Yaotsu-cho Countryside Stays JapanSustainable Yaotsu

In the past, Yaotsu was a key point for assembling timber harvested in the upper reaches of the Kiso River into rafts, and at the same time, it was also a place where various products were traded. Transporting goods by river is called “boat transport.” Special products from the mountains were carried on the backs of men and horses along the Kurose Kaido Road, passing through the transit point Kutami, and then transported to Kurose Minato on the Kiso River, where they were loaded onto boats and sent to various downstream locations. The amount of cargo carried on each boat was 460 kan (approximately 1,725 ​​kg), which was said to have included charcoal, firewood, ice, wood, konnyaku potatoes, tea, raw silk, and grains.

Kurose Kaido is an old main road that started at Kurose Minato, which was on the Kiso River flowing east to west in the south of Yaotsu Town, and went to Ena. Its total length is approximately 40.57km. It was a very frequently used road that ran through the center of Fukuchi and Kutami in Yaotsu Town.

When water transportation along the Kiso River began around 1665, the use of the Kiso River increased, and special products from the three countries, as well as products and daily necessities from the Owari region that were transported by boat to the port, were transported east, west, north, south, and on the Kurose Kaido. It was carried by.

In 1943, when power generation dams were built in Kaneyama and Wachi, Yaotsu Town, Kurose Minato sank to the riverbed, and when the long history of boat transportation came to an end, rows of horses came and went with their bells ringing. The original Kurose Kaido road has now served its purpose, and now only a small section of it remains.