Kawagoe City Nakacho Information Centre

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”.

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.

A “townscape of kura warehouses” still remain in Kawagoe. The kura warehouses have a fireproof architecture cleverly built to prevent fires and was developed as a form of house for the merchants of Edo. It retains an image of Edo that cannot be seen in today’s Tokyo. It was chosen as the country’s “important preservation district of historic buildings” in December of 1999 and was selected as “Japan’s 100 Beautiful Historical Environments” in 2007 of January.

Matsumoto Shoyu store has been making soy sauce at Kawagoe for 250 years. The soy brewery is established in 1831, and they are still staying true to their traditional methods. Inside, you can even find 40 cedar buckets that have been in use since the Edo period. At this brewery in Kawagoe City, designated as an important part of the city landscape, you can come in contact with the culture and traditions of one of Japan's most important ingredients.

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