Soni, Nara

Clusters of farmhouses follow the narrow floor of the Shorenji River valley, hemmed on both sides by sheer rock faces — Byobu-iwa's columnar basalt rising like a folded screen, Kabuto-iwa and Yoroi-iwa catching the afternoon light. The valley has a name from ancient chronicles: Soni, recorded in the Kojiki and again in the Nihon Shoki, already associated then with lacquer. The village that sits here now belongs to the "Most Beautiful Villages of Japan" association, though the label feels beside the point when you are standing in the gorge watching the cliffs.

Lacquer production defined Soni through the Nara period, when the district was known as Nurube-no-sato, a name the summer festival still carries. That production lapsed, and the village is now quietly working to revive it — urushi trees replanted, the knowledge kept alive. Spinach grown in the cool valley soil is another product that moves out of here, though most visitors arrive thinking of Soni Kogen, the highland plateau where pampas grass turns the slopes silver. The ritual lion dances performed at Mononobe Shrine during the Soni Shishi-mai festival keep a separate calendar, one that has little to do with the plateau crowds.

Okukochi Onsen, a sodium bicarbonate spring tucked further into the hills, no longer operates. What remains is the road that led to it, and Kurusson-yama rising beyond — a peak of volcanic columnar jointing, part of the Muro Akame Aoyama Quasi-National Park.