The namakowalls — those raised white-grid patterns pressed into dark plaster — run the length of the old merchant quarter, broken here and there by heavy timber gates that once belonged to prosperous trading families. This is Murata-machi, tucked into a basin where hills close in from three sides and the Arakawa River passes quietly to the east. The geography, enclosed and self-contained, suited the commerce that once moved through here: safflower in the Edo period, silkworm cocoons in the Meiji years, goods that required warehousing, handling, and the particular patience of merchant culture. The Kyū-Ōnuma-ke Jūtaku, among the designated traditional buildings preserved in the Murata historic district, still carries the proportions of that era — thick walls, deep eaves, a certain gravity in the stonework.
Walk the town-house streets during the Kura no Kōgeishi, when the old storehouses open for a craft market, and the buildings cease to be merely scenic. Potters, glass workers, and grass-dye artists spread their work inside spaces that once held bales and bolts. In a different season, the Murata Shinsoba Matsuri draws attention to the buckwheat grown in the surrounding fields — tamamura no soba, as the local variety is known. Soramame, too, appear in processed forms at stalls and shops, a crop the town has made quietly its own alongside miso and local sake.
What sits oddly, and interestingly, alongside all this is Sportsland SUGO, a full international racing circuit operating in the same municipality. The roar carries over the hills on race weekends, a reminder that Murata holds more than one kind of energy within its basin walls.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
Booking through these links supports AURA at no extra cost to you.
What converges here
1 in this town. 31 within 25 km of the town office.
- 村田町歴史みらい館
- Shibata Local Museum・Exhibition Hall "Shigenkaku"
- 国営みちのく杜の湖畔公園ふるさと村
- Sendai Kaleidoscope Museum
- Miyagi Zaō Kokeshi Museum
See the nearest 25
- Sendai City Jōmon Site Park
- Watari Municipal Museum
- Natori City Museum of History and Folklore
- Shiroishi ningyō no kura
- Al Siraaj
- Sendai Astronomical Observatory
- Yajirō Kokeshi Village
- Kakuda Historical Museum
- Tohoku University Museum
- Aoba Castle Museum
- Sendai City Museum
- 仙臺緑彩館
- Miyagi Museum of Art
- Tohoku Gakuin University Museum
- Bansui Sōdō
- Kamei Museum
- Shimakawa Art Museum
- Tohoku Fukushi University Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum
- Natori City Earthquake Reconstruction Museum
- Sendai City Museum of History and Folklore
- Yamamoto Town Museum of History and Folklore
- Seishi Nakamoto Museum of Contemporary Art
- Marumori Local Museum
- Sendai Literature Museum
- せんだい3.11メモリアル交流館
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026.
- Murata-cho Murata Important Preservation District for Historic Buildings
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Kyu Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence
- Former Onuma Family Residence