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Joshin’etsukogen NP, Nagano
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Until 2006, 3-car trains at Yudanaka Station passed the platform, switched tracks, then reversed into place. A steep approach and nearby crossing left too little level track for the whole train.
Yudanaka’s roughly 1.7-metre Miroku Buddha bears a carved date of 1130, and its lower half is sunk into the earth. The town’s education board calls it Shinshu’s oldest inscribed stone Buddha.
Haiku poet Kobayashi Issa returned often to Yudanaka, where innkeeper and fellow poet Goroji Yumoto was his disciple and patron. Yumoto even lent Issa a separate cottage with an open-air bath.
The first Kannon statue here was funded by public donations in 1938, then requisitioned for wartime metal collection. About 50,000 contributors helped build its 25-metre successor in 1964.
Yamanouchi’s apple harvest reaches the dinner table in an unexpected way: the town is associated with Shinshu beef raised on apple-enriched feed, a local link between orchards and cattle farms.
Yorozuya’s Momoyama Bath is a registered cultural property, completed in 1953 using traditional temple-building techniques. Its wooden hall has a grand curved karahafu entrance and a coffered ceiling.
A 2021 fire destroyed Yorozuya’s neighboring historic Shōraiso, but the Momoyama Bath survived. In June 2024, the inn opened it free for a day, drawing a long line of local residents and visitors.
Yudanaka Onsen groups 5 districts—Yudanaka, Shin-Yudanaka, Hoshikawa, Honami and Andai—each with many springs of its own. Local accounts link the name to hot water bubbling up in rice paddies.
Yudanaka’s communal Ōyu preserves bathing instructions attributed to Matsumoto Ryōjun, later Japan’s first Army Surgeon General. His 1864 health handbook also included guidance on bathing.
Yudanaka’s original 1927 station building still stands beside the working terminal. Its wooden exterior has unusual Stick-style detailing, and the registered cultural property now serves as a community gallery and rest space.
Issa captured a vivid winter scene in Yudanaka: children eating snow while taking the waters. The poem is commemorated by a stone at Baiōji Temple along the local “Issa’s Stroll” path.
Daytime arrivals at Yudanaka Station come with a local theme song: “Uruwashiki no Shiga Kogen,” with lyrics by Sō Nishizawa and music by Masao Koga.
Local tradition says monk Chiyū discovered Yudanaka’s spring around 650 and named it 養遐齢, “waters of long life.” The hot-spring association cautions that his historical link to this place is unverified.
Yudanaka’s Tobacco Jizō is dedicated to a very modern-sounding wish: praying for help to quit smoking. The statue is one of several local landmarks associated with health and good fortune.
