When we think of the historic centers of Japanese culture, it’s likely Kyoto, Edo (the former name of Tokyo), Kamakura, or Nara to which the mind is drawn. But Hitachi-no-kuni, the northern part of present-day Ibaraki Prefecture, was among the most cherished provinces of the ancient world.
The Nara period (710-794) was one of the most formative in Japanese history; the dawning of the Golden Age of Japan. The first permanent capital city, Heijo-kyo, was established, and constructed in the likeness of the Chinese Tang Dynasty’s capital, Chang’an. Buddhism, also imported from across the East China Sea, flourished in synch with the indigenous Shinto faith, and temples like Todai-ji, one of the most magnificent wooden structures ever conceived, was built on such a sweeping scale it required 900 hectare’s worth of forest and nearly bankrupted the empire. The Japanese literary tradition also came into its own, with books like the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) published in 712 and 720, respectively. These dense tomes were designed to instill within Japan a sense of self and to assure people the empire had been bequeathed to its current rulers by the gods themselves.
Scribes and scholars of the Imperial Court also began chronicling the myths, histories, and geography of the provinces, compiling them into books called fudoki. Hitachi-no-kuni was one of them, and was blessed with an abundance of seafood and produce from the mountains, and people’s lives were deemed stable in such a rich natural environment at the time. The land is concertinaed by mountain ranges, forming broad valleys and river channels, and thick with forests of maple, cypress, cedar, camphor, and beech. Because of these things, this land was called Tokoyonokuni, meaning “distant country,” or more pithily, “Utopia.” Lastly, it marked the beginning of the road to Tohoku, the deep north, the final frontier of the Japanese mainland.
Though Ibaraki cuts a more developed figure today than it did 1,300 years ago, the prefecture’s northern reaches still show signs of age-old beauty. From Mount Hanazono to tea plantations, from the Takado Kohama coastline to the forests and villages of the satoyama (a rural landscape between mountains and arable farmland), the history, culture, and bounty of the land remain much as they were in times past. And with the recent introduction of a scheduled 320km-long walking route, the Hitachi-no-kuni Long Trail, visitors can now experience on foot this journey deep into the past.
Only 90 minutes from Tokyo, the Hitachi-no-kuni Long Trail connects six cities and towns — Hitachi, Hitachiota, Takahagi, Kitaibaraki, Hitachiomiya, Daigo — with northern Ibaraki’s satoyama region, and encompasses several cities and towns, each of which has its own distinct cultural flavor and way of life. This division of the trail allows visitors to approach it in digestible chunks where you are free to decide how to walk around and how far to walk. Don’t have much time to walk it in one journey? How about focusing on the shrines of the Oiwa and Hanzono areas instead? Or trekking from the mountains to the sea in Takahagi? Or walking the southern stretch from Hitachiomiya to Hitachi City? There is no prescribed route; the trail encourages you to use your intuition and chart your own course. But if you need further inspiration, take a look at the nine areas in brief below.
The Nine Areas of the Hitachi-no-kuni Long Trail
Izura Area
The Izura area of Kitaibaraki City so enamored the Japanese philosopher and scholar, Okakura Tenshin (author of the legendary 1906 work, The Book of Tea), that he spent the last years of his life here. Its sweeping coastline was the subject of numerous Edo-period artworks and it shaped Tenshin’s philosophies of art and tradition, of life and death. Rokkakudo, a hexagonal hall built on a rock overlooking the Pacific, was designed by Tenshin himself and it continues to embody his ideas and aesthetic sensibility. Nearby, the Tenshin Memorial Museum of Art traces his life and work, exhibiting sketches and paintings by artists who lived or spent time in Izura.
Hanazono Shrine Area
Mount Hanazono is one of the Hitachi-gozan (five mountains of Hitachi) and a sacred place of mountain worship. Home to dense forests and clusters of Azuma rhododendrons that bloom pink each spring, it also has one of the highest peaks in the prefecture which stands at 882m. Hanazono’s Eden-like nature is reason enough to visit, but that visit would be incomplete without a stop at Hanazono Shrine. Nestled at the base of the mountain, the devout have come here for centuries to pay their respects to the mountain gods and offer prayers of thanks for future prosperity and bountiful harvests. Within the shrine grounds is a kobusugi (a cedar tree with a lump on its bark), serving as a symbol of childbirth, and 14 sacred monkey carvings on the main hall.
