History and Culture of Fukano and the Surrounding Area

In modern times, Fukano Village, the home of Sasayuri-ann, has been part of the Muro district of Uda City, Nara Prefecture. However, land surveys were not performed until the time of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (mid-to-late sixteenth century), the two great unifiers of medieval Japan, and for this reason the borders of Fukano do not seem to have been clearly demarcated during Japan's Warring States Period (1467-1568).

The view looking out from Sasayuri-ann in Fukano-splendid mountains and the Nabari plain beyond.

The procession of the torches.

The Omizutori rite at the Nigatsu Hall, Todai Temple.

In prehistoric times, the plains below the mountain site of Fukano Village, contemporary Iga and Nabari cities, were part of the bed of Lake Biwa, which makes for fertile soil and bountiful rice harvests today. Proximity to the capitals (Nara and Kyoto) made it one of the areas where many aristocratic manors developed, and because the Taki-no-hara region of contemporary Nabari produced good quality iron-sand containing high concentrations of titanium, in antiquity it became home to many manors controlled by the Taira clan, attracting the attention of the centers of power of that time.
Good quality iron-sand is used in the production of swords and armor, and for this reason prior to the appearance of the Taira, the Fujiwara clan controlled the manors. The Imperial Court also seems to have attempted to monopolize control of the area.
Outcrops of megaliths are found at the old practice sites of Shugendo, or mountain asceticism, and because of the presence of sand-iron, leaders among the mountain ascetics with knowledge of mining technology became involved in extracting sand from these places, the production of military goods and the shipping of the finished product.
Fukano lies next to Nabari City, Mie Prefecture, and even though it is technically part of Nara Prefecture, in terms of its regional economic zone it is fair to say that Fukano is actually part of Nabari. A fertile plain called Kuroda is found in Nabari, and when the imperial court controlled Kuroda the plain was the manor of the Todai Temple, the memorial temple of the imperial family. Those close ties continue to this day. The procession of torches used in Todai Temple's famous "Omizutori" rite sets out from Gokuraku Temple in the Akame neighborhood of Nabari and goes over the Kasama Pass, right next to Fukano, on its way to Nigatsu Hall of Todai Temple.

The foundation stones of the Buddha Hall of Kebara Temple ruins.

The historical site of Natsumi Temple's ruins in Nabari.

The ruins of a grand Nara period temple can be seen at Kebara village, which is in the same Muro district as Fukano. There are no historical records of the ruined Kebara Temple, but the scale of its Buddha Hall was as large as that of Nara's Toshodai Temple, and its remains are a Nationally Registered Historic Site. This temple was located in the center of lands donated by the Imperial Court to provide lumber for the construction of the building that houses Todai Temple's Great Buddha Statue, and for this reason the ruined temple is also thought to have been the administer of forests for Todai Temple.
Additionally, in neighboring Nabari City there are also the ruins of Natsumi Temple, constructed by the Princess Tairai, daughter of emperor Tenmu, between the close of the late 7th and first half of the 8th century. The princess served at the Grand Shrine of Ise for 13 years as its Itsuki-no-miko, which is an imperial princess who represents the emperor in ceremonies at the shrine.

Fall festival at Shinmei Shinto Shrine in Fukano Village.

