Toyoma Old Town

ToyomaMeiji architectureTomeEducation Museumsamurai houses

Miyagi · Tome

38.6561°N, 141.2802°E

Toyoma was the seat of a branch of the Date and then a Meiji administrative centre, and it kept the buildings from both periods: samurai houses and storehouse merchants' fronts from the domain years, and a run of Western-style public buildings from the 1880s. Locally it is called the Meiji village of Miyagi.

The best of them is the former Toyoma Higher Elementary School of 1888, a two-storey timber building with a balcony and a colonnade, now the Education Museum and a national Important Cultural Property. Next to it the former police station of 1889 is the only museum in Japan devoted to police history. Shunrantei, a samurai house over two hundred years old, serves matcha in its thatched interior. Tickets for the museums are sold at the tourism centre.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Streets open at all times | Museums keep daytime hours

Closed: Streets open year-round | Museums have their own rest days — confirm before travelling

Entrance Fee

Free streets | Museums charged individually, with combined tickets at the tourism centre

Best Season

Year-round

Visit Duration

3 hours

Getting There

Access Information

Toyoma-machi, Tome, on the Kitakami river. About 5 minutes by car from Tome IC on the Sanriku Expressway, or about 1 hour 30 minutes by highway bus from JR Sendai Station to Toyoma. The streets are free to walk. The Education Museum in the former Toyoma Higher Elementary School of 1888 is a national Important Cultural Property; the Police Museum occupies the former Toyoma police station of 1889 and is the only museum of its kind in Japan. Combined tickets for the district's museums are sold at the Toyoma Tourism and Products Center Tohyama-no-Sato. Shunrantei, a samurai residence over 200 years old, serves matcha and sweets.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Buy the combined ticket.** Sold at the tourism centre and covering the district's museums, which are scattered along the street and priced individually otherwise. **The school is the building to see.** 1888, two storeys of timber with a balcony and colonnade, and an Important Cultural Property. The classrooms are laid out as they were. **The police museum is unique.** The only one in Japan, in the 1889 station, in use until 1968. It is small and genuinely odd. **Have matcha at Shunrantei.** A samurai house over two hundred years old with a thatched roof, serving tea. It is the quietest thing in the district. **It is rice country.** Toyoma sits between the Kitakami river and the paddies that produce Sasanishiki and Hitomebore. The drive in through them is part of it.

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