Yadoriki community 寄 normally is a very quiet place. Located at the entrance of Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林, it’s the last village hikers meet when we climb up Mt. Nabewari 鍋割山 (ASL 1272.4m) and to the main ridges of Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢. The place has a park. It is afforested with wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox). The forest spreads over the west-facing slope at the mouth of the main hiking road to the peak of Mt. Nabewari from Yadoriki Bus Terminal. Villagers count they have roughly 20 thousand wintersweet trees which flower every year from mid-January to mid-February. During this period of a year, the community holds “Yadoriki Wintersweet Festival 寄ロウバイまつり” in the afforested park. It is almost the only time for the community to receive thousands of tourists to their otherwise sleepy village. You may frown. “Huh, idyllic village life is disrupted by vulgar commercialism of wintersweet promotion.” Er, well, you have a point. But I tell you, their wintersweet is really spectacular. I guarantee you a relaxing weekend there with a noble scent. This year, the festival is held from January 12 to February 11.
To go there, you can use your car (; the village provides an ample parking space), or have a commuter bus services from Odakyu Shin-Matsuda Station 小田急新松田駅 (; time table, here.) During the festival, Fujikyu-Shonan Bus Co. 富士急湘南バス provides additional temporary bus services each weekend so that you may not have to wait for one hour to catch the next service from Shin-Matsuda. Please get off the bus at the terminal stop, Yadoriki 寄. There are temporary free mini-bus services from Yadoriki Terminal to the gate of the forest. Otherwise, we can walk for about 10 minutes a steep going-up following the hiking route to Mt. Nabewari. During the festival, the villagers set up a gate, opens 9:00-16:00, at the entrance of Yadoriki Wintersweet Forest. The entrance fee is 300 yen for 16+, and free for kids. They also open shops for local products such as veggies, fruits, smoked fishes caught from Nakatsugawa River 中津川 pouring from the Yadoriki Water Source Forest. The forest also opens a small temp. café so that you can have hot drinks and meals surrounded by wintersweet flowers. Actually, we can visit there without any hiking prep, which is a rare occasion to visit there.
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| Many
people simply walk from the bus stop. We can just follow the crowd. In any case, there are lots of arrow-signs saying “Wintersweet Festival, this way,” like in this photo. |
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| The
ticket booth. Mini-bus services can bring you in front of this tent. Your 300 yen will sustain this park. Thank you for your cooperation. |
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| The souvenir shops and a café here. |
Wintersweet is called Rohbai in Japanese. Actually, it’s not Japanese, but Chinese. Our ancestors decided to use its Chinese name as-was to call this plant. Rohbai can be written in Chinese as 蝋梅. Bai = 梅 means Japanese apricot tree. Yeah, a wintersweet flower looks like a Japanese apricot (Prunus mume), but the plant is not in Rosaceae family, but in the completely different Calycanthaceae family, I tell you. Roh = 蝋 means “wax.” Seeing the flower, we can understand the intention of ancient Chinese; waxy semi-transparent petals are indeed suitable to be called “Wax = Roh.” The yellow color of the flower is similar to that for beeswax, which justifies the naming of the plant from a different angle. There is the third reason for the designation. The plant flowers immediately before a Chinese New Year, i.e. December in old lunar calendar. In China old December is called “Wax month 蝋月,” and so for the name of the flower. They were first introduced in Japan during the 17th century for gardens, and added their variety with new imports during the 19th century. The kind Yadoriki Wintersweet Forest has is all yellow flowers which were imported during the 19th century. The strong scent of the flower could be for attracting insects for pollination during a dead-winter. They have their own strategy for survival, you see?
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| The plant flowers “down.” |
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| A
flower has an interesting life cycle. First, its stamens ripen. Next, the only one pistil standing at the center of the flower matures. An insect comes for meal and bring pollen of the other flowers to the pistil. Fertilization occurs, then the stamens surrounding the pistil close the pistil which allows the pistil to nurture the seed without being disturbed by another visits of bugs. Insects come anyway, and catch the pollen from stamens to fertilize another flower. This photo is a flower after the fertilization. Please compare this with … |
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| This
flower. Its stamens are not yet closed off the center. |
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| They
are lots of shoots of wintersweet in the Park. They are now self-propagating! |
I found the scent of the flowers is noble, but not flashy. In pure and cold air of Tanzawa for January, it was relaxing enjoying their fragrance just by strolling in the park. The place provides one of the entrance to the peak of Mt. Nabewari. So the roads within the park are a zig-zagging hiking route. Inevitably we meandered within the forest, completely surrounded by yellow flowers with their elegant perfume. Gorgeous, I tell you. When the forest is in full-bloom, the aroma fills the entire map of the park. We can enjoy the place really by 5 senses. We see the fragile yellow flowers. We feel the chilly air. We listen birds’ (and humans’) chirping in a peaceful mountainous village. We smell the sweet aroma of the flower. And taste? Please enter the café. 😋
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| When
we’ve been there last week, it’s about three-quarter in bloom. I guess this weekend would be the peak. |
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| At the
top of the park is a viewing point where we can see Yadoriki community below, and the ridge of Mt. Miyachi 宮地山 (ASL 512m) and Mt. Shidango シダンゴ山 (ASL 758.1m), which is a popular hiking course. |
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| We can
bring our lunch and have a picnic in the forest as well. |
The wintersweet trees of Yadoriki were first planted in the spring of 2005 by the 9th graders of Yadoriki Junior-High at the time of their graduation. Since then, the villagers expanded the acreage for wintersweet, and now they have 3,000 routes for more than 20,000 trees. The idea was to create a place for the kids to commemorate their childhood, and for tourists who could contribute to economic development of this almost isolated community. This year, the annual festival is in its 8th, and so many city folks are coming as hoped … Though it has not had enough power to stop aging and shrinking Yadoriki community. Yadoriki Elementary with less than 40 kids (and 12 teachers; this is a superb learning environment!) are still standing, but Yadoriki Junior-High will close its door on March 31, 2019. The last kids are 5 girls who are off to high-schools out of village. Although Yadoriki community has a large baseball field (which is a parking space during the Wintersweet Festival), transparent flow of rivers with lots of living creatures, and large mountainous forests, the place does not have many children who can enjoy such treasures of nature. Japan is an aging country, and many communities are disappearing as their populations are dying off … What will happen for Yadoriki community in 50 years’ time?
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| Nakatsugawa River of Yadoriki |
For an inquiry about Yadoriki
Wintersweet Festival, the contact address is
Tourism and Economic Development Divisionn,
Matsuda Town Hall 松田町役場観光経済課
Phone: 0465-83-1228
If you find an environmental issues
in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター
657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
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