Mitarai Townscape Preservation Area

Mitarai, which flourished as a port town where people waited for the wind and the tide during the Edo period, was designated by the government as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 1994. Due to its small size, Mitarai has been reclaimed several times, and is now a mixture of large and small merchant houses, teahouses, boathouses, houses, shrines, temples, etc., and the village is networked with a central road, village connecting roads, and small lanterns for village life. In addition, some civil engineering structures necessary for life in a port town, such as a large wharf, stone bridges, high lanterns, stone embankments, and gangways, remain as they were at the time. Since its formation in the mid-17th century, the Mitarai area has developed over the course of approximately 200 years during the Edo period and into the early Showa period as a transit port for Seto Inland Sea traffic, and traces of this development can still be seen within the village today.