Kawagoe Castle Honmaru Palace

The history of Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine goes back a long way and is said to have started with the separation of worship practices by the Ōmiya Hikawa Shrine, a part of Musashi Ichinomiya, under the reign of Emperor Kinmei in the 6th century, when the cultural practice of building burial mounds was passed on to them. Thereafter, whenever Ōta Dōkan built a castle, it was revered as a Sōja, a shrine enshrining several gods, of this location, and is familiarly called “Ohikawa-sama.”

The "Little Edo Kawagoe Spring Sailing" is a Japanese cherry blossom viewing event held at the end of April, where visitors sail down the Shigashi River behind Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine to view 500 meters of cherry blossoms in full bloom. Sail along in a small Japanese-style boat enjoying the fully blooming sakura overhead with a flowing river of pink petals beneath you. It's a must-see for fans of the Japanese cherry blossom!

Old Yamazaki Family Villa was built as a retreat for Kashichi Yamazaki, the 5th generation of Kameya, a long-established confectionery store of Kawagoe. In 2000, the main house, tearoom, and the benches of the waiting room were designated as a tangible cultural property of the city and in 2006, a portion of the building was donated to the city. In February of 2011, the garden was registered as the national registered monument (location of scenic beauty). In addition, on September 30th of 2019, the purlin was designated as the nation’s important cultural property (edifice). (Tearoom and the benches of the waiting room were also designated). In the garden of the Old Yamazaki Family Villa, there are architectures of a Japanese-style house and a Western-style house along with an example of a Japanese-style garden with a tearoom designed by Katsuya Yasuoka and is recognized of value with a high evaluation for its “contribution to the development for the culture of landscape architecture”.

Toki no Kane is said to have been first built in the Castletown Tagachō during the Kan’ei era (1624-1644) by the lord of Kawagoe Castle, Sakai Tadakatsu. The current bell tower was rebuilt the year following Kawagoe’s great fire in 1893, and is a three-story tower with a height of about 16 meters. It is a symbol of Kawagoe and denotes that “time” is indispensable for daily life. As of today, the bell rings four times a day (6 am, noon, 3 pm, and 6 pm).

The Kawagoe Kurazukuri Museum was built by tobacco wholesaler Koyama Bunzō after the great fire in 1893 and designed referencing the few houses of Kurazukuri which survived the fire and merchant houses of the Tokyo Nihonbashi area. Visitors can tour the inside of the Kurazukuri houses of Kawagoe, where the atmosphere of the Meiji era can be felt to this day in the buildings' structure and design.