Local Secret · Hongo

Kikuzaka & Higuchi Ichiyo's Well 菊坂・樋口一葉旧居跡

A gently curving Hongo slope whose narrow side alleys hide wooden lodging houses, stone steps and the hand-pump well used by the novelist Higuchi Ichiyo, Meiji-era Tokyo, steps from the University of Tokyo.

HoursOpen access (residential area)

ClosedOpen daily

PriceFree

Getting thereHongo-sanchome Station (Marunouchi/Oedo Lines), 5 min

Time needed30–45 min

Best timeWeekday mornings

Address4–5 Hongo, Bunkyo City, Tokyo

About

Kikuzaka ("chrysanthemum slope") winds down from Hongo-dori through a pocket of old Tokyo that survived both the 1923 earthquake and wartime bombing. In the late 19th century this was a district of boarding houses for students and writers, and Higuchi Ichiyo, the Meiji writer who appeared on the ¥5,000 note from 2004 to 2024, lived here in poverty in her teens. Down a tiny stepped alley below the main slope you can still find the old iron hand pump of the well she drew water from, surrounded by two- and three-storey wooden houses with potted plants spilling over the steps. Nearby stands the old Iseya pawnshop where she pawned her possessions. The whole area is residential and photogenic in a quiet, lived-in way.

Highlights

Curving slope lined with old Hongo houses and shops
Higuchi Ichiyo's well with its working iron hand pump
Narrow stepped alleys with wooden Meiji–Showa lodging houses
The old Iseya pawnshop building linked to Ichiyo's diaries
Five minutes from the University of Tokyo's Akamon gate

Tips

The well is down a narrow alley on the lower (south) side of Kikuzaka, look for the stone steps.
People live here: keep voices down and do not photograph residents or block doorways.
Start at Hongo-sanchome Station and walk down Kikuzaka, then loop back up via the parallel lower lane.
Combine with the University of Tokyo campus and Sanshiro Pond.

Open in Google Maps · Info checked 2026-10-09

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