Things to Do

Echizen's strongest sights are linked by craft rather than by a single old quarter. Start with knives or paper, then add the shrine and literary park if you have the day.

Guide

Things to Do

01

Takefu Knife Village

Takefu Knife Village is the clearest travel reason to stop in Echizen. The building is a shared workshop used by local blade makers, with …

Sight
02

Echizen Washi Village

Echizen Washi Village is the paper-making district around Shinzaike-cho, where small facilities explain and keep alive one of Japan's classic washi traditions. The Paper …

Sight
03

Okamoto and Otaki Shrine

Okamoto and Otaki Shrine is the spiritual centre of Echizen's paper country. It is dedicated to Kawakami Gozen, the paper-making deity said to have …

Sight
04

Jofuku-ji Temple Garden

Jofuku-ji Temple Garden is a quiet Japanese garden of rocks, sand, moss, and seasonal planting, with views toward Mount Hino. The temple is linked …
05

Murasaki Shikibu Park

Murasaki Shikibu Park marks the year the author of *The Tale of Genji* spent in Echizen with her father, who had been appointed governor …

Sight
06

Kura-no-Tsuji

Historic Takefu warehouse quarter with white-walled kura

Sight
07

Gosho-ji Temple

Gosho-ji Temple is one of the head temples of the Shinshu Buddhist tradition. Its large halls, zelkova-wood gate, sutra storehouse, and bell tower make …
08

Hino Shrine

Shrine at the foot of sacred Mount Hino, the Fuji of Echizen

Sight
09

Yanagi Falls

Yanagi Falls is a quiet waterfall area in the hills east of central Echizen. The best-known cascade is Nuno Fall, named for its thin, …

Sight
10

Oshio Hachiman Shrine

Oshio Hachiman Shrine is a quiet historic shrine in Echizen with origins traditionally traced to 887. The story links it to Kino Tomonaka, who …
11

Ruins of Komaru Castle

The Ruins of Komaru Castle preserve foundations, a gate remnant, and roof tiles from a short-lived castle built in the late 1500s by Sassa …
12

Gekkō-ji Temple

Gekkō-ji Temple was founded in the 1840s to memorialize victims of the Tenpō famine. Its main hall is known for a large copper Buddha, …

Sight
13

Man'yo Kikka-en

Man'yo Kikka-en is Echizen's chrysanthemum exhibition hall, best known for the flower dolls shown during the Kikuningyo Festival in Takefu Central Park. The displays …

Sight
14

Omushi Shrine

Omushi Shrine is an old local shrine with roots said to reach back more than a thousand years. The present buildings are modern, but …

Sight
15

Man'yo-kan

Man'yo-kan is a small literary museum devoted to the Man'yoshu, Japan's oldest major poetry collection. Some poems in the anthology are associated with the …

Museum
16

Takefu Town Hall Museum

Takefu Town Hall Museum preserves a 1929 civic building and uses it for local-history displays, cultural projects, concerts, and seminars. It is a modest …

Museum