Hida Furukawa: On Our Own. Like Takayama, Hida Furukawa is a relatively small rural town in the Northern Japanese Alps. It served as our home base for exploring the Hida-Takayama area and enjoying the historic ryokan, Yatsusan-kan.
For our local explorations of Hida, we started the day leisurely (as usual, when we’re on our own) with breakfast at Yatsusan-kan. This time we opted for Western Style: sliced fresh oranges, yogurt (we think), scrambled eggs, small sausages, toast with butter and marmalade, and coffee. The surprise was the spaghetti and small salad that came with the eggs. It was more than enough to get us going.
The town of Hida Furukawa traces its origin to 1589 when it was established as a castle town when ruler Arisige Kanamori built the Masushima Castle. However, the Hida area dates back to the Nara period (710-794) when it gained fame for its high quality timber and the superb craftsmanship of its local carpenters, Hida no Takumi, who used no nails in their constructions. The houses that line the streets of Old Town Hida are fine examples of their skill and tradition. Sake production and Japanese candle making are dominant, traditional economies that are still found in Hida.
Across the Araki River from our ryokan is the site of the Honkoji Buddhist Temple, one of three famous temples in Hida. Rebuilt in 1904 it is the largest wooden temple in the Hida area and was our first destination in Hida Furukawa outside of the ryokan. Enveloped in fall foliage, it and the grounds around it were spectacular.
After exploring Honkoji and its gardens, we headed down the White Walled Storehouse Street, a street in Old Town that parallels Setogawa Canal and is lined, on the canal side, with large, white, stucko-walled Shirakabe Storehouses, two symbols of Hida Furakawa. This street would take us to the Hida Crafts Museum and the Hida Furukawa Festival Exhibition Hall. The canal is reportedly stocked with more than 1000 carp. The legend is that in earlier times, the canal was used as a dumping ground for all sorts of waste and was more or less toxic. The town wanted to encourage the residents to keep the canal clean and came up with an idea. Because there was a nearly universal desire to protect all living creatures, the town stocked the canal with the carp. Residents, not wanting to harm the fish, stopped abusing the canal.
An interesting side note is that the residents now care deeply for the carp. Knowing that the carp are captive in a narrow band water that could freeze, they move by hand each and every one of the carp in the fall to a holding pond outside of town to reside until spring. The move is apparently a community affair.
Our walk got sidetracked at the beginning of the street. We stumbled across a small gallery called the Hida Eima Studio that seemed to advertise a local art exhibition, organized by the Dream Art Project, according to our Google Translate app. Inside was a small but eclectic collection of art works, including paintings, watercolors, and paper items presumably by members of the community. The theme was cosmic space. Holding court in the studio was an elderly gentleman greeting visitors with a wide smile.. He offered us a souvenir, creating a blessing in large Japanese and Chinese characters with bold brush strokes. We hadn’t a clue what he was writing and English was not a common denominator, but we managed some basic communications with the help of others. We’re guessing he was one of the local community artists and we’d love to know who he was and what he wrote for us. The studio visit was a wonderful cultural experience.
One exhibit in the gallery was a “Neutrino-Chan” sticker which was accompanied by a short description in English. The sticker honored Hida as a town that receives messages from the universe, and Professor Takaaki Kajita. Kajita is a physicist who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for his neutrino experiments at the Kamioka Observatory using the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector located under Mount Ikeno near Hida. Hida an important neutrino physics center? Who knew? But that explains why the artist characterized Hida as a town that receives messages from the universe.
The White Walled Storehouse Street passes the Enkouji Temple, a lovely wooden temple that dates from 1667, but is said to be in the in the Muromachi Era style (1336-1573). One of its famed architectural characteristics is the turtle decoration on the eaves of the main building called “water calling turtles.” Legend has it that these turtles protected the temple from the 1904 fire that destroyed much of central Hida Furukawa.
The eaves of the temple exhibited excellent examples of the Furukawa master carpenters’ work, which features “cloud” carvings on the black eaves of the houses in the central district. These carvings were symbols of each craftsman’swork, like signatures, each featuring their individual designs.
Beyond the Temple, the Canal leads to Festival Square, a beautiful public place between the Hida Furukawa Festival Exhibition Hall and the Hida Crafts Museum. The Festival Square was resplendent with fall colors, reflections in the canal, and the carp.
The Festival Square and the nearby Festival Exhibition Hall celebrate Hida Furukawa’s annual spring festival. It’s a two-day affair. The first day features a competition of taiko drum performances by men form the area. On second day there is a parade through the streets of highly decorated floats, some of which are on display in the Festival Hall. The large taiko drum in the Square is open to anyone who wants to try out a beat…for a small donation. Festival Hall contains a fascinating collection of exhibits that range from floats that are several stories high to miniatures to puppets. A small theater in the Hall shows a great movie about the Festival that is well worth seeing.
Across the Square from Festival Hall is the Hida Crafts Museum. Its very interesting exhibits focus on the mastery carpentry that Hida and Takayama are known for: Japanese Traditional Joinery. This technique provides for both functional and beautiful works without any nails. In addition to examples of this master craft and a display of “Signatures” left by carpenters on decorative eaves, there is an exceptional collection of the tools they used. The Museum also features hands-on exhibits that challenge one’s ability to figure out how the interlocking joinery works. It’s like a 17th Century Rubik’s Cube. It was a challenge for one of us, but he persevered. A 5th-grader might have been faster.
Just outside the Museum where the White Walled Storehouse Street begins there is a spectacular Ginko Tree. Its yellow leaves carpeted a large area in all directions. It’s such a beautiful setting that it attracts wedding photo shoots and is used for family pictures with children dressed in traditional wear. The scene looking back down the Canal, past the Enkouji Temple wall and cemetery is particularly striking. We spent quite a bit of time enjoying the colors and people watching at this spot, especially enjoying the traditionally-dressed little kids and two couples get their wedding photographs taken.
Our last target in Hida was the Shinshuji Temple and the red Imamiya Bridge which crosses the Araki River. The cemetery on the Temple grounds was quite fascinating with small offerings left by family members on many of the markers.
Our return to our ryokan took us past another highlight of Hida: the candle maker. We dropped into his studio/shop and watched as he skillfully made long slender tapers with various designs of red and white. He was a great showman.
In the morning before departing for the Old Town we were given a brief tour the old part of the ryokan by one of the staff. This original part of Yatsusan-kan dates to the 1800s and is designated a “Tangible Cultural properly of Japan” by the government. Our rooms were in the newer addition.
Our tour of the old part of Yatsuana-kan led us down a narrow red hallway past the entrances to the open air public onsens. The doors to the toilet were decorated with handcrafted miniature kimonos that signified the gender. The entrance was a small lobby with a sitting room off to the side, all in traditional style The rooms were similar to ours, but somewhat smaller.
Before dinner we continued our tour of the Inn, this time the newer part. It housed a relaxation room with vibration loungers and foot massagers which faced a large window. The view was of the Inn’s garden which is beautifully classic.
Our last dinner was as excellent the two previous ones. This time we requested Hida Beef Shabu Shabu which came with the usual range of courses among which was a beautifully arranged sashimi plate (grouper, red snapper, and Japanese ivory shell) and a simple fruit dessert.
The meals at Yatsusan-kan were outstanding and the best we had to date. It’s an upscale and very comfortable traditional ryokan. and well worth a stay.
Tomorrow we hit the road again. This time heading for Kanazawa via Shirakawa-go Village, the latter being a World Heritage Site known for its praying hands construction style called gassho-zukuri.
Coming up: Shirakawa-go and Gokayama
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