Incidentally, beginning in the Nara period (710-784), Fukano performed an important role as the route by which the Itsuki-no-miko traveled from the capital to the Grand Shrine of Ise.
It those days Nabari was one of the counties of Iga Province, but later it fell under the control of the forces allied to Kitabatake, the feudal lord of Ise Province (equivalent to contemporary Mie, parts of Aichi and Gifu Prefectures). In addition to Nabari, neighboring Fukano also came under the powerful influence of the Kitabatake clan.
Close to the capital but centered in a basin ringed by mountains, in the ancient period Iga Province became home to many ?migr?s and political refugees. For example, the Mononobe clan, which had roots on the Asian continent and oversaw both military matters (called mono-no-fu) and magico-ritual ceremonies (mono-no-ke) for the ancient Yamato (later imperial) court. Following their defeat in power struggles at the court, part of the clan took up residence as local samurai in the Iga region. An inscription inside the kofun tumulus at the summit of Kono Mountain reads "Nigihayahi-no-mikoto", which is the name of the legendary ancestor of the ancient Mononobe tribe. The Mononobe in Iga later changed their surname to Hattori, and the famous ninja Hattori Hanzo is said to be one of their descendants.
Furthermore, after the emperor Godaigo established his court at Yoshino during the schism in the imperial court known as the War of the Southern and Northern Courts, Kusunoki Masashige, accompanied by Kitabatake Chikafusa visited three sites in order to carry out Kusunoki's plan for additional encampments for a temporary imperial court. These were located in contemporary Kami-Kasama, in Muro, Uda City, Nara Prefecture (next to Fukano), Kasama in Haibara ward, and Tsukigase Village in Nara City. The places that Kusunoki chose all border on Iga Province, where the local forces were allied with Godaigo's southern court. Kusunoki also brought 48 ninja with him to serve as bodyguards, which ensured the success of the highly secret mission. The site of the temporary court at Kami-Kasama was completed in 1344 after the death of Godaigo, during the reign of emperor Gomurakami. Today, the "Nantei Kogo" tomb that remains in Kami-Kasama is the grave of the wife of emperor Gomurakami, said to have been the daughter of Kitabatake Chikafusa, whose grave lies next to it (Kami-Kasama is adjacent to Fukano in the same Muro ward of Uda City).

The region around Fukano was the stage for the national unifier Oda Nobunaga's preparations for entering the capital.

The Nantei Kogo grave at Kami-Kasama.

As these examples show, because Fukano was adjacent to the capital region, political refugees and those defeated in power struggles drifted into the area. Contact with this cosmopolitan culture encouraged a high degree of literacy, allowing Iga and Koga provinces to adopt the latest in sophisticated intellectual trends and advanced technology. The influence of those currents runs deep in Fukano, as it is located in the same area.
One surprising historical fact is that Oda Nobunaga traveled to the Kasama District as many as five times, accompanied by Hideyoshi, Maeda Toshiie, Oda Nobuo, Mori Ranmaru and others. The object of these trips was to carry out Nobunaga's plan to get closer to the imperial court and learn the manners and decorum of upper-class society, part of the preliminary preparations for his entry into the capital and invasion of Iga Province.

Two river gorges called Ryuguchi (literally, "mouth of the dragon") are found in the mountains that Sasayuri-ann overlooks from its location in Fukano Village (the Iga Ryuguchi in Nabari City, Mie Prefecture and the Yamato Ryuguchi in Uda City, Nara Prefecture, respectively). The castle of Momochi Tanba (the successive lords of this castle were known by the title "Tamba-mori") stands at the border of the two Ryuguchi, and is known as "Castle Mountain. Today, the descendants of Momochi remain in both areas.
The Momochi are direct descendants of emperor Seiwa. Emperor Godaigo overthrew the warrior government and replaced it with direct imperial rule in 1333, but after his attempt at imperial restoration failed, he fled the capital and escaped to Yoshino, where he established the Southern Imperial Court. The supporters of the Southern Imperial Court (who possessed the three imperial regalia), a portion of the nobility and those whose ancestors who had originally served as guardians of the ancient emperors, changed their appearance as well as their surnames and took up the task of protecting the emperor of the Southern Court. Foremost among the nobility that defended the Southern Court were the Sanjo and Momochi clans. As one would expect, it was no coincidence that bases of the Southern Court were established on the front lines running from Fukano through Kami-Kasama, just over the mountain ridge from the valley that stretches from Yamato Ryuguchi to the Uda River. It is also a strange twist of fate that Sasayuri-ann in Fukano incorporates beams and columns salvaged from traditional Japanese houses in the Yamato Ryuguchi region.

