Rustic Japan -A Guide to Rural Japan & Off-the-Beaten-Path Countryside- 日本語

Tohoku

Aizuwakamatsu: A Nanokamachi Stroll and the Samurai Residences

Fukushima Prefecture

Tsuruga Castle keep in Aizuwakamatsu lit by late-afternoon sun above stone walls, with a pine tree in front
Where
Fukushima Prefecture
When
September 2026, 3 days, 2 nights
Route
Tokyo Station → (JR Yamabiko Shinkansen, 1 hr 40 min) → Koriyama Station → (JR Ban-etsu West Line rapid train, 65 min) → Aizuwakamatsu Station → Machinaka Shuyu Bus (town loop bus)
Cost
¥30,000

I left Kitakata and arrived in Aizuwakamatsu.

Aizu-Wakamatsu Station building under a clear blue sky, with red banners at the entrance and a bronze statue out front

I took a bus to Nanokamachi, a street where the old townscape still survives.

Street in Nanokamachi, Aizu-Wakamatsu, lined with old storehouse-style and Western-style buildings under a blue sky

Old tiled-roof shops and a white storehouse-style building on Nanokamachi street on a sunny day, with potted plants and a tofu mochi banner

Nanokamachi has plenty of sweet shops, and you can try wagashi (traditional Japanese confections). Kumanoya sells shingoro mochi. The sweet-and-savory soy-based sauce goes well with the chewy, springy rice cake.

Hand holding a glazed shingoro mochi on a skewer in front of the Kumanoya sign on a sunny Nanukamachi street

I headed to the samurai residences.

More than 100 years ago, the old domain of Aizu fought against what is now the Japanese government, and lost. Before Japan fought in the world wars, it fought within itself. The samurai residences hold the memory of that war at home.

Stone marker reading "Aizu Bukeyashiki" beside stone steps leading to the samurai residence entrance with banners, under clear blue sky

Courtyard garden with a tree and trimmed shrubs surrounded by tiled-roof wooden buildings at the Aizu samurai residence under a clear sky, visitors walking the veranda

Tile-roofed samurai residence beyond a lawn garden with stepping stones, set against a cedar-covered hill on a clear day

What struck me most was that one of the residences has a suicide room. It is the room where, once it was clear Aizu had lost to the government, the women and children still in the house took their own lives.

Jijin-no-ma room in the samurai residence: an ink-painted folding screen and a sign on the Saigo family women's 1868 ritual suicide

Aizu Bukeyashiki exhibit recreating the suicide room: mannequins of women in white kimono before calligraphy screens, and a red-haired samurai figure

Japanese once fought Japanese, and the defeated chose death before the victors could trample them. By today’s values it is hard to understand. Still, I can’t say I’m unable to imagine that spirit: better to die by your own hand than suffer disgrace at the enemy’s. Faded as they may be, I think the Japanese still have values of their own.

 

To be continued