Yagyu

The Nara Kotsu bus climbs out of Nara for about 45 minutes, past Enjo-ji, and lets you off in a valley of rice fields and tiled farmhouses. It does not look like much from the stop. The interest here is the family who ran it.

Yagyu Muneyoshi, known as Sekishusai, developed the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu school of swordsmanship in this valley. His son Munenori taught the sword to Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hidetada and Iemitsu, became the first ometsuke inspector of daimyo in 1632, and in 1636 was made lord of a small domain of 10,000 koku based here. In 1638 he founded Hotoku-ji on the hill above the village in memory of his father, with the priest Takuan as founding abbot. It is a 15-minute walk up from the bus stop. Inside are statues of Munenori and Takuan, and behind the hall more than 80 Yagyu gravestones stand in rows. The kendo and zazen hall below the temple, the Masakizaka Kenzen Dojo, was built in 1963 and takes its name from the dojo of Munenori's son Jubei. Entry is 200 yen.

The walk I would not skip is the 20 minutes or so on a forest path from Hotoku-ji to the Amanoiwatate Shrine, which has no main hall and worships a group of huge rocks. Behind it is the Ittoseki, a granite boulder about 7 m square split straight down the middle. The story is that Sekishusai struck at a tengu and found he had cut the rock. Since Demon Slayer, whose hero splits a boulder in training, it gets anime fans as well as kendo groups.

Back in the village, the former chief retainer's house sits on stone walls built in 1841, and the novelist Yamaoka Sohachi owned it from 1964 (350 yen, 9:00 to 17:00). Signs are mostly Japanese and there is little to eat, so bring lunch. The real constraint is the bus, with gaps of more than three hours: check the time back before you set off for the stone.