The mansion in Yamato Ryuguchi where Momochi Sandaiyu, progenitor of the Iga ninjas, was born.

A ninja.

Two large beams from a dilapidated old Japanese-style house in Yamato Ryuguchi once owned by the Minami Nobumitsu family were moved to Sasayuri-ann after widening the access road to accommodate construction machinery. This lumber was used to support the wide-open space above the wooden floor. Again, this was not simply a coincidence but an amazing twist of fate. These beams are estimated to be more than 150 years old. A large Zelkova-wood column was also salvaged from the same old house and used as the central column supporting Sasayuri-ann's thatched roof. This column shows evidence of having originally been salvage from an even earlier structure, and is thought to be more than 200 years old.

Giant pine beams and a zelkova main column are salvaged for the restoration of Sasayuri-ann from a dilapidate house in Yamato Ryuguchi.

before

after

Sasayuri-ann did not even have a single pinewood beam, and in order to restore the original traditional Japanese construction style, two giant pinewood beams were brought from Yamato Ryuguchi and incorporated into the construction.

before

after

The extremely ill matching, newer Japanese cypress columns of the Sasayuri-ann were replaced with recycled antique zelkova columns.

There are many anecdotes that vividly illustrate the hardness of this old wood that developed with age. One example is the trouble craftsmen from Tamamura Toryo, who undertook the restoration of Sasayuri-ann, experienced when reworking the giant zelkova wood columns, including even the unheard of occurrence of breaking nearly indestructible carbide drill bits. The skill of master craftsmen to exhaustively reuse and recycle building materials was known in the terminology of traditional Japanese construction techniques as kanawatsugi (literally "inheriting the golden ring"). This entails saving the columns of houses rotted by Japan's humidity or suffering from termites by replacing their damaged lower portions with a section of new zelkova wood. Three of Sasayuri-ann's columns were given new life by using this method.

A carbide drill bit broken on the old zelkova columns.

A column saved through
the kanawatsugi technique.

From the side of Sasayuri-ann's irori open-hearth fireplace one can look out over the Forty-eight Waterfalls of Akame, where Momochi Sandayu, father of the Iga lineage of ninjutsu, practiced austerities. The waterfalls of this gorge are a sacred site originally established by En the Ascetic (En-no-gyoja), the founder of Shugendo, and Kukai, the founder of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism (tantra), is also said to have later practiced there. Even today, on the last Sunday of March fire offerings are made at the Enju Cloister, near the entrance to the waterfalls, as well as the site of Senju Waterfall, in order to mark the opening of the waterfalls, pray for the safety of visitors as well as the prosperity of the local tourism industry. The owner of the Sasayuri-ann takes part in these rites as a practitioner of Shugendo, the way of mountain ascetic practice (see the Mie Prefecture Shugendo Association at http://www.shugendojapan.com/).

In March of every year a fire offering is made at the Enju Cloister as part of the prayer rites opening the season of ascetic purification in the waterfalls.

Outdoor fire offering at Senju Waterfall, one of the Forty-eight Waterfalls of Akame. On the bottom right of the photo the owner of Sasayuri-ann can be seen beating the Japanese taiko drum.

Tourists dressed as ninjas experience ninja training at the Forty-eight Waterfalls of Akame.

"Ga Road" in the Iga-ryu ninjutsu hiden-no-sho (Book of the Secret Transmissions of the Iga-lineage Ninjas).

