Sanmachi, Takayama

Sanmachi is a merchant town at the heart of the castle town of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. It was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings on 3 February 1979 and covers 4.4 hectares. According to the Takayama City preservation plan, the district centers on Ichibancho, Nibancho and Sanbancho (later Ichinomachi, Ninomachi and Sannomachi), the first merchant quarters to be laid out, and includes part of Katahara-machi. Its area was enlarged in 1997.

The town began in 1586 (Tensho 14), when Kanamori Nagachika entered Hida. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had granted him the whole province of Hida, assessed at 38,000 koku, and he began building Takayama Castle, which was completed in 1605 (Keicho 10). The castle town was built in an area of about 500 meters east to west and 600 meters north to south, enclosed by the Ena River and the Miya River, with the high ground to the east for samurai, the low ground to the west for townspeople, and temples gathered across the Ena River. When the sixth lord, Kanamori Yoritoki, was transferred to Kaminoyama in Dewa in 1692 (Genroku 5), Takayama became shogunate land. The samurai quarter shrank, the townspeople's area expanded, Takayama Jin'ya was placed on the west bank of the Miya River, and the castle was demolished. The merchant town that Sanmachi shows belongs to this period as shogunate-governed Takayama.

The great fire of 1832 (Tenpo 3) also damaged Kami-Ichinomachi, Kami-Ninomachi and Kami-Sannomachi, but rebuilding followed the inherited style. As a result, the look of a merchant district that prospered until recent times is still strong. The preservation plan sees the value of the district in a combination of things. First, street lines almost unchanged since the town was laid out. Next, townhouses of similar design along those streets, with gentle roof pitches, long low eaves, short lean-to roofs at an even height and aligned façades. And finally, the row of storehouses running behind them.

To read a townhouse, first look at the half-story upper floor and the small roof attached at its waist. Following the details with the plan as a guide, the eaves are deep enough to reach out over the street, while the lean-to roof beneath them is very short and nearly even in height. Most of the ground-floor front is fine-barred lattice, and many houses are said to have once had shitomi shutters. On the second floor, the front is opened widely between the posts, and most houses fit it with board lattice or board slats. Gentle roofs, deep eaves and fine lattice together give the row of townhouses its unity. The standards for new construction build on this form: buildings on the street must have eaves projecting at least 1 meter, with eave height kept within 4.5 meters of the road surface as far as possible.

Do not overlook the storehouses behind. Since the Edo period they have served as firebreaks protecting residents. Because wooden buildings stand densely together, the plan makes disaster prevention a priority and also uses the passages between storehouses as evacuation routes. Katahara-machi forms the riverside landscape on the right bank of the Miya River, and its streetscape is made of the storehouses behind Kami-Sannomachi and the buildings facing the river. Go beyond the front of the street to the Miya River and check its position relative to the west bank where Takayama Jin'ya stood, and the change from castle town to shogunate-governed town becomes easier to understand.