Slender cedar trees towered over us as we drove along a winding mountain road straddling the borders of the Japanese prefectures of Wakayama, Nara and Mie. On one side, the forest rose abruptly on the steep hillside; on the other, at the bottom of a vertiginous drop, the Kitayama River was visible between the gaps in the trees.
The valley widened when we reached a small village, also called Kitayama, in Wakayama. To the right, there was a tourism centre, a souvenir shop and a hot spring-fitted guesthouse and, to the left, a collection of houses on a gentle slope that eventually gave way to the ever-present forest.
Kitayama was quiet and peaceful when we arrived in February, but every year, from 3 May to the end of September, up to 7,000 visitors descend on this village of just 400 inhabitants for an experience that can’t be enjoyed anywhere else in Japan: a thrilling 70-minute ride on rafts made from whole tree trunks.
“It’s so much fun, and it isn’t scary at all,” said my travel companion Kanae Watari, who had tried ikada-kudari, or log rafting, on a previous trip (an ikada is a raft, and kudari means descent). She described it as “an immersive experience” – literally, as passengers are submerged up to their waists in the rapids – and a perfect way of soaking in the view of lush forests perched on the edge of steep cliffs meeting the bright blue waters of the Kitayama River.
Promising myself that I would return in the warmer months to partake in the fun, I was nonetheless excited to witness something few visitors ever do, namely the 30m-long rafts being built.
Log rafting has been an important part of Kitayama’s history for more than 600 years (Credit: Mara Budgen)
We met Miho Ota, marketing coordinator of the Kitayama Village Tourism Association, at the tourism centre. She drove us deep into the forest until we reached a clearing where around 200 tree trunks lay on top of low metal beams. The trunks were meticulously organised into four columns, each making up one raft of seven sections, each formed, in turn, by seven or eight logs attached with metal wires and wooden planks.
It seemed implausible that something so long could navigate the narrow and meandering Kitayama River.
“The ikada seem long here, but they look a lot shorter in the river,” commented Makoto Banya, who was constructing the rafts with fellow raft builder, Kazuhiro Tokoro. Banya explained that every section weighs a tonne, with a total of seven tonnes per raft.
Each year, between October and March, four new rafts are built from local cedar and cypress, then left to dry for a year to ensure the trunks’ buoyancy. Usually, the rafts can no longer be ridden after three years because the impact on the river’s rocks causes too many dents resulting in water seeping in, so then “they’re reused as wood chips”, Banya explained.
Banya is in charge of building the ikada, and Tokoro helps out when he isn’t busy with other jobs. Effectively, this means that Banya spends the coldest months of the year working in the middle of the forest, often alone.
The ikadashi ensure the raft remains as straight as possible as it travels down the narrow river (Credit: Wakayama Tourism Federation)
Then, on 3 May, his life transforms, as does that of Tokoro and 14 other helmsmen, or ikadashi. In the peak season between July and September, they work four morning and four afternoon rides, each carrying up to 20 people, six days a week. On every ride, four ikadashi stand in the front, middle and back of the raft holding only onto long wooden paddles, working as a team to ensure the ikada travels down the snaking river as straight as possible by continuously bringing each section into line.
Kitayama’s ikadashi – none of whom are women, said Banya – have inherited a 600-year-old tradition. Prior to the construction of modern roads, in fact, they were responsible for transporting wood for 60km from Kitayama to Shingu, a city on Wakayama’s coast, by building rafts out of the logs that needed to be moved (a method also adopted in other parts of Japan where logging was widespread). However, this small village is the only place in Japan that has kept this tradition alive.
“Kitayama’s ikadashi were especially skilled because the river is steep,” Tokoro explained. So much so that in 1918, local raft masters – whose sepia-coloured photo is displayed in Kitayama’s tourism centre – travelled to China and Korea to teach the technique.
The rafts came about as an innovative way to transport timber from Kitayama to Shingu, a city on Wakayama’s coast (Credit: Kitayama Village Tourism Association)
Logs stopped being moved this way in the late 1930s, said Tokoro, as transport via trucks became more common. “But it was a pity to lose the ikadashi’s skills”, so in the late 1970s, Kitayama’s then-mayor came up with the idea of log rafting for tourists. Forty-four years ago, the ikada were redesigned for this new purpose and started running the course of the Kitayama River once more, now carrying people instead of cargo.
“At first you don’t know what to expect, so you hang onto the railings real tight,” Watari said, describing the experience to me. “Some parts are just relaxing and you can really enjoy the landscape, but then the ikadashi will warn you to look ahead and, all of a sudden, there’ll be a dip or a rapid.” Your heart is racing and your body sways with the movements of the raft. “Everyone is shrieking and laughing at this point,” she recalled.
Since the times when ikada were used to transport timber, a new generation of ikadashi has taken up the paddle. Trainees practice for three years and are normally allowed to guide people starting in their fourth season. The youngest ikadashi is in his early 30s and the oldest is in his 60s, so “it’s important for new people to start”, Tokoro pointed out, adding that the last person to join is still in training.
Banya explained that the absence of women is due to the fact that none have come forward for the training, suggesting that this may be due to the physical strength required to steer the rafts. But if any women are willing to try, Banya added, they are welcome.
“I became an ikadashi 12 years ago because I was looking for work,” said Banya. His story, which mirrored that of Tokoro, who started a year after him, dismantled my romantic idea of why these dextrous helmsmen would choose this path.
“There are few young people and few jobs in this area. The main industries are logging and farming of jabara,” Ota explained, referring to a citrus fruit first patented in Kitayama in the 1970s.
Each year, up to 7,000 visitors descend on the village to try log rafting (Credit: Wakayama Tourism Federation)
We left Banya and Tokoro to finish their day’s work as evening shadows crept over the unfinished rafts. Ota took us to the log rafting starting point in the river, called otonori.
“Oto is part of the Japanese word for ‘younger brother’ and nori means ‘ride’,” Ota explained. “So in the old days, the name indicated that younger sons were chosen as ikadashi because elder ones were too precious to lose” – a fact hinting at the perilous nature of the riverine journey along hairpin turns and whitewater tracts.
“However, these days, the character for ‘oto’ has been substituted with one that has the same sound but another meaning [of “sound”],” Ota reassured us.
As we drove back to Kitayama’s tourism centre at sunset, I thought how this anecdote revealed the richness of ikada-kudari’s history, which reminded me of Tokoro’s words back in the forest. “I’m proud of being an ikadashi,” he had said, “and believe my two sons will follow my path.”
It was inspiring that Tokoro and the rest of Kitayama are intent on preserving what makes this place unique. It struck me as an act of resistance against an uncertain future for this rural community threatened by depopulation and economic decline, like so many other in Japan. The bold ikadashi who have braved the river that gives Kitayama its name for the past 600 years are helping the village keep its identity afloat.
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