Overturning urban planning and restoring the old to shine anew. A visit to Murakami, a miraculous town.

To become a town chosen as a tourist destination, to become a town with brand power...

Recently, various regional revitalization efforts are being made all over the country. It's not hard to imagine that there are many hurdles to overcome for success, such as securing human resources and funding, and coordinating with the local government.

It takes time, and we often hear stories of projects falling through.

However, in Murakami City, Niigata Prefecture, there is one business owner who has achieved attractive town development at a low cost, without relying on the local government.

Moreover, instead of "new town development," he pursued "old town development" and transformed a decaying castle town into a place that attracts 300,000 visitors from all over the country each year.

Is modernization truly a blessing for a town?

The stage is Murakami City, Niigata Prefecture, a castle town. It is said to be a rare town in Japan, with the ruins of Murakami Castle, which is believed to have existed in the 16th century, as well as samurai residences, merchant houses, and temple districts remaining. The floats of the Murakami Festival, a summer festival that has continued for nearly 400 years, were recognized for their high value and registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2025.

The picturesque townscape and culture that convey such a long history to the present day attract many tourists from all over the country, but this scene has actually only been around for the past 20 years or so.

Before that, concrete block walls and arcades hid the charming townscape, and in 1997, a plan was announced to widen the road in the central shopping district, making it three times its original width. It was a town promoting modernization.

The person who put a stop to this was a local young man in his 30s at the time.

This was Shinji Kikkawa, the 15th generation of a long-established business that had cultivated the local food culture in Murakami for 400 years, and who ran the family business of manufacturing and selling salmon products.

"At a product exhibition in Tokyo where I had a stall, I met Mr. Daisuke Igarashi, who was then the chairman of the National Townscape Preservation Federation. He told me, 'Murakami has wonderful things remaining as a precious castle town, so if you go through with the construction, you will severely lose its value and it will become just another ordinary town. There isn't a single local shopping street that has succeeded by widening its roads.' I felt that I had to do something."

Kikkawa, believing that Murakami would be ruined if he didn't speak up, began a petition campaign against the widening project the following year. However, this was a complete failure. He faced strong opposition from both the administration and local residents, and quickly had to give up.

Are "bad towns" and "attractive towns" two sides of the same coin?

It would be reckless to go against the changes in the town all by himself, and it would not be surprising if he had given up at this point.

However, Kikkawa, keeping in mind Igarashi's advice that "there are many towns nationwide that have succeeded by utilizing their history, and Murakami has the potential to do so," decided to shift his activities from opposing the project to focusing on highlighting Murakami's strengths.

He believed that preserving and utilizing old things was the only way to protect the town, and that the decision for the urban planning road would surely be re-evaluated someday.

He steered his efforts based solely on that belief.

However, there's a common phrase heard in rural areas:

"My town has nothing."

In fact, when Kikkawa himself walked around the town looking for its good points, seeing the old arcade street, he honestly thought, "This is a bad town."

Then, one day, a customer visited Kikkawa's shop, "Kikkawa." Inside the machiya-style building, built in the Meiji era, over 1,000 salmon were hung, a truly magnificent sight. However, the customer from Kyushu, after enjoying the sight of the salmon, stayed in the living room for an hour, saying, "What a nice building."

"I found it strange why they would say the building was nice... But then I realized. Indeed, if I had been born and raised in Tokyo, I would surely be surprised by the appearance of this machiya," said Kikkawa.

Murakami's machiya are traditional buildings crafted by local master carpenters, "Murakami Daiku," during the Meiji period. Inside, they feature a hearth, beams, a main pillar, a god shelf, and a Buddhist altar, with a magnificent open-ceiling structure that creates a distinctive and tasteful ambiance.

The charm that could be a symbol of Murakami lies not on the outside, but on the inside.

That's what Kikkawa realized.

From here, his remarkable progress began.

30,000 visitors from across Japan, driven by "citizen leadership × low cost × utilizing existing resources"

To draw attention to the interior of the machiya, Kikkawa first created a hand-drawn machiya map. Once installed in the town, travelers began to appear, map in hand, to visit the machiya.

Feeling encouraged, Kikkawa, together with like-minded colleagues, formed the "Murakami Machiya Merchant Association" and in 2003, conceived the "Machiya Hina Doll Tour." For one month from mid-February, various dolls, including Hina dolls, were displayed in the machiya throughout the city, and the residents guided visitors. In its first year, 65 houses participated.

