JAPN Tsumago to Magome Trail: Walking the Old Nakasendo Highway
Tsumago to Magome Trail: Walking the Old Nakasendo Highway
The Nakasendo Heritage
The Nakasendo was one of five highways connecting Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto during the Tokugawa period, running through the mountainous interior of Honshu rather than following the coastal Tokaido route. Sixty-nine post towns provided lodging, food, and fresh horses for travelers along the 534-kilometer road. Tsumago and Magome in the Kiso Valley of Nagano and Gifu prefectures preserve two of these post towns almost exactly as they appeared centuries ago, connected by an 8-kilometer hiking trail over the Magome Pass.
Tsumago was one of the first towns in Japan to pursue architectural preservation in the 1960s, banning modern alterations to traditional buildings and burying utility lines underground. Wooden inns, shops, and residences with their original dark timber facades, lattice windows, and overhanging second floors line a street where no cars, vending machines, or television antennas intrude. The Waki-honjin residence, a secondary lodging for feudal lords’ retainers, opens as a museum showing the elaborate construction standards required for official accommodation.
Walking the Trail
The trail between Tsumago and Magome crosses the Magome Pass at 801 meters, following stone-paved sections of the original Nakasendo through cedar and cypress forest. The walk takes two to three hours at a comfortable pace with stops. Starting from Magome heading north toward Tsumago follows a net downhill route. Waterfalls at Odaki and Medaki near the midpoint provide rest stops with benches and a tea house selling mochi and hot drinks.
The trail is well-marked with wooden signposts in Japanese and English. A luggage forwarding service between the two towns operates from both tourist information offices for 600 yen per bag, allowing walkers to carry only a day pack. The service accepts bags until 11:30 AM for same-day delivery. In winter, snow covers the trail and makes sections icy, but the stark beauty of snow on thatched roofs and bare forest has its own appeal.
Magome and Practical Tips
Magome arranges its post town buildings along a steep hillside street lined with shops selling gohei mochi (walnut-miso glazed rice on sticks), kuri kinton (chestnut confections), and wooden crafts. The Toson Kinenkan museum honors the novelist Shimazaki Toson, born in Magome in 1872, whose novel Before the Dawn chronicles the Nakasendo post towns’ decline after the Meiji Restoration replaced feudal highways with railways. Magome feels slightly more touristic than Tsumago, with more souvenir shops and cafes.
JR Nagiso Station serves Tsumago via a 10-minute bus ride, and JR Nakatsugawa Station serves Magome similarly. Both connect to Nagoya by JR Shinano limited express in roughly 70 minutes. An overnight in a traditional minshuku in either town, sleeping on tatami with a home-cooked dinner of mountain vegetables, river fish, and soba noodles, deepens the historical immersion beyond a day walk. The Kiso Valley also contains Narai, a third preserved post town accessible by train that sees fewer visitors.
Staying on the Nakasendo
An overnight in a traditional minshuku in either town, sleeping on tatami with a home-cooked dinner of mountain vegetables, river fish, and handmade soba noodles, deepens the historical immersion beyond a day walk. The Kiso Valley also contains Narai, a third preserved post town accessible by train that sees fewer visitors and stretches over a full kilometer of unbroken traditional buildings. The Narai-juku preservation district retains the feel of an active community rather than a tourist attraction, with residents going about daily life in houses that have served families for generations. Sake breweries in Narai offer tastings of local nihonshu brewed with mountain spring water.
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