Oda Nobunaga, who preferred rationalism, detested the magic and mystical techniques of ninja, called Iga "the demonic province" and the "spooky province", and he invaded it as part of the extension of his military power across the nation. The invasion of Iga was the final step in his subjugation of the Kinki region. During the "Iga Rebellion" in 1581 Momochi Sandayu moved down from Fukano and barricaded himself in Kashiwabara Castle in the Nabari plain (contemporary Kashiwabara, Akame Town, Nabari City), where he resisted for a month. He surrendered the castle through the mediation of Okura Goroji, a Sarugaku master at Kofukuji in Yamato Province (an imperial supporting memorial temple of the Fujiwara family) and escaped to Mt. Koya in Kii Province.
His escape route, called the "Ga" Road was centered on secret routes through Iga and Koga provinces known to mountain ascetic practitioners and loggers. This is a route connecting regions whose names used the Japanese character ga/ka 賀, from Kaga Province on the Sea of Japan (contemporary Ishikawa Prefecture) in the north through Taga (Shiga Prefecture), Koga (the Ibukiyama area), Iga, Ano (Nara prefecture), Naga (Wakayama Prefecture), and to Saika (Wakayama Prefecture), in the south on Osaka Bay. This secret road follows the ridgelines of mountains, almost entirely avoiding populated areas.
These were originally mountain trials used by practitioners of mountain asceticism. The ninja of Iga and Koga, who had close ties to mountain asceticism, made use of these routes in their secret undercover missions and in the development of their mysterious abilities to appear and disappear at will. The Iga ninjas used these secret routes to slip away, scatter and survive Nobunaga's invasion of 1581. The ancestors of the fifty-man Nusumi-gumi squad of the Maeda clan in Kaga and the Oniwaban ninjas from Kii Province (Saika Ninja) who served the Shogunate are thought to all have been ninjas from Iga.

Fukano Castle, the forces of the mountain fortress located at the summit of the mountain in Fukano Village, was defeated by Oda Nobunaga sometime between 1570 and 1573, and probably fell in 1581 during the Iga Rebellion. Southern Iga (Nabari City) is clearly visible from the Tanada terraced rice field area of Fukano Village, and this view drives home the importance of the area as a base for invading Yamato Province.

The mountain trail to the ruins of Fukano Castle

The owner of Sasayuri-ann in mountain ascetic ceremonial dress, playing the conch shell horn, or horagai.

In order to quickly dispatch communications across the mountain landscape and down to the Nabari plain that can be seen from the Tanada area of Fukano, the smoke signals of ninjas skilled in pyrotechnic technologies and the conch shell horns of mountain ascetics were certainly used. The scenery of Fukano has a unique magic capable of transporting us back to those medieval times. Smoke signal powder was called noroshi, or 'wolf-smoke', because it was manufactured by mixing dried wolf feces with gunpowder, which ensured that the smoke rose straight up into the sky. The conch shell horn, or horagai, is a sacred implement used in mountain ascetic practice, and was also a method of communication used by ninjas, who had close ties to mountain ascetics.
Since Fukano lies adjacent to the southern Iga (Nabari) region, it was probably a center of ninja activity. We can easily imagine how the military forces that had once protected the Southern Court, ninja squads allied with the Kusunoki clan and secret operatives sent by Nobunaga were all extremely active in this area.
Shinmei Shinto Shrine stands in a small grove at the center of Fukano Village (called Chinju, or "guardian deity" grove, a small patch of woods around a shrine). Prior to the Meiji period (1868-1912), it enshrined the gods known as the 12 Gongens of Kumano. In ancient Japanese religion, gongen was an avatar of a Buddha, that is, a type of Kami, or indigenous Japanese god in whose form Buddhas appeared in order to help people. However, a Kami named Ohirumemuchi-no-mikoto, an alias of the Sun Goddess, was installed in Fukano's Shinmei Shrine sometime in the late 19th century as a result of the Meiji government's order to eliminate Shinto-Buddhist syncretism by separating the worship of Kami from the practice of Buddhism,

Chinju Grove, where Shinmei Shinto Shrine, the symbolic center of Fukano Village, is located.

Statue of En the Ascetic enshrined at
Fukano's Shinmei Shrine.