▲Murakami City bustling during the Machiya Hina Doll Tour, as it was at the time.

Kikkawa describes his feelings at the time: "I went into it with a do-or-die attitude, determined to make it a success. If it failed, I would be branded with 'I told you so' and 'a town can't be revitalized by old things.'"

At this time, Kikkawa focused on media promotion, and among them, the introduction on the art program "Nichiyo Bijutsukan" (NHK), which he directly negotiated with the desk editor, caused an enormous sensation.

"From the day after the broadcast, people flocked from all over the country, from Hokkaido to Kyushu, and 30,000 people came to Murakami in the first year. Even cultural figures came and raved about the Hina doll tour, the machiya, and Murakami."

It's true that when outsiders praised the machiya as "wonderful" and "enviable," which had been old, cold, and dark dwellings, the perceptions of the townspeople changed. What's more, the total cost for map and poster production, plus miscellaneous expenses, was a surprising 350,000 yen.

Furthermore, realizing that "a single annual event isn't enough," he then launched the "Machiya Folding Screen Festival" in the autumn, a month-long event where visitors could view folding screens that had been passed down through families.

▲The Machiya Folding Screen Festival, at the time, attracting tourists from all over Japan.

Like the Hina doll tour, it gained a good reputation, and JR even ran a steam locomotive to Murakami, appearing to achieve significant results, but the road widening project did not stop.

"It was a huge shock. So, I decided then that we would no longer rely on the administration, but improve our town with our own hands."

Making the town older is what will change Murakami's future.

After establishing the two annual events, the Hina doll tour and the folding screen festival, Kikkawa and his team's next policy was to create a town where visitors could always experience the unique charm of Murakami.

The "Black Fence Project," launched in 2002, was a landscape revitalization plan for the charming alleyways of the castle town stretching from the shopping district to the temple town. It was a cost-effective "dare to make it old" approach, covering the concrete block walls surrounding traditional buildings with traditional black fences.

As Kikkawa says, "We created a fait accompli through citizen action," and with participation from children to the elderly, the black fences, created by collecting money from supporters under the name "Black Fence 1,000 Yen Campaign," reached an astonishing total length of 460 meters. The number of visitors to the town increased tenfold, and it also led to increased sales in the shopping district.

▲The Black Fence Project in action, with many people participating in town building.

Even though national delegations visited to observe the many successful examples of "town development that leverages history as Murakami's town development," the local administration did not change its policy towards modernization.

So, next, in 2004, they launched the "Murakami Machiya Revitalization Project," which involved renovating the exteriors of machiya. They solicited 10 million yen in donations annually and established a system to subsidize up to 800,000 yen, or 60% of the cost, for renovation work. This kind of initiative by the private sector was the first of its kind in Japan. The design, which included benefits for supporters, was truly crowdfunding!

With the call that "changing the appearance of shops will be a force to change Murakami's future," the number of supporters grew, and as the scenery actually changed, the debate over whether modernization or history was more important for the town became active.

Then, 18 years after Kikkawa began his town development efforts, the administration finally decided to promote town development that utilized history.

Kikkawa and his team continued their activities thereafter. Over approximately 20 years, they revitalized 74 machiya and raised 65 million yen. The arcade that covered the shopping street was also removed, and Murakami became known as a town brimming with old-world charm.

▲Before and after photos of stores that underwent exterior renovation work. Kikkawa's expression as he explained them radiated joy, as if it were yesterday.

Passion and conviction overturned urban planning.

Before Kikkawa took action, Murakami certainly had a history as a castle town, but there were not many opportunities to discover value in its townscape.

However, after starting activities in 1998, the first machiya with exterior renovation was completed in 2004. It's clear that there was a rapid and significant change in both the town's appearance and the feelings of its residents.

One might attribute this success to "Murakami having machiya" or "Kikkawa being the head of a long-established business."

However, Kikkawa himself initially felt that Murakami was a "bad town." He had no know-how, no ample budget, and no consultants.

He also faced many difficulties that pushed him to the brink of giving up.

However, he always had an unwavering passion and conviction for his hometown. Perhaps, it all starts from there.

Murakami, a miraculous town that polished its oldness and where citizens overturned administrative urban planning. Why not take a trip to experience the charm of this castle town that has been preserved and passed down?