Mino City美濃市

Gentle lights swing in the town of Mino-Washi paper. Mino attracts many visitors to see its houses with unique walls called 'udatsu.'

Mino City is located in the southwestern part of Gifu Prefecture. It has been known for many years as a production center of Mino-Washi, the paper that is regarded as one of the best high-quality Japanese papers.

The history of Mino-Washi goes back as far as the 8th century. Among all the papers donated to a world-class cultural property, Shoso-in Treasure Repository in Nara, a storehouse that keeps a number of treasures, the quantity of Mino-Washi was found to be the largest. It is because the city produced lots of excellent paper mulberry, a material for producing paper, and was blessed with pure water, a lifeline for paper production, from the clear Nagara-gawa and Itadori-gawa rivers that still run through the city today. The tradition of paper production still continues in the city today and is designated as one of nation's valuable traditional crafts. Craftspeople manually make pieces of paper one by one, each of which has a very subtle and fine feel, quite different to that of Western paper. Mino-Washi Museum in the urban area is a popular spot where you can experience paper-making. Using real tools and natural materials, you can try making your own original Mino-Washi. Every October, the city becomes the place for the MINO-WASHI "AKARI-ART" Exhibition that leads you into a fantasy world of Japanese "lights and shadows."

Furthermore, Mino is designated as a national preservation district for an important group of historic buildings, attracting visitors with its beautiful views of 'udatsu.' Udatsu is a wall placed at both edges of a first-floor roof of a two-story house to prevent fire from neighboring houses. However, at a later stage, when the city enjoyed an extremely prosperous period, people, including paper wholesalers, placed eye-catching udatsu at their houses to boast of their financial power. In the town of Mino, you can still see a number of these merchant houses built in the Edo Period, along with their special lattices found under the eaves.

In the season of cherry blossoms, "Hana-Mikoshi" (portable shrines with flowers) and the lines of floats go through the streets, as well as "Mino Nagashi Niwaka," the groups that perform traditional improvisatory skits, walk through the town in the night.

In the season of autumn leaves, about 3,000 maple trees color Oyada-jinja Shrine in red. As you can see, there is excellent harmony among nature's seasonal beauty, the gentle touch of Washi paper, and the historic quarters in Mino City.