A statue of En the Ascetic, founder of Shugendo, is also enshrined within the precincts of Shinmei Shrine. The presence of Shugendo-related gods and Buddhas at Shinmei Shrine in the period between its founding in the Muromachi period (1336-1573) up until the Meiji period surely attests to the influence that Iga ninjas had here in Fukano.
A related religious confraternity called "Goko" has continued up until the present. Every year it sends two representatives on pilgrimage to Shugendo sacred sites such as Mt. Sanjo in the Omine mountain range and Mt. Atago. The development of ninjutsu and the growth of ninjas in neighboring Iga and Koga Provinces were stimulated by the proximity to the capital and the abundance of places for Shugendo practice. The major reason for the presence of large numbers of refugees from the Asian continent during the ancient period and those fleeing political intrigue in later times is thought to have been the ability to use this mountain-enclosed area as a base for guerrilla war in place of large conventional armies.

On the topic of ninjas, their talent as masters of disguise was important to slipping unnoticed into their area of operations, gathering intelligence, making defensive patrols, hatching conspiracies and undertaking guerrilla warfare. In order to conceal their identity they specialized in taking on the appearance of seven different types of tradesmen, a tactic known as shichihode. These included Komuso (bamboo-flute playing Zen monks), homeless monks, Yamabushi mountain ascetics, merchants, itinerant entertainers, Sarugaku (a type of Noh) performers, and normal people seen in society (samurai, peasants and so forth).
The original name of Kan'ami, the founder of Noh who established Sarugaku at Nabari, was Hattori Kiyotsugu, a scion of the Hattori ninjas of Iga Province. Furthermore, the Momochi clan who were the founders of Iga ninjutsu from Yamato Ryuguchi had another identity as the performers of Sarugaku and other arts at local Shinto shrines, showing that they possessed the advanced skill of and alternative profession requiring the ability to transform oneself. For this reason, in Iga, including Nabari, which was the birthplace of the ninja, ninjutsu is combined with the spirit of high-level cultural performing arts and techniques such as Shugendo and Noh.

The stage where Kan'ami established Sarugaku: Obata, Nabari City.

In this way, Sasayuri-ann stands at a central point connecting the ancient Japanese capital with Iga Province (Nabari, Iga, Yamada and Ahai counties). Moreover, since Fukano once served as a base for military invasions and intelligence gathering activities, and also because the owner of the Sasayuri-ann is a practitioner of Shugendo, or mountain asceticism, sacred implements related to Shugendo (conch shell horn, sacred sword and bow) as well as a matchlock cannon, representative of the pyrotechnics that ninjas were closely associated with, are all on display at Sasayuri-ann. A hanging wall scroll inscribed with the word Zao, referring to the Kongo Zao Daigongen, guardian deity of mountain ascetics, also adorns the alcove of the Sasayuri-an's main room.

The stone monument of Zao-do in Kinpusen-Ji Temple

Hung scroll at alcove in Sasayuri-Ann

A section of baked roof tiles rests on the ridge peak of Sasayuri-ann's traditional thatched-roof and also on the roof eaves. This is the unique architectural style of the peasant family home that existed in this region from the Warring States period all the way through the Edo Shogunate and until the early Showa period. Sasayuri-ann is representative of this region's average, run-of-the-mill peasant farmhouses of that period.

Before: offensive corrugated metal roof and utility pole.

Before: removing the corrugated metal to reveal the remains of antique kaya straw thatching.

Before: the unappealing corrugated metal roof and utility pole eyesore.

Befor
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After
After: a magnificently restored, beautiful thatched roof and utility pole replaced by underground power lines to prioritize the scenic view.

A typical farmhouse often seen in the Yamato and Iga regions, Sasayuri-ann includes a main house, shed and oblong house.

