Japan: Hot Spring Soaks and Fiery Legends in the Historic Town of Yomoga
National Geographic Traveller India|August 2017

Hot spring soaks and fiery legends in the historic japanese town of yamaga

Saumya Ancheri
Japan: Hot Spring Soaks and Fiery Legends in the Historic Town of Yomoga

Walking through the Japanese hot spring town of Yamaga is like entering a book of legends. Our group of six journalists and a guide is on a kilometre-long, stone-clad street located on the historic Buzen Kaido route that connected north and south Kyushu island. The street looks much the same as it did during the Edo period between the 17th and mid 19th centuries, when feudal lords and samurai marched this route on their way to the shogunate at Edo (Tokyo) where they resided every other year.

With the old town at its heart, the city of Yamaga still basks in the atmosphere of the Edo period, when it prospered as an inn town and as an important node on the rice trade route to Osaka. The city sits on the fertile rice-producing plains of River Kikuchi on Kyushu island, the south westernmost of Japan’s four main islands. The region has been inhabited since the Stone Age—Yamaga even has a museum of the decorated burial mounds found in the river basin.

Buzen Kaido is empty in the afternoon drizzle and yet commanding with its neat rows of centuries old slate-roofed, wooden buildings. A few are restaurants, serving regional horsemeat delicacies and pot rice. My head turns at one store window, drawn by the iconic maneki-neko, figurines of cats waving their paws to bring in good luck (and customers like me).

Period Drama

This story is from the August 2017 edition of National Geographic Traveller India.

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This story is from the August 2017 edition of National Geographic Traveller India.

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