Matsumoto, Nagano

Making things, celebrated by a whole town. In Matsumoto, Nagano, at Agata-no-Mori Park, on the last weekend of May, Craft Fair Matsumoto is held. Some three hundred selected makers gather from across the country, with woodwork, ceramics, glass, dyeing and weaving, metalwork, leather, all of it handmade. It began in 1985, a pioneer of Japan's craft fairs, and inspired craft markets across the country. Matsumoto has long been a town of folk craft, deeply tied to Soetsu Yanagi's mingei movement, a place that seeks beauty in the things of daily use. Amid fresh greenery, makers' tents line the lawn, and customers pick up bowls and chairs to examine them. These are not mass-produced goods, but things someone made over time. Little by little, you choose your life with your own hands. Matsumoto is also a popular place to relocate to. One of Nagano's defining craft events.

Matsumoto Castle's keep is black — unusual in Japanese castle architecture, which more commonly tends toward white — and the darkness makes it imposing in a way that white castles are not. The keep is original, one of the few that survived intact from the Sengoku period, and its age is visible in the wood and the proportions. Standing in the castle courtyard in October, with the Japanese Alps visible behind the hills to the west, produces one of the more complete castle experiences available in Japan.

The Jidai Matsuri adds a historical procession to this already significant setting: people in period costumes from the Sengoku era to the Meiji period moving through the castle grounds and the surrounding streets. The span of four centuries in a single procession means the visual range is wide — samurai armor followed by Edo-period merchants followed by Meiji-era officials — and the black castle provides a consistent backdrop across all of them.

Matsumoto is a city worth spending two or three days in. The castle is the anchor, but the surrounding craft beer culture, the classical music festival, and the proximity of the Japan Alps and Kamikochi extend the possibilities considerably. The October festival adds a specific date to what is otherwise an open invitation.