Sakata, Japan: Rice and Sake Country on the Sea of Japan Coast

The Sankyo Soko, a row of three weathered black storehouses standing along the Niida River canal in the center of Sakata, was built in 1893 to store rice awaiting shipment and is the defining architectural image of the city. The storehouses are maintained by the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives and one of them has been converted into a local history and rice culture museum covering Sakata's role as a distribution point in the Kitamaebune trading route — the coastal shipping network that connected the Japan Sea ports with Osaka in the Edo period. The Kitamaebune ships carried rice south and returned with goods from the main commercial centers; Sakata's merchant class grew considerably wealthier than their inland equivalents through this trade.

The Honma Museum of Art, a 5-minute walk from the storehouses, is housed in the former villa of the Honma family — the most powerful merchant family in Sakata at the height of the rice trade, whose fortune was large enough that the Edo shogunate asked them for financial loans. The villa's Japanese garden, designed around a large pond with stone lanterns and shaped pines, is one of the finest examples of a Meiji-era merchant garden in the Tohoku region. The museum collection covers Japanese painting and calligraphy, including works by the Maruyama-Shijo school; the garden and villa are the primary draw.

Yamadera (Risshakuji Temple), approximately 50 kilometers east of Sakata in the mountains above Yamagata City, is one of the most dramatically sited temples in Japan: a complex of stone halls and pavilions built into and on top of a granite mountain, reached by a staircase of 1,015 stone steps that takes about 45 minutes to ascend. The temple was founded in 860 CE; the climb is steep and the rocks wet in rain. The view from the upper precinct, looking down through the cedars and maples to the Yamagata valley, is exceptional in autumn when the foliage turns. The round trip from Sakata by taxi or hired car takes about 3 hours including the climb.

Sakata's sake breweries are the most locally specific attraction: Tatenokawa, Dewatsuru, and Otori are all within or near the city and have tasting rooms open to visitors. Yamagata Prefecture's sake style tends toward clean and dry, complementing the prefecture's rice production — the same Koshihikari used in high-end sushi restaurants throughout Japan. Several of the breweries have English-speaking staff or English materials for visitors; calling ahead to confirm tasting hours is worthwhile.

The Mogami River, Japan's largest river by gradient, flows through Sakata on its way to the Sea of Japan. The narrow gorge section upstream at Mogamikyo, 30 kilometers south of the city, was described by the haiku poet Matsuo Bashō in his Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no Hosomichi), written following a 1689 journey through Tohoku. Bashō's account of the gorge — "the Mogami River gathers all the rains of May and rushes headlong into the sea" — and the thatched farmhouses visible from the gorge boat tour give the experience a literary texture unusual in Japanese nature tourism.