Daiō Wasabi Farm

photo by lienyuan lee · CC BY 3.0

photo by tsuruta yosuke from Nagano, Japan · CC BY 2.0

Kurosawa Akira filmed ‘Dreams’ at its water mill, and the hut from the film is still there.

Japan's largest wasabi farm is irrigated with spring water filtered through the Northern Alps: the Tade River carries 700,000 tonnes of spring water a day. At its confluence with a second stream, in 1990 Kurosawa Akira filmed the ‘Village of the Watermills’ episode of the film ‘Dreams’: the water mill rebuilt in Meiji style for the shoot is still there.

Founded in 1915 by reclaiming marshy land at the foot of the Alps, work that was completed twenty years later, it now grows wasabi on much of its land, which is irrigated by the spring waters of Azumino. In 1985 it was included among the Ministry of the Environment's ‘100 celebrated waters’.

ℹ️ Free admission. Open 8:00–17:00 (March–November), 9:00–16:00 (December–February), closed on 31 December. Rowing-boat trips along the canals, for a fee.

🚉 Hotaka · 34 min walk

Sources: daiowasabi.co.jp · daiowasabi.co.jp

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