Oku-Asuka

The upper Asuka River

Oku-Asuka ("inner Asuka") refers to the area along the upper Asuka River, including Inabuchi, Kayanomori and Nyūdani.

Heading south from the centre of the village and climbing along the river, you see the fields rise in terraces and villages appear, clinging to the slopes. It is a completely different landscape from the plain where the Asuka palaces stood.

An Important Cultural Landscape

In 2011 the area was selected as an Important Cultural Landscape of Japan under the name "Cultural Landscape of Oku-Asuka."

It was chosen not only for the beauty of the scenery. What was valued was that the whole system of life here survives intact: how water channels are led to grow rice in the mountains, how the ridges between fields are built up, how villages, fields and mountains are positioned in relation to one another. It is a landscape that has been kept only because people have continued to tend it.

The male and female ropes

Every January at Inabuchi, a thick rope called the Ozuna (male rope) is strung across the Asuka River. Upstream at Kayanomori is its partner, the Mezuna (female rope).

These are kanjō-nawa, sacred ropes meant to keep disaster and disease out of the village. The villagers still twist the ropes by hand and replace them each year.

Landscapes of water

Beyond Kayanomori are waterfalls and pools called Mebuchi (female pool) and Obuchi (male pool).

Here the Asuka River is a narrow mountain stream. This water flows down and once ran past the ancient palaces.

Visiting

Get off at the "Inabuchi" stop or others on the Asuka loop bus from Kintetsu Kashiharajingu-mae Station. You can also walk south from Ishibutai Kofun, climbing uphill.

The terraced fields and villages are places where people still live and farm. The roads are narrow and parking is limited. Please do not walk on the ridges between fields or enter private land; enjoy the view from the road.