The peaceful town of Iida in Nagano Prefecture is known for its annual puppet festival and the Kawamoto Kihachiro Puppet Museum.



The Takeda Memorial International Marionette Museum just outside Iida near Motozenkoji Temple is another must for fans of the art of puppeteering. Set in a beautiful garden, this modern museum presents a traditional puppet stage with a video explanation (in Japanese) as well as beautifully-crafted puppets from Japan and the rest of the world.

The Takeda name has long been associated with Japanese puppets since the 1660s.

Takeda Memorial International Marionette Museum
Zakoji 2535
Iida, Nagano
Nagano 395-0001
Tel: 0265 23 4222
Hours 9am-5pm; closed Mondays
The nearest station is Motozenkoji on the JR Iida Line.

Access: Iida can be reached by train from Nagoya via Toyohashi on the JR Iida Line (2 hours, 30 minutes). There are also highway buses from Tokyo (4 hours) and Nagoya (2 hours). By car, exit the Chuo Expressway at the Iida interchange.


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水引

Mizuhiki is a traditional Japanese craft using rice paper, which is tightly binded and wound, starched and then bent into various shapes for use as decoration.



The cord can be painted or entwined with thin strips of silk to color it. Mizuhiki was used to tie the hair of samurai in the Edo Period (1600-1868). Nowadays mizuhiki items in the shape of animals or just about anything (plants, cakes, scrolls, birds, dolls, ships, battledores, family crests, keyrings etc) are given as presents for weddings and births.

Colorful small mizuhiki knots are also attached to envelopes, especially those for giving money at weddings and funerals.



Traditionally mizuhiki was made in artisans' homes over the winter after the rice harvest was gathered in. The area around Iida and Hirugami Onsen in Nagano Prefecture is famous for the art of mizuhiki. Craftspeople may give a demonstration in your ryokan in the evening or visit one of the arts and crafts museums in the area, where you can purchase pieces ranging in size from full suits of samurai armor to tiny mobile phone straps.




Furosato Mizuhiki Kogeikan (Tel: 0265 25 5222) just off National Highway 153 close to the Iida Interchange of the Chuo Expressway is recommended.
Hours: 8.30-5pm daily.

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柳田國男館

Kunio Yanagita (1875-1962), known as the father of Japanese ethnology and folklore studies, was born in Fukusaki, Hyogo Prefecture, but was adopted into the Yanagita family in Iida, taking their name and dropping his birth name of Matsuoka.

Graduating from Tokyo University, Yanagita worked as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, which lead to him traveling the length and breadth of Japan for his work.

On retirement, Yanagita plunged into the study of Japanese folklore and oral traditions which he recorded in his classic book, The Legends of Tono.

Yanagita's work divides opinion - some critics see him as asserting the lives of common people in Japanese history; others see him as creating an homogenous view of the Japanese people in the newly unified nation state.

The Kunio Yanagita Memorial Hall in Iida lies next to the modernist Iida Fine Art Museum designed by architect Hara Hiroshi, who was also responsible for Kyoto Station, the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, and Sapporo Dome.

Kunio Yanagita Memorial Hall Iida
Tel: 0265-22-8118

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飯田市川本喜八郎人形美術館

The Iida City Kawamoto Kihachiro Puppet Museum in Iida, southern Nagano Prefecture is the town's must-see attraction and a world class museum. During the Edo period, this old castle town was known for its two performing puppetry troupes - the Kuroda and Imada groups - as well as its delicious apples.



In 1979 the Iida Puppet Carnival (now the Iida Puppet Festa) was established to preserve Iida's puppet heritage and quickly became Japan's biggest puppet event. Puppet animator Kawamoto Kihachiro visited the festival in 1990 and his animated films received an enthusiastic welcome. In response, Kawamoto donated 200 of his puppets which make up the core of the exhibits on display in the modern facility.



Many of the puppets are taken from Kawamoto's two NHK television dramas: Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Tale of the Heike.

One of Kawamoto's short films is shown in the media center at regular intervals during the day.

Iida City Kawamoto Kihachiro Puppet Museum (in Japanese)
Nagano Prefecture
Iida City
Motomachi 1-2
Tel: 0265 23 3594
Admission: Adults 400 yen

Access: Iida can be reached by train from Nagoya via Toyohashi on the JR Iida Line (2 hours, 30 minutes). There are also highway buses from Tokyo (4 hours) and Nagoya (2 hours). By car, exit the Chuo Expressway at the Iida interchange.

Here are a list of Kawamoto Kihachiro films available from Amazon: The Book of the Dead, The Exquisite Short Films of Kawamoto Kihachiro, and New Animation: Works of Kihachiro Kawamoto.

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移動図書館

For small, rural towns in Japan with no public library, residents rely on a mobile library service provided by the nearest city with a public library.



