A walking tour of the Kiso Valley offers glimpses of the golden age of Japans great printmakers.

(Ukiyo-e means, roughly, pictures of a floating world.)

Courtesy of Walk Japan (2)

Still, parts of the Nakasendo remain intact.

historic looking town with a road leading up hill with historic buildings on either side

Buildings in the Edo Period style in the town of Magome, Japan.Credit:BenLevyPhotography/iStockphoto/Getty Images

Todays Nakasendo is often more of an idea than a physical route, at times indistinguishable from modern roads.

Sipping my cold brew, I studied the woodblock version of the town.

At a tiny bakery called Wachinoya we boughtoyaki(skillet-fried buckwheat buns) filled with bitter wild mugwort.

on left an exterior of a corner of a hut with glass window, on right a stony pathway in a forest

From left: Nagataki, a ryokan in Nakatsugawa; stone paving along the Nakasendō.Courtesy of Walk Japan (2)

I wondered how they could derive any spiritual sustenance at such a distance.

Only later did I remember the nearby clearing where wed stopped to rest.

It hadnt looked like much.

wood carving and painting of a group of people getting ready for a journey down hill

Keisai Eisen’s woodcut of a comb-seller’s shop in Narai.Pictures From History/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The ukiyo-e Nakasendo exists only on paper.

woodcut painting of people traveling on flat road between mountains

A woodcut of the road south of Tsumago by Utagawa Hiroshige.Heritage Images/Getty Images

on left a landscape with a snowcapped mountain, on right a close up of steamed buns

From left: snowcapped Mount Ontake; close up of Wachinoya’s oyaki.From left: Courtesy of Walk Japan; Courtesy of Nagiso Tourism Association