Shimoguri-no-sato: A Japanese Shangri-la

Nagano Prefecture’s kilometer-high village Shimoguri-no-sato appears suspended in the rarified air of the Southern Alps.

Cheerfully defying gravity, Kurumizawa Mieko (right) harvests tea with the brisk assurance of someone who has lived most of her life on the side of a mountain.

Miso-glazed dengaku made from local potatoes is among the specialties one can sample at Hanbatei, the village’s sole eating establishment. The restaurant was built on the site of the community’s elementary school after it was closed in 1986.

At the Shimotsuki Festival, villagers and others celebrate throughout the night in the company of masked figures representing the gods and ancestral spirits. As the night progresses, more and more “divinities” join in the festivities.

The austere-looking mask in the foreground represents Hassha, the ancestral spirit of an aristocratic family said to have inhabited the Tōyama Valley until the line died out early in the Edo period (1603–1868).