Mimasaka, Okayama

Along the old Inaba Kaido highway, the post town of Ōhara-juku still holds its original proportions — the main inn, the sub-inn, timber-framed buildings from the Edo period standing without ceremony on a quiet street. Daimyo processions once moved through here on their way between domains. Now a train on the Chizu Express passes through Ōhara station, and the timetable matters more than the procession.

Mimasaka sits deep in the Chūgoku Mountains of northeastern Okayama, where the ridgelines press close and most of the land is forest. Uchiyama Hōkōzan — the peak known as Gosen-yama — rises above the treeline as the highest point in the prefecture, and the temple Dōsenji at its base manages the mountain's tradition of Shugendo practice; in September, a great outdoor goma fire ceremony draws those who still follow that path. Down in the valleys, the thermal waters of Yunotō Onsen anchor the town's quieter economy, and along the roads in season, Pione grapes and Shine Muscat hang heavy in the agricultural plots that break the forest.

Longer threads run through the town without announcing themselves. Chōfukuji holds a three-storied pagoda considered the oldest wooden structure in Okayama prefecture. The Hayashi family residence in what was once Higashi-Awakura village — a Edo-period headman's compound — stands as a national important cultural property, its long gate intact. At the festival called Awai Kasuga Kabuki, a local form of kabuki continues in the traditional manner. These things coexist with an international motor racing circuit and a women's football club, Okayama Yunogo Belle, whose home ground sits in the same mountain basin. The combination is not incongruous here — it is simply what the place has accumulated.