Yugawara culture guide
An 850-year camphor tree, a national-monument juniper, and the waterfall Natsume Sōseki walked to while writing his final novel.
What’s inside
Shrine • Yugawara
A 1,300-year-old Shinto shrine three minutes from the station, where an 850-year-old sacred camphor tree - 8.2 meters in girth, 36 meters tall - towers over the grove where Doi Sanehira prayed for Minamoto no Yoritomo’s victory.
Temple • Yugawara
Founded by warrior Doi Sanehira at the opening of the Kamakura period, this Sōto Zen temple shelters a national-natural-monument juniper and the Doi clan burial grounds - a site Natsume Sōseki, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, and Yosano Akiko all found worth the steep walk.
Waterfall • Yugawara
A 15-meter waterfall at the head of the upper Yugawara valley, with a foot bath at a tea house on the approach - and the forest retreat where Natsume Sōseki came while writing the novel he would never finish.