editorial

Amid the forested beauty of Japan’s Kiso Valley, an ancient walking trail provides a pathway to the past.
Photographs by Mark Parren Taylor
<figure id="attachment_135391" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135391" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135391 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-2.jpg" alt="Biscuits stamped with mon—emblems once used by Japanese nobility as family crests; an early morning scene in Tsumago." width="1200" height="745" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-2.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-2-300x186.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-2-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-2-768x477.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135391" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Biscuits stamped with mon—emblems once used by Japanese nobility as family crests; an early morning scene in Tsumago.</figcaption></figure>
At a clearing in the forest, the path brings me to an old timber lodge built from the cedar and cypress that grow abundantly around here. A wisp of smoke curls up from the chimney, and the eaves are hung with strings of drying persimmons that glow as golden as the morning sun that warms them.
Two hundred years ago, this building served as a checkpoint where travelers were searched for contraband or charged levies. These days it’s a teahouse (tateba-chaya) called Ichikokutochi, offering refreshments to passersby. A couple of volunteers keep the log-fire burning, sweep the packed-earth floor, and pour complimentary beakers of tea. The interior is smoky from the sunken hearth, but light splashes in through the open doorway and onto walkers resting on wooden benches. And at this early hour, sunbeams push through gaps in the walls, spearing the blue haze under the rafters like cinematic spotlights.
This is the heart of Japan—or at least of Honshu, its main island. The teahouse lies midway between Magome and Tsumago, well-preserved traditional villages about eight kilometers apart that once served as post stations along the Nakasendo, an ancient footpath stretching from Kyoto to Edo (present-day Tokyo) via Honshu’s mountainous interior. In its heyday, the Nakasendo was one of the five great highways of the Tokugawa era (1603–1867), its 530-kilometer length traversed by feudal lords, samurai, itinerant merchants, and pilgrims.
These days, much of the Nakasendo has been lost altogether or tarmacked over to make country roads and even highways. But its old section through the forested Kiso Valley still evokes a bygone Japan, with a peppering of charming villages that look plucked from a woodblock print by Hiroshige. The path—now and then surfaced with tar or gravel, sometimes with original rock cobbles known as ishidatami—follows the valley north to Shiojiri city, where fast trains head one way toward Matsumoto and in the other to Tokyo’s frenetic Shinjuku Station, some 215 kilometers to the southeast.
<figure id="attachment_135392" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135392" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135392 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-3.jpg" alt="A noren curtain; drying persimmons." width="1200" height="745" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-3.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-3-300x186.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-3-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-3-768x477.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135392" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: A noren curtain; drying persimmons.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_135393" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135393" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135393 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-4.jpg" alt="Inside a historic residence in Narai." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-4.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-4-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-4-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-4-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135393" class="wp-caption-text">Inside a historic residence in Narai.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_135394" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135394" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135394 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-5.jpg" alt="The view north through central Narai." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-5.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-5-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-5-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-5-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135394" class="wp-caption-text">The view north through central Narai.</figcaption></figure>
Shinjuku happens to mean “New Inn,” and villages like Magome are properly called juku (inns) too. The old Nakasendo was punctuated by 69 juku, shogun-sanctioned post stations where travelers could find lodging, food, a fresh pair of sandals, or a trinket to take home. Toward the northern end of the Kiso Valley, must-see Narai was the 34th station (as counted from Edo). Magome, in the south, was the 43rd.
Magome is strung along a hillside facing away from the valley. The path climbs past whitewashed brick shophouses, wooden minshuku bed-and-breakfasts, and discreet dwellings. There are welcome lunch options too: cozy restaurants like Nakaizutsuya and Masuya both make a fine soba noodle bowl ladled with a broth full of foraged mountain vegetables.
The granite mountains that flank the valley are known as Japan’s Central Alps. The tallest, Mount Kisokoma, rises to an elevation of almost 3,000 meters, blocking out the rising sun to the east. But when I’m walking on the tree-crowded path from Magome to Tsumago, the alpine splendor goes unseen: my view up is only of a light-dappled forest canopy.
I pass an elderly man, clearly a keen walker, with sturdy boots and a stick that pushes the world around a little bit with each step he takes. A teeny bell tinkles on his long silver neck chain. This is black bear country, and the bell is meant to ward off the easily spooked animals. Sightings, admittedly, are rare, but bells are widely available at souvenir shops in the valley—just ask for a kuma yoke suzu (“anti-bear bell”). There are also larger bells mounted at points along the wayside. Locals tend to give them just one little ding, almost apologetically, as if they are trying to get the attention of a receptionist at a fancy hotel.
Tsumago’s fanciest hotel (back in the day) was its honjin, a guesthouse reserved for the upper echelon of travelers. Originally built in 1601, it’s still there, albeit as a replica constructed in the 1990s that now serves as a museum of Edo-era artifacts. Farther up the road is Okuya, a former waki-honjin (second-class inn) that’s also open to the public. Inside, glazed paper screens give way to a mossy courtyard garden, while a charming tatami-matted public room is centered on an irori hearth that’s been heating water pots for at least 200 years. Like Tsumago’s other well-preserved structures, both buildings are made of wood the color of soy sauce–soaked persimmon. In the mornings, their cedar-shingled roofs steam when the sun reaches over the mountains to touch them.