Japanese usually take foreign visitors only to sites and buildings popularized by tourist agencies and advertising, and because of this many visitors probably never realize that those types of places are not the authentic Japan. Such a misunderstanding is equivalent to saying that Tokyo alone is representative of Japan, or that one can understand Japan just by seeing Senso Temple in Tokyo, Tosho Shrine in Nikko or Kiyomizu Temple and Nijo Castle in Kyoto. In reality, however, isn't it the rural agricultural village where the real Japan is to be found? The traditions of Japanese farmers might not be comparable with those of the ancient nobility, warriors or urbane townspeople, but they are nevertheless rich and important. This is because since ancient times, peasants comprised 95% of the Japanese population, so in other words, it is the life of the rural farmer that faithfully preserves the traditions of old.
Japanese farm houses embody the characteristic design, building materials, construction techniques and ingenuity that arise from the land and climate of this archipelago located in the ocean of the Far East.
The Japanese climate is characterized by the existence of four distinct seasons, with a great variation in the seasonal temperatures, from lows near zero in the winter to summer highs of about 35℃. Of special note is atmospheric humidity, which is high across the entire archipelago from north to south. As might be expected, Japanese traditional homes incorporate various innovations in order to cope with this climate, but what particularly surprises foreign visitors about the appearance of the Japanese traditional home is probably its roof. Up until fossil fuel use became common fifty years ago, the thatched roof, utilizing rice or barley straw and kaya grass, was more common than baked tile roofing.
This was because straw and grass thatching was a familiar building material that could be obtained in large quantities at low price. It is a fact that due to its superior versatility and reliability, thatch has been used as a building material since the Jomon period of pre-history (prior to the early 4th BC). The agricultural peoples who lived in village communities practiced agriculture, chiefly rice farming, and following the calendar with great accuracy they responded to nature by cooperating with each other in the division of labor. In the same way, there is a legacy of entire villages working together to thatch the roofs of each other's homes. Consequently, there was a culture of interacting with nature through a social structure rooted in close personal relationships.
Incidentally, the thatched roof of Sasayuri-ann took four craftsmen from Miyama Town in Kyoto approximately three and a half months to complete. The task required removing the modern metal roof, the old kaya straw remaining underneath as well as repairing the network of beams before finally re-thatching with new kaya straw. At present, these building materials have become valuable rarities. The kaya straw for the Sasayuri-ann's roof was obtained from an area in Kyushu along the Sea of Ariake where seawater and fresh water intermix, resulting in straw that is known for its long use-life. It is a sad reality that it is no longer possible to obtain kaya straw in the area of Fukano, apparently due to the cumulative influence of years of acid rain that weakens its durability.
Japanese agriculture of the past consisted chiefly of rice farming and raising silkworms on mulberry tree leaves. Rice farming required the division of land into small parcels, and large-scale agriculture was unknown because all labor had to be done by hand. Consequently, small water-filled rice paddies were constructed deep into the foothills of the mountains, where they formed a kind of staircase, the famous "terraced rice fields". Mulberry trees were raised on the slopes of the mountains, a practice that maintained the village forest. Everything was done by manual labor: wet paddy farming used oxen and horses, and kindling was used for fuel. During the Warring States Period (1467-1568), powerful clans arose from among the peasants, and samurai also engaged in farming. It was not until the Edo Period (1603-1867) that 'peasant' became a fixed, static social-class status. In Japan prior to that time, people would shift between farmer, samurai, and craftsmen or merchant, as people occupied all of those roles simultaneously.
It goes without saying that before the Meiji period and as recent as just fifty years ago, Japanese farmhouses had irori open-hearth fireplaces and cooking hearths. Tatami-mat rooms were almost nonexistent as wooden floors were standard. Moreover, in those days, houses lacked chimneys but kindling and firewood from the village woods as well as charcoal were used for fuel. The smoke from the fireplace and hearths filled the room and the loft-space under the roof, and as the smoke escaped upward through the roof thatching it carbonized the kaya and rice straw, preventing the growth of mold. The presence of mold allows insects and termites to consume and digest straw, but its absence repels them, as they cannot digest the straw of the roof thatching. At the same time, carbonization improved the water repellency of the roof, lengthening its lifespan.
An iron kettle was usually suspended above the irori open-hearth fireplace, which also warmed the surrounding area, allowing for cooking and drying wet clothes. The space also served as a bedroom, just as it was. The irori was the center of the house and the place where the family gathered around the fireplace. Salted sweetfish and other foods were grilled on the irori, and everyone would drink sake sitting together around the crackling fire watching the sweetfish cook. I think that city people and foreigners could be nothing but envious of the friendly atmosphere of this unrivaled, quality time that rural Japanese families spent together.

