Searching for the Origins of the Japanese Character in Rural Shinano

An Unplanned Walk Through Suwa

I spent a weekend in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, a region once known as Shinano.

I had originally planned to visit somewhere else, but the rain forced me to change my plans. With nothing else to do, I decided to walk around the city.

Suwa is home to one of Japan’s most famous shrines: Suwa Taisha, which is said to be among the country’s oldest.

Every six years, the region holds the Onbashira Festival. Enormous logs are cut in the mountains, and participants ride them as they slide down steep slopes. Many Japanese people have probably seen footage of it.

The shrine itself is magnificent. Its four complexes stand around the foothills, and the object of worship seems to be not so much the buildings as the mountains themselves.

There are ancient trees, forests, and water. The shrine does not simply stand in nature. It exists as part of nature.

Yet what impressed me most on this visit was not the shrine, but the people in the city.

While walking in the morning, complete strangers greeted me with, “Good morning.”

When I looked around trying to find a convenience store, someone asked, “Are you looking for something?”

Even the staff at Starbucks were unusually friendly, although that last part may simply have been Starbucks culture.

Still, people throughout the city struck me as genuinely kind.

A Reputation Eight Centuries Old

Nagano has long been known in Japan for its emphasis on education. It often ranks highly in discussions of reading habits and academic performance.

At first, I wondered whether the people’s manner came from the strength of the local education system.

Then I came across an intriguing story. A book written roughly 800 years ago reportedly assessed the character of warriors from different regions. The warriors of Shinano were praised for being conscientious, keeping their promises, and not telling lies.

Of course, such an old account must be treated with caution. But it suggests that the image of people from Nagano as earnest and dependable may not be a recent invention.

They may have had that reputation for nearly 800 years. That is seriousness with a long pedigree.

When Worship and Government Were One

Suwa’s history becomes even more interesting when we look at the shrine’s role in society.

Until the end of the medieval period, roughly 500 years ago, religion and political authority in Suwa were closely intertwined. Worship and governance were part of the same system.

This is difficult for people today to imagine, but serving the gods and administering society were once inseparable. In a sense, the religious institution also exercised political power.

Suwa Taisha was therefore more than a place of worship or a modern tourist destination. It was the religious center of the entire local community.

Gods Within Nature

This is where my imagination began to wander.

Some theories connect Suwa Taisha to Japan’s prehistoric Jomon culture. The idea remains a matter of academic debate.

But when you walk through the area, you can still feel a powerful sense that nature itself is sacred.

Great trees. Rocks. Mountains. Water.

Nature itself becomes the object of worship.

This differs considerably from the monotheistic traditions found in many other parts of the world. The underlying feeling is not that God created nature, but that gods dwell within it.

Where the Japanese Character May Have Taken Root

Outside Japan, Japanese people are often described as serious, reliable, and likely to keep their promises.

Of course, this does not describe everyone. Japanese people lie and cheat too. Still, this reputation clearly exists internationally.

How did it develop?

As I walked through the forests of Suwa, I wondered whether part of its source might lie in places like this.

People saw gods in nature. They believed the mountain gods were watching even when no other person was. The entire village worked together to preserve its festivals. Great trees were passed down across generations. The survival of the community came first.

Perhaps values like these accumulated over hundreds, even thousands, of years and eventually became part of what we now recognize as the Japanese character.

A Traveler’s Speculation

This is not a historical argument. It is simply a thought that came to me while traveling.

Still, walking through the forests of Suwa makes such thoughts feel strangely natural.

Modern Japanese people may talk constantly about AI and social media, but trace our ancestry far enough and we descend from people who worshipped great trees as gods.

Seen from that perspective, the ancient trees of Suwa begin to look a little different.