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Oze NP, Fukushima / Gunma
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At Sanpei-shita on Lake Ozenuma, Aizu brought rice and sake; Numata traders brought salt and oil. Edo-period coins found nearby, some displayed at Ozenuma Sanso, are metal witnesses to this mountain marketplace.
A 12-metre earthwork, about 80 cm high, survives in Oe Marsh. Aizu samurai are believed to have built it while stationed here during the Boshin War (1868–69)—a small, easily missed trace of a military frontier.
In 1908, watercolorist Oshita Tojiro crossed this route to Oze. His later watercolors and an Oze-themed issue of his art magazine helped introduce the marshes and mountains visually to a much wider public.
A motor road was planned along the Aizu-Numata route in 1940. Conservationists helped halt it; in 1971, the unbuilt Sanpei–Numayama stretch was officially canceled, preserving this central crossing as a footpath.
Hinoemata families earned income from this route’s forests: nezuko and five-needle pine became roof shingles; later, mountain work huts turned out beech spatulas and ladles, plus nezuko bentwood boxes.
Near Second Oe Bridge, a low yew called “Oze no Inzō” is said to be several hundred years old. Local lore places a barter spot here; in summer, nearby crabapple leaves can hide the tree almost completely.
Maruya inn’s 1896–1907 ledger lists oil and medicine sellers, miners, roofers and silkworm farmers; travelers came from Gunma, Niigata and even Aomori. This mountain route connected far beyond its two endpoints.
The road’s exact beginnings are unknown, but its name appears in records from 1558–1570. By 1600, Numata’s lord had installed a checkpoint at Tokura to inspect people crossing between domains.
Oze’s trail is one chapter of a roughly 180-km road from Numata Castle to Aizu’s Tsuruga Castle. Gunma called it the Aizu Kaido; Fukushima called it the Numata Kaido, naming it from opposite ends.
A map from the 1640s marks a milestone by Lake Ozenuma and notes that cattle and horses could not pass from winter into spring. Even this busy trade corridor had a sharply seasonal calendar.
Forests on the trail hold beech, horse chestnut and mizunara with trunk girths over 3 m. Michigizawa, the old route behind Numayama Pass, is a woodland of giants.
