Sawara town located in Katori District, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Katori City is located in the northeastern part of Chiba Prefecture, about 70 km from Tokyo and 15 km from Narita International Airport. This town is historical town that has calm to river flowing on the lagoon. The city is selected by the government as a major building and house reflects the way of life. Sa’dah is a small town of Narita, which flourished in the Edo Period (1603-1867) as a transportation hub for grain export. Historical Center of Sakti Located along the canal and is known as “Little Eden”. This town is often used as a location for filming TV dramas and movies.
Sawara flourished based on water transport and was once even called “Edo masari” (superior to Tokyo) in the Edo-period. People there incorporated various elements of Edo culture while also establishing their own unique culture. Along the Onogawa River and Katori street, there are still many buildings and facilities which remind us of Sawara’s former prosperity. These attract many overseas tourists to the region. In 1996, Sawara became the first area in the Kanto region to be designated as an “Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Building” for its efforts to preserve those historic facilities and improve its landscape by fully utilizing such structures. It was also introduced in the Michelin Green Guide Japan in 2015. The boat tour of the Onogawa River, which runs through the central part of the region, is especially popular among sightseers.
Where to go:
1. Sawara Old Town
Sawara was formerly a rice-growing region, developed as a logistics base for river transportation to transport rice to Edo City (former Tokyo). Since the development of waterway also so encouraged business in Sawara that wealthy merchants had built solid houses along a stream in the central town which visitors can still find to this day.
2. Suigo Sawara Ayame Park
Formerly known as Suigo Sawara Municipal Aquatic Botanical Garden. This aquatic botanical garden is the most exquisite Japanese Iris garden in Asia, where 1500 thousand iris in 400 different varieties are planted. The irises are at their peak from the May to June. In July and August, visitors can enjoy the splendid view of lotus flowers, the largest collection in Japan including more than 300 varieties. Admission fee varies depending on the season from 200 Yen to 800 Yen.
3. Katori-jingu Shrine
Katori-jingu Shrine is one of the largest and major Shrines in Japan founded about 2600 years ago. In Japan, there are 400 shrines named “Katori”-jinja(=shrine) and the “Katori”-jingu(=prime shrine) is the head shrine. Katori-jingu. Katori Jingu have been established in 43 B.C. and enshrines Futsunushino Mikoto, a deity who is believed to have helped establish Japan. Futsunushino Mikoto, honored at the shrine, has traditionally been respected as a god to keep the nation tranquil. Before the beginning of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), only 3 shrines; Ise Jingu, Katori Jingu and Kashima Jingu, had been given Jingu (historic Shinto shrine) status, meaning that Katori Jingu is an extremely prestigious shrine.
Katori Jingu is the head of the 400 Katori Jinja shrines throughout the country. Its main building, the Sakura (cherry tree) Gate and the prayer hall were constructed in 1700 during the Edo Period (1603-1867). Since ancient times, Katori Jingu has been respected by many people, as the god enshrined there is believed to mitigate natural disasters and provide protection. Since a power struggle worsened during the Heian Period (794-1185), Katori Jingu, along with Kashima Jingu, has won the respect of the public as a facility honoring a god of the martial arts. Its treasure house stores Kaiju Budo Kyo (mirror decorated with marine mammals and grape vines), which is deemed as one of the 3 prominent mirrors of Japan and designated a national treasure. source by http://www.suigo-sawara.ne.jp
4. Kanpukuji Temple
Kanpukuji Temple is about 20-minute walk from JR Sawara Station and belongs to the Buzan sect of Shingon Buddhism. The large temple is regarded as one of the 3 great anti-evil “daishi” temples in the Kanto region, along with Kawasaki Daishi and Nishiarai Daishi. 4 important cultural properties, including a seated statue of Shakyamuni Tathagata, are stored at the temple. It is said that Kanpukuji was established more than 1,100 years ago.
5. Suwa Jinja
Suwa Jinja, located on a high ground west of the Onogawa River, is an 8-minute walk from JR Sawara Station. Suwa Jinja is said to date back to around 1694, when local people started honoring a protective deity of the region during the Edo Period (1603-1867). The current main building of the shrine was built in 1853 in the Edo Period. While the biannual “Sawara Grand Festival” is held every July and October, the autumn festival is organized by Suwa Jinja. In the fall festival, 14 luxurious and splendid floats parade the streets. The float parade, along with a similar event in the Sawara summer festival of the Yasaka Jinja Shrine, is designated a significant intangible folk cultural asset by the central government. Suwa Jinja enshrines a god of war named “Takeminakata no Mikoto.”
6. Yasaka Jinja
Yasaka Jinja in Sawara started as a facility to honor Gozu Tenno, a deity believed to cause the pandemic of infectious diseases, so that epidemics could be prevented, following the example of the Gion-sha Shrine (present-day Yasaka Jinja) in Kyoto, which enshrines the same god. Facilities sacred to Gozu Tenno across Japan were renamed as Yasaka Jinja in 1868, when the edict for separation of Shinto and Buddhism was issued. In line with the change, the Yasaka Jinja Shrine in Sawara began enshrining the famous Susanoo no Mikoto deity instead of Gozu Tenno. Yasaka Jinja’s festival, part of the biannual Sawara Grand Festival, is known as Gion Matsuri and held on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday immediately following July 10.
7. Toyohashi or Ja Ja bridge
Toyohashi is a small bridge over the Onogawa River. Toyohashi was once used as an irrigation channel to supply water through a conduit inside the bridge. It used to provide water for rice paddies below where JR Sawara Station now stands. The bridge-type waterway, which is situated near the home of Inoh Tadataka (1745-1818) and crosses the Onogawa River, was built to carry water from the upper reaches of the river to the region. Toyohashi was a rare type of bridge in that it carried water across a river. When water was needed during the rice planting season, Toyohashi provided water to the rice fields by covering its bottom center and both sides with boards.
8. Sawara Machigurumi Museum
Sawara Machigurumi Hakubutsukan or Sawara town-wide museum is museum about traditional “hina” dolls and various old tools. This place have long been carefully stored at private shops and houses that almost maintain their original appearance dating back to the Edo Period (1603-1867). Around 1988, a merchant home in Sawara began exhibiting hina dolls and old tools, and the “hina dolls of the Inoh family” have gone on display at the Inoh Tadataka Museum.
9. Sawara Mitsubishi building
Sawara Mitsubishi building is a 15-minute walk from JR Sawara Station. The facility was designated a tangible cultural property by Chiba Prefecture. In 1880, Kawasaki Bank opened its Sawara branch, as the distribution business grew in the nation. The Sawara branch became Kawasaki Bank’s official branch office 8 years later. The building currently remaining in Sawara was one built in 1914. The branch office became the Sawara branch of Mitsubishi Bank in 1943, and was donated by Mitsubishi Bank to Katori City in 1989. Made of bricks, the two-story, Western-style building has an atrium inside and there is a corridor on the second floor.
How to get there:
By train:
- From Keisei Ueno Station, take the Keisei Honsen train and get off at Keisei Narita station. Take a one-min walk to JR Narita Station about 50m away. (about 70 mins. arrive)
- From JR Narita Station, take a train on the JR Narita-sen Line JR成田線 and get off at Sawara station (佐原駅) (About 30 min. arrive). and take about 10 mins. walk from Sawara station to the old district. (There are two JR Narita-sen lines. Be sure to take a JR Narita-sen line bound for Matsugishi station or Chofu station.)
