Saga Toriimoto Historic Street

Saga Toriimoto sits at the foot of the first torii gate leading up to Atago Shrine, about a 30-minute walk west of Arashiyama. The main street is lined with well-maintained buildings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a mix of merchant townhouses and farmers' residences with latticed windows, stucco walls, and thatched or tiled roofs. The area was nationally designated an Important Preservation District in 1979 and has stayed quieter than the Arashiyama crowds. Several historic buildings have become cafes, antique shops, and teahouses. The Saga Toriimoto Town Preservation Center, housed in a Meiji-era merchant house, displays old photographs and a large diorama of the neighborhood as it appeared in 1930.