Otsu Historical Walk: A Private Journey Through a Tokaido Post Town
A private day on foot through Otsu, a Lake Biwa post town of century-old shops, folk art, and temple views only ten minutes from Kyoto.
Overview
Only 10 minutes by train from Kyoto, yet worlds away from its crowds, Otsu unfolds along the southern shore of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, beneath the wooded slopes of Mount Hira and Mount Hiei. For more than 1,350 years this has been a place where water, mountains, and commerce meet. In the Edo period Otsu flourished as a port on the Lake Biwa waterway and as one of the fifty-three post stations of the Tokaido, the great road that once carried travellers between the capital and Edo, while pilgrims streamed toward the gates of Onjoji, better known as Miidera Temple.
So many people settled here that by the middle of the Edo period the greater Otsu region had grown into more than a hundred small townships, a density of life still remembered in the proud old name Otsu Hyakucho, the Hundred Towns of Otsu. Over some six hours on foot, this private walk with your local guide follows those historic streets past shopfronts that have kept the same trade for over a century, letting you feel the texture of a traditional Japanese town that history has left remarkably intact.
Along the way you meet the crafts and flavours that made the town famous. You watch Otsu-e, the hand-painted folk pictures still made here in the same manner as in the Edo period, and you taste your way through its long-established shops: Omi tea grown at the foot of Mount Hiei, wagashi sweets, and the pickles once served to temples and the imperial court. The day comes to rest at Miidera Temple, where from the Kannon-do hall a magnificent view opens across the old town and the shining expanse of Lake Biwa.
Details
❖ Ogawa House
10:20 - 10:40 (20 min)
Your walk begins at Ogawa House, a classic Otsu townhouse that is deceptively narrow at the street yet runs far back from its facade. Built at the end of the Edo period, it was altered in the early Showa era, when the front eaves were cut away and the roof raised. Your guide points out where that change is still legible on the east exterior wall, best seen from the adjacent parking lot.
❖ Nakagawa Seiseido Tea Store
10:40 - 11:00 (20 min)
In 805, the monk Saicho is said to have carried a handful of tea seeds home from China and sown them in the village of Otsu at the foot of Mount Hiei, an act that earned him a reputation as the founder of tea in Japan. Nurtured by some 1,200 years of tradition, the Omi tea of Nakagawa Seiseido is prized by tea masters as among the finest in the country, with a depth of flavour that rewards a slow, attentive cup.
❖ Mochihyo
11:05 - 11:15 (10 min)
Mochihyo has been making Japanese sweets here since the Edo period. Its counter runs from familiar classics to wagashi with surprising, inventive fillings, and your guide invites you to choose a favourite to take with you, a small edible souvenir of the day.
❖ Monument of the Otsu Incident
11:20 - 11:30 (10 min)
A modest stone marks the site of the Otsu Incident of 1891, when a Japanese police escort drew his sword and wounded the visiting Russian Crown Prince Nicholas. The affair became a landmark in modern Japanese history: by resisting political pressure over the verdict, the courts affirmed the independence of the judiciary from government interference and gave the young nation an early lesson in the separation of powers.
❖ Fuda-no-Tsuji
11:40 - 11:50 (10 min)
Fuda-no-Tsuji marks the crossroads where the Hokkoku Kaido met the Tokaido. In its heyday this was the busiest spot in all of Otsu, thick with porters and packhorse men, peddlers, innkeepers' touts calling for guests, and travellers streaming in both directions along the great highways.
❖ Lunch
11:50 - 12:50 (1:00 h)
At midday your guide leads you to lunch chosen to suit your appetite: a restaurant serving Omi beef, one of Japan's premier brands of wagyu; a bustling local favourite built around generous set meals; or wherever your curiosity points. You are welcome to decide on the day, though because some restaurants keep their own hours or prefer a reservation, it helps to mention in advance if there is a particular dish you have set your heart on.
❖ Yaoyo
12:50 - 13:00 (10 min)
Yaoyo once held the honour of supplying pickles, its Senmai-zuke and Nagara-zuke, to the Imperial Household Agency. Founded as a pickle shop in 1850, it had earlier prepared vegetarian temple cuisine for Miidera and for Enryakuji on Mount Hiei. Inside, a small trove of history is on display: an official permit from the Ministry of the Imperial Household, newspapers of the day, and dolls presented by the Yanagihara family.
❖ Otsu-e no Mise
13:10 - 13:30 (20 min)
Otsu-e are folk paintings first made by anonymous artists in the early Edo period. This shop is the workshop of the only painter who still creates them entirely by hand, in exactly the manner of those Edo-period masters. Long treasured as a traveller's keepsake, an Otsu-e makes a genuine gift for anyone at home with an eye for authentic art.
❖ Miidera Temple
13:45 - 15:05 (1:20 h)
The walk culminates at Miidera, head temple of the Tendai Jimon school and counted since ancient times among the four great temples of Japan. Within its grounds stand the Kannon-do, the fourteenth stop on the pilgrimage of the thirty-three sacred sites of Kannon in western Japan, and the bell tower whose Mii no Bansho, the evening bell, is one of the celebrated Eight Views of Omi. The temple holds a wealth of other cultural treasures and is famed for its cherry blossoms, which draw crowds of worshippers each spring. From the Kannon-do, a magnificent panorama opens across Lake Biwa.
❖ Nagara Sabo
15:15 - 15:45 (30 min)
The day comes gently to rest at Nagara Sabo. Once a monk's quarters raised in the Edo period, the building was renovated in 2014 and reopened in the spring of 2015 as a tea house. Here you can linger over sencha and hojicha from Shigaraki and Asamiya, served in Shigaraki-ware cups and vessels, all of them made in Shiga Prefecture.
OPTIONS
Notes
The specific shops visited may vary depending on each store's opening days.
Meeting Point
1 Kasugachō, Otsu, Shiga 520-0055. Please meet your guide at the North Exit at 10:00 AM. The tour ends at Keihan Biwako-hamaotsu Station.
What's included:
English-speaking guide
One local souvenir (a wagashi sweet)
Miidera Temple entrance fee
Photos of tour participants
Local tax
What's not included:
Food and drinks
Hotel pick-up and drop-off
Free cancellation up to 8 days before the experience starts (local time)
Private experience
1
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6
Participants
Shiga
From ¥12,000 /person
6 hours
Traveler Photos
From ¥12,000 /person
6 hours
Shiga