In Matsushiro, just outside Nagano, the mobile library calls once a week on Saturdays, from the main library in Nagano city.



Access

To get to Matsushiro, take the Nagano Dentetsu Yashiro Line train to Matsushiro Station from Nagano. Alternatively, take the more frequent local bus from Nagano Station to Matsushiro from bus platform #3 outside the station.



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善光寺

Zenkoji is Nagano's must-see sight and one of the most famous temples in Japan.



Dating from the 7th century, Zenkoji keeps the Ikko-Sanzon Amida Nyorai, supposedly the first Buddhist image to arrive in Japan (from Korea in the 6th century). A copy of the image is displayed to the public every six years in the Gokaicho Festival, the next is in 2009. The original is kept behind a curtain and is never seen by the laity.

The temple has been destroyed by fire and rebuilt on a number of occasions and the present main hall of the temple was built in 1707.



Zenkoji's popularity stems from the fact it is a non-sectarian temple and welcomes visitors from all faiths and creeds. A priest and priestess share the responsibility for the temple's ecumenical rituals. In an ancient ceremony, the high priest or priestess prays for the salvation of visitors every morning.



Underneath the main hall is a narrow, pitch-black tunnel that symbolizes the path to enlightenment. Struggle through the darkness with your hand to the wall to guide you and you will discover a metal handle, which is the key to salvation. To enter the tunnel is 500 yen. Be warned it is hot, long and frightening!

Zenkoji Temple
491 Motoyoshi-cho
Tel: 026 234 3591

Take a bus (100 yen) from bus stop #1 outside Nagano Station.

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小布施

Obuse in Nagano Prefecture prides itself on being an arty town right down to its pretty sidewalks (or pavements if you're a Brit).



Sidewalks are a bit of a luxury in Japan - often its just a white line painted at the side of the road - but Obuse city has relaid its predestrian walkways with blocks of the local chestnut wood, making for a very soft stroll through the town's many art galleries, boutiques and museums.



Obuse is known for its delicious Japanese sweets made from chestnuts and using the wood for the pavements was one way of recycling the old trees.



Access

Take the Nagano Dentetsu Line from Nagano Station to Obuse (20 minutes by limited express; 35 minutes by local).

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松代大本営

As Japan faced certain defeat in World War II, special plans were put in place to move the Emperor and the main organs of the Japanese state, including the ministries and NHK, to underground bunkers in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture.



The thinking was to prepare for a final battle to inflict such damage on the Allies as they would accept the continuation of the Imperial system. A special chamber was constructed to house the Emperor and his family underneath the hard rock.



Construction of the 6km-long underground tunnels and shelters began in late 1944, when around 7,000 Korean forced laborers were moved into hastily-built camps at the site at Mount Zozan and local residents were evicted.



Construction work continued around the clock in terrible conditions. Workers were fed a meager diet and it is estimated that around 1,000 people died from malnutrition, execution and accidents as the rock was dynamited and carried out by hand on wooden trolleys and in rope nets.

All records of the operation were destroyed at the end of the war and only the names of 3 Koreans workers and a Japanese who died at the site are now known: Tosan Paku, Kisuru Kim, Tokusu Chou and Jiro Nakano.

Also at Mount Zozan an ianjo or "comfort women station" was established when four young Korean women were brought to Matsushiro on the promise of work as "special nurses" to serve the Japanese guards and high-ranking Koreans.



The women disappeared at the end of the war and their fates remain unknown. The building where the comfort women were kept was dismantled in 1991. The Organization for the Memorial Center of Another History in Matsushiro has preserved the remains of the structure and has plans to re-erect the building as a war memorial. So far, these plans are on hold due to lack of financing (30m yen is the projected budget) and some opposition amongst the local people.

A school project in 1985 brought to light the tragic history of the tunnels and the Nagano city government secured and opened 500m of the shelter complex to the public after pressure from the local community. The tunnels are administered by the sightseeing section of Nagano city and there is local concern that not enough emphasis is placed on the historical and educational aspects of the site.



At the site is a memorial stone in Japanese and Korean.
Entrance to the tunnels is free.
Hours are 9am-4pm.
Tel: 026 224 8316
Matsushiro city page on Daihonei

The small historical museum mouitotsunorekishikan (もういとつの歴史館; "Another History Museum") to the right before the main entrance to the tunnel, exhibits tools and photographs reconstructing the harsh existence of the workers with a stirring introduction in Japanese by the museum's guide (admission 200 yen).



To reach the tunnels take a Nagano Dentetsu Yashiro Line train to Matsushiro Station from Nagano and then walk south about 20 mins. Alternatively, take the more frequent bus from Nagano Station to Matsushiro from bus platform #3 outside the station.

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