Trade the handlebars for a brush.
The Kiso Valley has always been a place of craft — hinoki wood, lacquer, ink. In a quiet room at Kashiwaya guesthouse, you sit down at a low table with brush, sumi ink, and washi paper, and learn how a stroke starts, turns, and ends. No experience needed, and everything is provided.
One table, one brush, one character that's yours.
Settle in
A low table in a quiet tatami room, with brush, ink, and washi paper laid out for you. We start with how to hold the brush and how the ink behaves.
Find your stroke
Practice the basic strokes, then choose a character that means something to you — your name, a word, a wish — and write it again and again until it feels like yours.
Take it home
Pick your best sheet. It goes home with you — a souvenir you made yourself, in ink, in the Kiso Valley.
80% off, while I earn my rank.
The standard price is ¥20,000 for a group of four — each guest more or fewer moves it by 15% (¥3,000). But I'm still working toward my shodan, the first dan rank in calligraphy — so until it's in hand, every session is 80% off. You get the full experience; I get the practice teaching it. Fair trade.
- 2 guests
¥14,000¥2,800 - 3 guests
¥17,000¥3,400 - 4 guests
¥20,000¥4,000 - 5 guests
¥23,000¥4,600 - 6 guests
¥26,000¥5,200
This is also our rainy-day plan. If a downpour makes riding unsafe, we move your day indoors and swap the saddle for a brush — no rebooking hassle.