Shimosuwa, Nakasendo

 

Not far from Narai is the small village of Harasawi, renowned for its lacquerware production. In the past, locals used to make utensils and bento boxes out of wood. Now, a finished product will have 6-18 layers of lacquer that requires 8-20 hours of drying time in a humid environment. The Kiso area is famous for the deep brown tone of its dishes. The lacquer comes from the sap of lacquer trees. Today, there are few surviving craftspeople but their work is nationally recognised. 

Five miles on (8km), I trekked through a narrow stretch of the valley and arrived at Niekawa-juku (#33), once a border town between two domains (clan estates) with a checkpoint that was destroyed in 1869. The town, although small, had a large number of inns. At 6pm each evening, the highway would be closed to traffic, forcing travellers to stay the night in town. A fire in the 1930s wrecked the rest of the town. A 1970s reproduction of the checkpoint is all that is left of the era. 

The next post-town was Motoyama-juku (#32) and its main industry was timber that was transported all the way to Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate maintained strict controls over the planting and felling of trees. Nothing remains of the post-town, having been destroyed by fire in the 19th century. Today, grapes have replaced the timber industry and it has important vineyards in the area.

The valley continues to be narrow and the old Nakasendo road is overlayed by the modern highway. The trail is rather noisy until I reach Seba-juku (#31). It used to be a weighing station, ensuring that cargo carried by porters did not exceed 85 pounds (38kg) - a regulation set by the Tokugawa shogunate. 

Re-joining the modern highway, I passed through Shiojiri-juku (#30), a former post-town that served as a centre for salt production. Today, Shiojiri is a city with all the above-mentioned post-towns within its borders.

Exiting Shiojiri, the old road ran parallel to the main highway and began an upward climb to Shiojiri-toge (Pass). The roadside pine trees continued to provide shelter as they did during the Edo era when they were planted to protect travellers from the summer heat or winter cold.

The Shiojiri-toge was located at 3340ft (1018m) and it provided fabulous views of Lake Suwa, the town below and on a clear day, in the distance, Mount Fuji. The downhill trek through the woods was rather steep until I passed a few rice fields and entered the quiet and verdant town of Shimosuwa. During the Edo period, Shimosuwa-shuku (#29) was one of the earliest post-towns to be established. It was quite prosperous due to its location between two difficult mountain passes, Shiojiri-toge and Wada-toge, and its many hot springs. The passes are still there of course but the hot springs are now long gone.