Travelers walking to Ise in the Edo period wanted food they could eat fast and that would keep them going, and mochi answered both requirements. Along the Sangu highway from Kuwana down to Ise, teahouses grew up to serve them, each with its own version, and at some point the road acquired a second name: the mochi highway.

The oldest of the shops still standing is Nikenchaya, founded in 1575, which puts it before the Edo period entirely. Akafuku dates from 1707, and the three ridges pressed into the bean paste on top of each piece are said to represent the current of the Isuzu river. Henbamochi is from 1775, and its name records a specific act: at the Miyagawa crossing, travelers sent back the horses they had ridden that far, and henba means returning the horse.

The Oharaimachi street that runs past the entrance to the Inner Shrine was the end point of highways converging from across the country. Everyone arriving had walked.

Which is why the street is lined with shops selling small, sweet, dense things. It reads today as a souvenir district, and it is one. It is also the original function, unchanged: feed the person who has just come a very long way on foot.