Matsumoto Craft Soy Sauce

The only sake brewery at Kura-no-machi, Kawagoe. Even though the sake brewery cannot be toured, the adjoining Matsumoto Shōyu, established 200 years ago, can be toured free of charge. Please stop by for a visit! The sake brewery is only 1 minute by foot from the Toki no Kane, the center of Kawagoe’s tourist destination.

Situated at the Nakacho intersection, the entrance to the Kurazukuri district, the Kawagoe City Nakacho Information Center is filled with useful information and housed in a traditional warehouse! You can also connect to their free Wi-Fi and use their baggage storage service (for a fee).

The Renkei Daishi was founded in 1549 by Ren Kaoru, the mother of Kawagoe Castle Lord Masashige Daidoji. Later during the Tokugawa period, it was officially recognized as a temple and made into a school for Buddhist monks, and many Buddhist monks were educated there. In addition, the temple enshrines Fukurokuju, one of the 7 lucky gods of Kawagoe. Events are held at the temple on a regular basis.

A townscape of “kurazukuri" traditional warehouses still remains in Kawagoe. The kurazukuri warehouses were cleverly built with fireproof architecture and developed as housing for the merchants of Edo. The warehouses retain an image of Edo that cannot be seen in modern day Tokyo. They were chosen as national “Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings” in December of 1999 and were selected as one of “Japan’s 100 Beautiful Historical Environments” in January of 2007.

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.