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Hospitality and Relaxation in Yazu, Tottori

HOME > Japan’s Local Treasures > Hospitality and Relaxation in Yazu, Tottori

Traditional buildings, houses, ryokan inns, cafes, historic mansions, and a prized Japanese garden

San’in Tourism Organization

Tottori Prefecture, known for its mountainous countryside and coastal sand dunes, is also home to Yazu, a district where Edo period (1603–1867) daimyo lords and their entourages once stayed during their travels to and from the capital.

During the Edo period, daimyo lords were required to alternate their residencies between Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and their own fiefdoms, spending up to a year at a time serving the shogunate in the capital. The Yazu district developed around Chizu, one of many areas in Japan that flourished as rest-stop “post towns” at which lords and their hundreds of retainers would stay midway along their journeys to and from Edo.

Today, the Yazu district retains the ambience of an area of hospitality and relaxation, with easy access via train, traditional-style inns, cafes in renovated old homes, and other establishments that take advantage of the area’s scenery.

Visit the Ishitani Residence in Chizu, a group of historical buildings, including a mansion and several store houses, and explore architecture dating from the late Edo period to the Showa era (1926–1989). Many of the mansion’s 40 traditional-style rooms also offer a view of the residence’s Japanese garden, a designated Place of Scenic Beauty in Japan.

For a taste of local cuisine, the restaurant and cafe Mitakien, also in Chizu, sits within a forest glade with its own babbling brook. Here, visitors can enjoy Japanese dishes within one of six traditional-style buildings, each offering views of the woodland.

How to get there

It takes about 1 hour from Himeji Station or 2 hours from Osaka by direct train to JR Chizu Station, then about a 10-minute walk. It takes about 37 minutes by car from Tottori Airport.

396 Chizu, Chizu-cho, Yazu-gun, Tottori-ken