Narai, the Kiso Valley, and the Nakasendo Road

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

This morning, we drove through the green and gorgeous Kiso Valley, which cuts through mountains fairly close on both sides.  Our first stop gave us a chance to see an exhibit of lacquerware objects by local craftsmen.  From combs, bowls, and chopsticks to furniture and Buddhist home altars, everything was beautiful – and priced accordingly.  I’m glad my current focus is on trying to get rid of things, rather than acquiring new ones!

In a small town nearby, we were able to visit the home and workshop of a master lacquerware craftsman and his wife, a talented weaver.  Their home is a traditional Japanese structure and bears a plaque attesting to its cultural importance.  We removed our shoes before entering the living areas, which are covered in tatami mats, and which feature separate areas dedicated as Buddhist and Shinto shrines.  Along with traditional furnishings, we were interested to see both a flat screen TV and computer modem!  In separate buildings across a courtyard garden, we watched as our host showed us his woodworking, lacquering, and polishing operations – a vertically integrated production, in the person of one man, who’s been at it for 60 years!

The Nakasendo Road was once the main post and travel road between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto.  It is still a popular national hiking/walking route, evidently something like the Appalachian Trail.  Several small towns in the Kiso Valley along the road have been designated as particularly historic. Narai, with its main (and pretty much only) street packed with traditional wooden houses, inns, shops and restaurants, is one such town. 

At lunch in a local restaurant, we sat on floor pillows and were served multiple dishes, including the local specialty, soba (buckwheat) noodles, at low tables.  After extricating ourselves, we wandered around the town, which also includes several Shinto shrines, Buddhist Temples and cemeteries, and fountains flowing with water runoff from the surrounding mountains.

Before returning to the hotel in Matsumoto, we stopped in a local museum devoted to Japanese woodblock prints.  After watching a wonderful video (in English!) illustrating the process of creating woodblock prints, we had some appreciation of the precision, skill, and steady hand the creation of  these works of art requires, we had time to view an extensive exhibition of prints.  We were amazed to learn woodblock prints were originally considered to be suitable for only commoners and that they were deemed so trivial as to have been used as wrapping to protect other artwork during shipping for export to Europe; in fact, that is how they were “discovered” by the western art world!

We were free to have dinner on our own tonight and we found a tiny restaurant just down the block that hit the spot.  We were the only tourists in the place, and the server didn’t speak English, so we made use of the photos on the English menu and had a fine meal – including our first sake (warm) of the trip – and we didn’t have to sit on the floor!