In the ancient capitals of Nara and Kyoto, the spiritual world, technology and culture that were transmitted from China with the diffusion of Buddhism mixed together and reacted with the ancient Japanese traditional craftsmanship and culture. The richly sensitive and delicate transformation of this mix into uniquely Japanese crafts and aesthetics produced the great monasteries that possess world famous architectural marvels, including temples such as Todai, Horyu, Kofuku, Toshodai, Kiyomizu and Kinkaku.
Even so, the design of the Grand Shrine of Ise, the most precious sacred site to the Japanese people, derives from an age of the distant past prior to Chinese influence. The spiritual creativity born of the land and climate of this national territory as well as the shrine's building materials and architectural design present an appearance of extreme austerity and clarity. It is precisely for this reason that the Grand Shrine of Ise is infinitely beautiful in its simplicity and purity.
I hope that people who can perceive, even if ever so slightly, the essence of the Japanese traditional house as well as Japanese culture, the lifestyle based on this land and climate as well as its customs, will come to the deep realization that the origins of the thatched-roof of this Japanese farmhouse, its spirituality and ingenuity, are legacies of the ancient past, a unique Japaneseness absent foreign influences that Sasayuri-ann also shares with the Grand Shrine of Ise. With this meaning in mind, Sasayuri-ann demonstrates to modern people, accustomed to steel and concrete, what Japan previously was. If they understand this, then they will see Sasayuri-ann as something more intimate and familiar than the castles of the lords of old or the temples and monasteries influenced by the spirituality of Buddhism, and so forth, that has been trumpeted as representative of Japan. I believe that people will be moved by Sasayuri-ann's simple and pure folksy beauty.
In this way, the identity of Japan itself is found in the agricultural villages of Japanese farmers. This culture has seen the disappearance of the thatched-roof Japanese house, a home that preserved the customs of the Japanese lifestyle and environment, and witnessed its replacement with baked-tile roofed homes. However, I believe that it is precisely the kaya straw thatched-roof traditional farmhouse, capable of passing on genuine Japanese traditions, which deepens understanding of Japanese culture because it is an architectural structure in which one can intimately experience the environment of Japan. Moreover, what also makes Fukano a unique place is its location that connected the capital with other centers of power, as well as its scenic beauty that provides vistas of terraced rice fields 400 meters high on the slopes of the mountains

The basic concept of Sasayuri-ann is for it to be a "hidden residence where adults can enjoy breathtaking scenery", and it was developed so that guests could experience the sense of time and space of several hundred centuries in the past as if they had journeyed through time.

Even so, contemporary Japanese and foreign guests might be concerned about the level of comfort at the experiential zone of this kaya thatched-roof farmhouse. Consequently, interior furnishings include the irori open-hearth fireplace in the spacious central room, and on the second floor we have laid tatami mats, creating a space akin to another dimension where the inner structure of the thatched roof is visible before one's eyes. The central room, kitchen and toilet are all equipped with heated floors so that even we who are accustomed to comfortable urban living can enjoy spring, summer, fall and winter here at Sasayuri-ann. Moreover, with ecological concerns in mind, we have prepared a relatively smokeless pellet stove and three energy-efficient air conditioners for year-round comfort. The Japanese-style furo bath is constructed entirely of Japanese cypress wood, the kitchen is fully equipped with plate ware and cooking appliances. The restroom has the latest bidet Washlets. On the outside, Sasayuri-ann has the quaint appearance of a house of two or three centuries ago, but in terms of functionality, thoughtful innovations have been made throughout the house to ensure that modern people can pass their time at Sasayuri-ann in proper comfort.
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