Motoyama-juku (Motoyama-juku) Location: Shiojiri City, Soga Honzan

Motoyama prospered as the gateway to Kiso Road and the exit from the Matsumoto Plain. Two-story houses with latticework fronts line the streets, preserving a strong sense of the past. The town is also introduced as the birthplace of sobakiri (cut buckwheat noodles).

In Keicho 19 (1614), Shiojiri, Seba, and Motoyama were designated as new post towns on the Nakasendo. Unlike Shiojiri and Seba, which were formed by relocating people from neighboring villages, Motoyama developed from a medieval settlement.
It was the 32nd station counting from Edo, situated 30 cho from Seba Post Town and 2 ri from Niegawa Inn (Niegawa-juku).

The post town divided into Kamimachi to the south and Shimomachi to the north, with the honjin, wakimotonjin, and dispatch office at its center. South of the town stood Hachiman Shrine, Choukyuuji, and Joukouji; to the north was Suwa Shrine, and across the Narai River lay Ikeo Shrine, though some temples were later abandoned. Because Motoyama bordered the Owari Domain in Kiso, a checkpoint was located south of the town to inspect women and timber.
In Tenpo 14 (1843) the town had 117 households and 34 inns. Compared with Seba Post Town’s three-ken frontage, many houses in Motoyama had four- to five-ken facades.

The town suffered several great fires, but surviving buildings date from the late Edo to Meiji periods. Facing the street, they feature hirairi degekata construction and second-floor rooms with senbon-koshi lattices, retaining much of the post town atmosphere.

Notably, three residences built around the Meiji era—the Akiyama Family (Wakamatsuya), the Tanaka Family (Ikeda family), and the Kobayashi Family (Kawaguchi Family)—are registered tangible cultural properties of Japan.
The honjin, Kobayashi residence, hosted Princess Kazunomiya, daughter of Emperor Ninkō, when she married Tokugawa Iemochi in Bunkyū 1 (1861), and it later accommodated the Meiji Emperor during his tour in Meiji 13.
Each house still carries its traditional shop name, offering a glimpse into the past.

The town’s specialty is soba. A note by Unrin in Hōei 3 (1706) in the miscellany Fūzoku Bunsen records Motoyama as the birthplace of sobakiri.

Historic sites include the Motoyama Castle Ruins on a small hill behind the town, said to have been guarded by the Motoyama Minbu branch of the Kiso clan; Ike no Gongen (Ikeo Shrine), known for votive plaques for rain rituals, sericulture, and eye disease cures, whose shrine grove is a Shiojiri City natural monument; and the Shitamachi Stone Figure Group, featuring Dosojin, Koshin stone monuments, and inscribed tablets.

For articles on the Nakasendo and the city’s five post towns, click here↓