Last Updated: Sep 10, 2023

Takehara City

The “Little Kyoto” of Hiroshima Prefecture

Today, I’d like to introduce you to a part of Hiroshima Prefecture that not many tourists know about. Known as Takehara (lit. “Bamboo Field”), this locale was an important port town on the Seto Inland Sea during the Edo period (1603–1868). The homely hamlet specialized in the production of both sake and salt and has a history that reaches back hundreds of years to when it was a subsidiary of Kyoto’s Shimogamo Shrine. Today, you can still see many of the old houses that belonged to Takehara’s affluent merchants. Thanks to these structures, the town has earned itself the nickname the “Little Kyoto” of Aki, the former name for Hiroshima Prefecture.

Unlike with the eternally popular Miyajima and the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima City, Takehara is a place that is still located far off of the beaten path. Thus, if you visit Takehara, you’re likely to be one of the only non-Japanese travelers there that day. Thanks to this, you can experience strolling around the streets of Takehara without the need to deal with the annoying crowds that you might find at comparable destinations elsewhere in Japan. If you’ve ever been to Kawagoe in Saitama Prefecture, Takehara has a very similar vibe but without the normal throngs of people that you tend to find at these kinds of…