Takayama Old Town (Sanmachi)

三町Takayama, Gifu

Historic area

What makes this place special?

At a Glance

Sanmachi is a preserved merchant quarter in central Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, east of the Miyagawa River. It is a nationally designated Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, selected in 1979 and enlarged in 1997, and is commonly known as Sanmachi-dori. The streets around Kami-sannomachi and Kami-ninomachi keep many Japanese-style buildings from the late Edo period to the Meiji era.

In the Edo period this was the merchants' quarter of the castle town developed by Kanamori Nagachika. Takayama came under direct shogunate rule in 1692, and after its castle was dismantled in 1695 the former castle town prospered as the commercial center of the Hida region. The Fujii Museum of Art and Folk Crafts and the Takayama City Municipal Memorial Hall stand inside the district, which lies about ten minutes on foot from Takayama Station.