By Ayano Nomizu / Special to Ryoko Yomiuri Publication 11:50 JST, May 29, 2024 Nikko Suginamiki Kaido (Nikko Cedar Avenue) is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest tree-lined avenue. The name sounds like a single street, but it is not. Cedar trees line 37 kilometers along three roads, Nikko Kaido, Reiheishi Kaido and Aizu Nishi Kaido.

These three roads meet at Imaichijuku, just before Nikko. The Nikko Kaido — one of the five major routes of the Edo period (1603-1867) — is home to many famous cedar trees that are living witnesses to the city’s history, where the Tokugawa shoguns used to parade when they visited the Nikko Shrine. I walked around the area, aiming for 10,000 steps, to rediscover its charms and to immerse myself in the mood of a traveler in the Edo period.

The cedar trees in Nikko were planted over more than 20 years of work by Matsudaira Masatsuna, who served three shoguns, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hidetada and Iemitsu, and donated them to Nikko Toshogu shrine. The question is, why were cedar trees planted? Hiroaki Fukuda of the Nikko Museum of History and Folklore, which has many exhibits on the cedar trees, said, “It is said that the cedar trees were appropriate for the approach to the Nikko Toshogu shrine because people felt the divine spirit in the appearance of the cedar trees growing into the sky.” First, take a bus from Nikko Kaido, a six-minute walk from Imaichi Station on the JR Nikko Line or Shimo-Imaichi Station on the.