Daigo Town
Daigo, a small town known for its tourist attractions and natural phenomena like the tumbling Fukuroda Falls, also embodies Japan’s Showa era (1926-1989) through retro architecture and the postwar atmosphere of its shopping quarter. Old houses built of wood, with their shoji doors and modular design, have been turned into charming cafes and izakaya (pub-restaurants). It’s gentrification and the safeguarding of tradition existing in perfect harmony.
Machiya Area
The Machiya area is part of the satoyama, located on the old Tanagura Kaido, a bustling trade route from the 17th century to the 19th century. The townscape resembles a bygone era, with wooden buildings clustered together in a quiet, tree-hugged valley. Amongst them, you’ll find an old transformer station from the turn of the 20th century, whose red-brick architecture evokes a Meiji-era (1868-1912) grandeur, when Japan was adopting Western styles of design and engineering. Climb the Kuroiso Bakke cliff, with epic views overlooking the town, or walk north towards the Salt Road, along which salt and seafood were once transported from the sea and where the sound of waterfalls punctuate the silence.
Okukuji Area
At 653m above sea level, Mount Nantai in Okukuji has been climbed by ascetic practitioners for centuries, revered as a spot where male deities dwell because of its strong, “masculine” features, like precipitous cliffs on the south and west sides — hikers ascend, instead, on the other various gentler slopes. From the summit, you can see mist settling in the valleys and the Kuji River flowing from the foot of Mount Yamizo through the centre of Daigo town. Also in view are Okukuji Onsen, whose hot spring waters have been used for toji (medicinal bathing) since the Heian period (794-1185).
Kanasago Area
Home to Kanasa Shrine, where the Kanasa Shrine Isode Grand Festival is held once every 72 years, the Kanasago district is steeped in spiritual lore. During the celebrations, a procession of about 500 parishioners from nearby shrines travels the 75km to Mizukihama in Hitachi City and back over a period of one week, stopping at various locations to perform dengaku, ancient dances paying respect to the Shinto deities. The next edition will be held in 2075. If you’d prefer not to wait 50 years, the Kanasago area is prepossessing in its own right, with forests, and parks that change face from season to season, with cherry blossoms blooming in spring and polychromatic autumn leaves each fall.
Oiwa Shrine Area
Mount Oiwa is the oldest sacred mountain in Hitachi-no-kuni. A place of worship for the Jomon people — tribes of hunter foragers that thrived on the Japanese archipelago from c. 14,000 to 300 BC — it’s still believed to be home to 188 deities, who preside over the mountain trails, ensuring safe passage for pilgrims and hikers. The deities enshrined at Oiwa Shrine include Kuninotokotachi-no-Kami, Ōkuninushi-no-Kami, Izanagi-no-Kami, Izanami-no-Kami, Ōyamatsumi-no-Kami, along with countless other deities from the pantheon of Yaoyorozu no Kami, and as such, people make pilgrimages here to visit “almost all the gods” simultaneously.
Takado Kohama Area
If you watch the sunrise or moonrise from Takado Kohama Beach, you’ll understand that the beauty of Japanese ukiyo-e prints and nihonga paintings is how they convey our wonder at the natural world. To feel like you’ve stepped into one of these paintings, head to the forest-covered cliffs of Takado Kohama, stretching northwards for 1km, or find a spot on the wide-open beach, buffeted by the rippling waves of the Pacific, and cast your gaze towards the heavens. Sasaki Beach, a little to the north, is equally beautiful. Written about in the 8th-century Manyoshu poetry anthology, its dazzling sand still enchants onlookers more than 1,000 years later.
Mount Tatsuware Area
The many oddly shaped rocks of Mount Tatsuware have ensured the area is rife with legends. One of the most famous tales comes from the 7m-wide Tachiwari Stone on the way to the summit, which has one flat, smooth edge as though sliced off by a sword. Said to have been cut in two by Minamoto no Yoshiie, a Heian-period samurai with a ferocious reputation, it is the inimitable symbol of the mountain. After ascending the stone-scattered trail, you’ll reach the observatory from where you, depending on the density of the foliage, may be rewarded with spectacular views of the northern Kanto region, including the 2,578m Mount Nikko-Shirane and Mount Nasu, one of the most active volcanoes in Japan.
For more information about Hitachi-no-kuni Long Trail and the culture, nature and local charms found there in addition to model courses, movies, maps and access information check here.
Sponsored by Ibaraki Prefecture
