Yamanomura, where there are seven villages in the Hida mountain area, has an elevation of 1000 meters. The area is 4.5 km by mountain road from the town of Kamioka. It takes two hours to reach from Takayama City by car. The population is about 150 people. It’s a small town and it is not easy to visit, especially during winter.
Now, we have a road to the area for cars. But before the roads b…
The most important holiday in Japan is New Year’s. Almost all Japanese spend New Year’s with their own family.
At the end of December, people who live in the Hida area prepare for the…
‘Hana-mochi’ have long been made for New Year’s in the Hida area. ‘Hana’ means flower and ‘mochi’ means rice-cake, so a ‘hana-mochi’ is a decoration that is like a flower made out of rice-cake. In col…
The Hida area is surrounded by mountains. People here have long used trees for architecture, furniture, wood carvings, floats for local festivals, Buddha sculptures, etc. Techniques for the treatment of wood in the Hida area are so highly developed that in Japan carpenters are referred to as ‘Hida-no-takumi’, ‘takumi’ meaning specialists in woodworking.
There is a curious place whose …
Preparing dishes for snow caped winter season -Aka-kabura-
During winter people who live in the Hida area from ancient times have preserved vegetables in the form of Japanese pickles, be…
Rice has been taken good care of as the main Japanese food. In the case of the Hida area, the producing of rice has been the practice since ancient times.
In the Hida area, people use rice stra…
A ‘sarubobo’ is a well-known souvenir in the Hida area. You will see it while traveling around here. Since the Edo era, many children in the Hida area have had one as a charm against evil.
‘Saru’ m…
Goshourai -the return of the spirits
In the town of Kokufu, which is between Takayama City and the town of Furukawa, we can witness some rare scenes during O-bon. Therefore, we refer to this as Gos…
Tanabata-iwa festival in Hida
In August we celebrate a ritual to welcome back ancestral souls during the O-bon festival (festival of the dead).
In 1873 the Meiji government replaced th…
Hida delicacies
The hou-no-ki is the tree with which people in the Hida region feel most intimately connected. People often use this tree in their lives.
It is said that the flower of the ‘hou-no-ki’ is the biggest in Japan, and it has a sweet smell. This tree is a kind of magnolia, a deciduous broad-leaved tree, so its leaves fall off in the autumn.
Its trunk is used for ma…
They bring us happiness.
In the Hida area, people believed that the horse was a sacred animal for a god to ride on and that it protected us. We valued horses in our lives.
In ancient times, the …
Special food in early summer – Himedake
Himedake grows only in high-altitude natural forests throughout Japan. However, the best hime-dake for eating is that which grows on cold land.
In thi…
food for the tough hard winter
Spring comes to Hida a month later than Tokyo. Flowers of all kinds—cherry blossoms, peach flowers, Japanese plums, tulips, and daffodils—begin to bloom in…
Traditionally known as one of the “Three Sacred Treasures” (the other two being the “sumi-tsubo” and “sashi-gane”) for the Japanese woodwork builders, the Chouna is a unique tool used since ancient ti…
