part of Ote Street reaching west from in front of the Gokonomiya Shrine is called “Otesuji,” and runs east-west though the central part of Fushimi Momoyama. This area is filled with shops and restaurants, especially in the shopping arcades.

From Otesuji, heading into the roads leading south will take you to where the sake breweries are concentrated. This area includes the Okura Main House, a brewery-sum-residence dating back to 1828, which stands to the west of the Gekkeikan head office. A large number of merchant houses were burned during the 1868 Battle of Toba-Fushimi, but the Okura house was mercifully spared the flames, surviving to this day. To its south is the Uchigura sake brewery, which was built in 1906. Along from the Uchigura, with its walls of carefully charred Japanese cedar cladding the white earthen-walled structure, the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum is open to the public. Here you can learn about the history of Fushimi, enjoy tasting sake or seeing the inside of a sake brewery. It is also becoming increasingly popular with overseas visitors.

Inside, some 200 items from the museum's collection of 6,120 sake production tools and equipment, registered by Kyoto City as Tangible Cultural Assets, are exhibited in galleries organized by sake production stages. There are also historical materials and sake utensils that speak of the history of the company since its founding.

The road running north-south in front of the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum area, where there are, a lot of restaurants and bars, as well as museums made from old breweries, is called “Sake Brewery Street” (Sakagura-dori). The road is paved with colored tarseal in an earth tone, walking paths and retro-style electric lamps have been installed, and power lines buried to create an attractive environment, where visitors can enjoy strolls through an area that retains the atmosphere of the olden days.

This is still a sake production area, and the more than twenty breweries are members of the Fushimi Sake Brewers Association. In the coldest part of winter, when winter-brewed refined sake production is in full swing, the scent of the steamed rice for the moromi fills the air, just as it has always been in the sake towns of Japan.

The line of willow trees, weeping cherries, Somei-Yoshino cherries, Thunberg's meadowsweet, hydrangeas and other plants near the sake brewery allow people to enjoy the changes of the four seasons. You can visit nearby historical sites as you wander along the riverbank.

From spring to autumn, jikkokubune and sanjikkokubune (traditional small and medium-sized boats to transport goods and people) for tourists travel up and down the river. The jikkokubune depart from the west side of the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum and turn around at the Misu Lock Gate, which has been redeveloped as a park. The Misu Lock Gate was established in 1929 to allow boats to navigate the 4.5 m height difference between the Horikawa and Uji rivers. It fell out of use in the 1960s, and is now used as a terminal for tourist cruises.