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Mizuki Shigeru Road in Sakaiminato with its green clock-topped road sign and shopping street
Photo: Aimaimyi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tottori · old town

Mizuki Shigeru Road

水木しげるロード

A shopping street in Sakaiminato, hometown of GeGeGe no Kitaro creator Mizuki Shigeru: over 170 bronze yokai on 800 m, with yokai shadows at night.

Yokai Shrine, a small wooden shrine on Mizuki Shigeru Road in Sakaiminato
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. おぉたむすねィく探検隊 assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pink character-wrapped train on the JR Sakai Line at Sakaiminato Station
Photo: Aimaimyi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A shopping street revived by yokai

Mizuki Shigeru Road is a street of about 800 m running from JR Sakaiminato Station to the Mizuki Shigeru Memorial Museum in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture. Both sides are lined with bronze statues of yokai (mysterious creatures and ghosts from Japanese folklore).

The manga artist Mizuki Shigeru (1922 to 2015) grew up in Sakaiminato, and through his best-known work, GeGeGe no Kitaro, he made yokai famous all over Japan. The road was born in 1993. The shopping street was turning into a "shutter street", with shop shutters staying down, and to bring it back to life with the yokai of the town's own Mizuki Shigeru, it started with 23 bronze statues.

Statue spotting and the stamp rally

The statues kept multiplying, and a major renewal in July 2018 brought the total to 177. At the same time they were rearranged into zones according to where each yokai lives (by the water, in the mountains, inside the house and so on), and the pavements were widened. From famous characters such as Kitaro, Medama-oyaji (Eyeball Father) and Nezumi-otoko (Rat Man) to yokai from legends all over Japan, you can walk along checking the name of each one.

At the tourist information centre and shops along the street you can buy a yokai guidebook and join a stamp rally, collecting stamps along the road. There is also a Yokai Shrine on the street, and according to the Sakaiminato Tourism Association's official website, you can send letters from the tourist information centre and elsewhere via the "Yokai Post", which stamps them with a special yokai postmark.

After dark

The 2018 renewal also introduced night-time lighting. From sunset until about 10 pm the bronze statues are lit up and shadow pictures of more than 50 kinds of yokai are projected onto the road. There are even street lamps shaped like Medama-oyaji. See the statues by day and walk the road again at night, and the same street feels completely different.

Getting there

The road begins right in front of Sakaiminato Station on the JR Sakai Line. Wrapped trains decorated with Kitaro and other characters run on the Sakai Line, and since 2005 each station on the line has had a yokai-themed nickname. From Yonago Airport (Yonago Kitaro Airport) you can also take a local bus towards Sakaiminato.

The Mizuki Shigeru Memorial Museum stands at the end of the road, about 10 minutes' walk from the station. It is a good idea to plan to see both the road and the museum.

Tips

  • Walk with a yokai guidebook, sold at the tourist information centre and elsewhere, and you will learn where each statue's yokai comes from and what kind of creature it is, which is more fun than just taking photos.
  • The shadow-picture illuminations start after sunset, so on a day trip plan to stay until evening.
  • Pair the road with the Mizuki Shigeru Memorial Museum at its end to learn about the life of Mizuki Shigeru himself, the man who created all these yokai.

Sources

Updated 28 September 2026. Opening hours and prices change, so check the official site before you go.

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