47 Prefectures from A to Y NARA a b c d e f G h i j k l NaRA M A World of Myth Totsukawa Village n SELENA HOY got around by yaen — human- a pilgrimage road dating powered rope gondolas strung more than a thousand years o HE road to Nara precariously over rivers. back. This stone-paved Prefecture’s At Totsukawa’s Hatenashi path is part of a network p Totsukawa Village Settlement, the majestic stretching over seventy q winds through a view and the region’s storied kilometers from the sacred Tdeep green cleft in the earth, past come together. The Buddhist site of Mount Koya r with hairpin turns. Totsukawa settlement, population in Wakayama Prefecture, Village, the biggest village in around twenty, sits in the through Totsukawa Village, s Japan, takes up more than a middle of a mountain with and back to Wakayama at t fifth of Nara Prefecture, and stunning vistas all around. In Shinto’s Hongu Taisha. At yet has a population of only fact, the name “Hatenashi” Hatenashi, the journeyer can u about 3,700 people. The area is means “neverending,” and stand, armed with a sturdy remote — there are no trains, indeed the eye is drawn walking stick, and take in v only buses. It is so large that over the pocket rice fields the views that other pilgrims w the climate varies considerably to crown after crown of have admired for over a from its north end to its south. mountain, receding into the millennium. x In this 96 percent mountainous misty distance. Winding right Totsukawa Village is a village, the roads meander along through the settlement is stronghold for Shintoism, y the mountain, the crops are the World Heritage Kumano according to Akinari Kamiya, terraced, and villagers of yore Kodo, or Old Kumano Road, a representative from z 30 47 Prefectures from A to Y NARA Tamaki Shrine Nara Flowers in Hatenashi Village A Hatenashi home’s rice paddy and pets Totsukawa Village’s Tourism banded with a shimenawa, a rope keeping a natural 50ºC flow. A Division. As we head up Mount made from rice straw by local soak in these restorative waters is Tamaki to visit the village’s most villagers. a balm for both the body and soul. venerable shrine, wild monkeys Taro Kuroiwa, a Shinto acolyte “The air is delicious, the food dart across the road in front of studying and training here, is delicious, there is peace and us. There are deer and wild boar talks about what inspired him quiet, and nature is abundant,” here, too, greatly outnumbering to come here. “I love talking says Kamiya, a transplant from the human population. A with everyone, and hearing their Kanagawa Prefecture who prefers susurrus moves through the different ways of thinking. And to make his home in Totsukawa. trees, pierced by the call of a bird. of course I’m interested in Shinto. “The people here are friendly and Tamaki Shrine is at an But I think this kind of fantastic helpful. In Totsukawa everyone altitude of more than a thousand nature can’t easily be found helps each other. Everyone knows meters and was built more than elsewhere.” you.” a thousand years ago. This Weary travelers can find solace Totsukawa Village offers a shrine, whose name “Tamaki” at day’s end at one of the region’s look at a traditional way of life, a means “where the treasure lies.” abundant hot springs. At Taki no glimpse of a close-knit community Here stands a grand, gnarled Yu, one of the area’s most popular firmly connected to its history. Japanese cedar tree, or sugi, baths, an open-air hot spring runs Though there are no high-speed which according to the shinwa no alongside a waterfall. Here the trains and no convenience stores sekai, or world of myth, is three hot water springs eternal, being here, there are other treasures to thousand years old. The tree is neither recycled nor reheated but be found. June 2014 | 31.