Naka, Tokushima

The gorges along the Naka River run deep enough that the road occasionally disappears into tunnel or clings to a narrow shelf of rock above the water. Settlements appear only where the river allows — a short terrace, a cluster of rooftops, a small field pressed between slope and stream. This is Naka-cho, in the southern reaches of Tokushima Prefecture, where the Shikoku mountains resist any easy passage.

Kito yuzu grows here, its thick-skinned fruit traded across the country while the groves themselves remain tucked into hillsides that few outsiders reach. Aigo bancha, a late-harvested tea particular to the Aioi district, carries a fermented depth unlike anything sold in a convenience store. At the Michinoeki Momijigawa Onsen, the roadside station doubles as both information post and produce market — the kind of stop where a paper bag of local citrus sits next to a hand-drawn trail map. Shikibiya Onsen, known since the Edo period, offers a simple sulfur bath in the mountains above, with lodging that makes an early morning soak possible before the road fills again.

The mountain at the center of all this is Tsurugi-san, a peak long associated with Shugendo ascetic practice, its upper ridges holding shrines and a legend tied to Emperor Antoku's sword. The tradition of riding a single log downriver — Kito-sugi raft-poling — survived into living memory and can still be experienced as a demonstration. These are not reconstructed heritage gestures; they sit inside a landscape that shaped them and, in some measure, still does.