Mimitsu

Mimitsu was the port of the Takanabe domain at the mouth of the Mimitsu river, and in the late Edo and Meiji periods its shipping agents handled the coastal trade up and down the Pacific side of Kyushu. The street plan and the buildings from that trade survive — white plaster storehouses, lattice fronts, stone-paved lanes — over about seven hectares designated as a national preservation district.

It is also, according to the Nihon Shoki, where Emperor Jimmu launched the fleet for his eastern campaign, and the town's Okiyo festival relates to that departure. The Hyuga City Museum of History and Folklore occupies one of the merchant houses, and Mimitsuken, a restored agent's house, is free. It is quiet, small and almost entirely undiscovered by visitors who go to Takachiho instead.