Yasuoka（泰阜村）

Yasuoka（泰阜）：泰阜 derives from a Chinese poem ”泰山丘阜”.
According to this poem, Yasu（泰）means to open a waterway with one’s own hands and oka （阜）signifies abundance or prosperity.
As the fact that there exist many ruins dating back to as early as the Jomon period (14,000-10,000 BC) shows, this area has been rich in natural resources and ensured an agreeable life since ancient times.

Later, during the Edo period (17-19th century), the village enjoyed stable prosperity as a territory directly controlled by the Tokugawa Shogunate.
At that time, people were obliged to pay tax usually by rice in Japan, because rice had served as money for quite a long time, until the end of the 19th century. But as well as Urugi, Yasuoka villagers offered quality timbers instead of rice and after paying all the tax, they held a big festival with a feast cooked with Yuzu called Yubeshi, together with sake.

After the Meiji restoration in the 19th century, sericulture became popular in Yasuoka (as is often the case in Nagano prefecture) and the village enjoyed great prosperity brought by the Japanese silk boom in Europe.