<figure id="attachment_135395" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135395" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135395 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-6.jpg" alt="Early-morning steam rising off a cedar-shingled roof in Tsumago; soba noodles in the making." width="1200" height="745" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-6.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-6-300x186.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-6-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-6-768x477.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135395" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Early-morning steam rising off a cedar-shingled roof in Tsumago; soba noodles in the making.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_135396" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135396" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135396 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-7.jpg" alt="A soba restaurant in Narai; votive offerings at a wayside shrine on the Nakasendo between the towns of Tsumago and Nagiso." width="1200" height="745" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-7.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-7-300x186.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-7-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-7-768x477.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135396" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: A soba restaurant in Narai; votive offerings at a wayside shrine on the Nakasendo between the towns of Tsumago and Nagiso.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_135397" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135397" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135397 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-8.jpg" alt="Mr. Ito crafting magemono (bent-wood) containers at his Tsumago workshop." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-8.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-8-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-8-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-8-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135397" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Ito crafting magemono (bent-wood) containers at his Tsumago workshop.</figcaption></figure>
There’s living history in Tsumago too. Sawadaya is a confectionery popular for its traditional kuri kinton chestnut cakes, while Yoshio Hara, the proprietor of Wachinoya, turns out oyaki dumplings, a regional specialty filled with a curious but satisfying mélange of wormwood, pumpkin, and pickled nozawana leaf. And at Marutaya, a Mr. Ito quietly crafts artisanal bentwood products including bento boxes and sushi-mixing buckets.
The pleasant five-hour walk from Tsumago to Nojiri winds through undulating hills and mossy forests. There’s not much in Nojiri, but there is a rail station, where I hop the train for Narai.
Nineteenth-century travelers anticipated good times at “Narai of a Thousand Houses,” a kilometer-long procession of lodgings and eateries, sundry merchants, and after-dark entertainment. And it’s much the same today, though it gets quiet after 5 p.m. Antique signboards hang above the entrances to restaurants, dwellings, and long-gone emporiums. One, shaped like a giant wooden comb in goji-berry red, announces Matsu-zakaya, a fourth-generation lacquerware shop selling little chopstick stands, hair accessories, and, yes, combs.
Hair was big two centuries ago. In 1830, Ribei Nakamura, a comb wholesaler, had the ready cash to upgrade his Narai shophouse. Preserved to this day, it’s a large gabled property typical of the village, with an upper floor that overhangs slightly and a heavily tiled porch-like ledge. Now operating as the Nakamura Residence museum, the building offers a splendid window onto merchant life in Edo-era Japan.
The Matsuyasabo café occupies the premises of yet another onetime comb store. As the owner assembles my syphon coffee, she gently shushes her toy poodle, who is anxious for attention. “Ssh,” she says, “wait, wait.” With a chuckle, she adds, “Isogaba maware!”—an adage roughly equivalent to “slow and steady wins the race.” Sipping the fresh coffee, I revel in my own slow, steady march through this enchanting valley.
<figure id="attachment_135398" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135398" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135398 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-9.jpg" alt="Chestnut cake and chilled tea at a confectionery in Tsumago; a section of the Nakasendo outside Magome." width="1200" height="745" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-9.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-9-300x186.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-9-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-9-768x477.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135398" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Chestnut cake and chilled tea at a confectionery in Tsumago; a section of the Nakasendo outside Magome.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_135390" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135390" style="width: 1380px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135390 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-1.jpg" alt="A volunteer host at the Ichikokutochi teahouse in the Kiso Valley." width="1380" height="920" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-1.jpg 1380w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Kiso-Valley-Mark-Parren-Taylor-1-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135390" class="wp-caption-text">A volunteer host at the Ichikokutochi teahouse in the Kiso Valley.</figcaption></figure>
Walk This Way
The Nakasendo or “Central Mountain Road” was part of feudal Japan’s network of highways. Back then, it would take travelers at least two weeks to walk between Kyoto and Tokyo, stopping overnight in juku post towns. Today’s visitors can still walk sections of the original route, one of the most popular of which traverses the Kiso Valley, which is easily reached from Tokyo by limited express train via Matsumoto (from where the Shinano Express runs the length of the valley).
Those spending a night or more in the valley have a number of traditional inns to choose from, not least of which is Tsumago’s <a href="https://tsumago-fujioto.jp/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ryokan Fujioto</a> (doubles from US$70), where the handful of tatami-style rooms book up well in advance.
For something more ambitious, specialist outfitter <a href="https://walkjapan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Walk Japan</a> offers 11-day guided walking tours along the entire Nakasendo several times a month in spring and autumn. The cost per person is from US$3,900, including accommodation, meals, and train and bus transportation where required.
This article originally appeared in the <a href="http://www.destinasian.com/magazine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August/September 2023</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Uncommon Ground”).

A volunteer host at the Ichikokutochi teahouse in the Kiso Valley.

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