Kijimadaira, Nagano

Rice fields slope toward stands of beech on the high plateau, and the air above Kayano-taira carries the particular stillness of a forest that has grown undisturbed for a long time. Kijimadaira-mura sits in the mountain interior of northeastern Nagano, a village where the majority of land is forested and much of that forest belongs to the national estate. The watershed runs through the Tarukawa and Makumagawa rivers, fed partly by the spring at Ryūkōji-shimizu — water clean enough that it has long been drawn into the making of Uchiyama washi, the handmade paper produced in this valley.

At the roadside station FARMUS Kijimadaira, the morning produce stalls carry Kijimadaira rice alongside yacon and asparagus, all grown on the terraced fields that open between the tree lines. In November, the new-soba festival draws attention to the buckwheat harvest, and the Ryūkōji-shimizu festival marks the same month with its own quieter rhythm. On the 8th of May each year, the sluice at Tarutaki is opened, and water pours over both the male and female falls — a sight available only on that single day.

The slopes of Kōsha-yama carry a ski area with pitches steep enough to read as serious terrain, and Makuma Onsen Bōkyō-no-yu offers an outdoor bath with a long view toward the North Alps. The village voted in 2004 to continue independently rather than merge, a decision that has kept its scale and its pace intact. Forest therapy certification and the beech groves of Kayano-taira are not incidental additions — they reflect the actual composition of the land itself.