Kumakogen, Ehime

The air at this altitude carries a sharpness that belongs to the Shikoku highlands, not the coastal lowlands of Ehime. Kumakogen sits deep in the Shikoku mountain range, reached by crossing the Misaka Pass on Route 33 — a road that still feels like a threshold. The plateau is dense with cedar and cypress, roughly nine-tenths forest, and the valleys of the upper Niyodo River hold small settlements at intervals, each one oriented toward the slope above it.

The produce here follows the cold. Apples, tomatoes, lettuce — crops that need elevation and temperature swings. At the roadside station Tenku-no-Sato Sansan, crates of these sit alongside yamagobo miso-zuke and dried shiitake, the kind of provisions that belong to a mountain economy rather than a tourist one. Bimikawa somen and hand-stretched udon are made in the valleys below the ridgeline, and amago sweetfish, preserved in sweet soy, appears in small packages that suggest a river close enough to matter.

The forty-fourth and forty-fifth temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage — Daihoji and Iwayaji — pass through this territory, and Iwayaji in particular is set into the rock face of a cliff, reached after a steep climb. The Omoyama Alpine Museum documents the flora, geology, and climbing history of the Ishizuchi range, while the Kuman Art Museum holds a collection of modern Western-style painting, calligraphy, and ceramics. On clear nights, the Kumakogen Astronomical Observatory opens its large reflector telescope — the darkness at this altitude earns it.