Qualla: Karuizawa, Nagano

Karuizawa, Nagano: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 守部喜雅, Public domain. In the summer of 1886, a Canadian Anglican missionary named Alexander Croft Shaw hiked into a highland village on the old Nakasendo road and saw something that stopped him cold. The cool air, the birch forests, the mist settling into the valleys -- it looked like Scotland. Two years later, Shaw built the first Western-style summer cottage in Karuizawa, and an unlikely transformation began. Within decades, this former post town on the ancient highway between Edo and Kyoto had become one of Japan's most fashionable retreats, drawing emperors and prime ministers, Nobel laureates and rock stars, foreign diplomats and Zen monks -- all of them seeking the same thing Shaw had found: a mountain escape that felt like another world entirely.

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Image: 守部喜雅 | Public domain

Karuizawa, Nagano: Where East Met West on the Veranda

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ansjdjducciddkdjd, CC BY-SA 4.0. What set Karuizawa apart from other hill stations across Asia was its openness. While British colonial retreats in India and Southeast Asia often excluded local populations, Karuizawa welcomed Japanese aristocrats from the start. By the early twentieth century, members of the Kaz...

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Image: Ansjdjducciddkdjd | CC BY-SA 4.0

Karuizawa, Nagano: The Tennis Court and the Turntable

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wen-Jui Tseng, CC BY 2.0. Two moments define Karuizawa in the popular imagination. The first happened in August 1957, when Crown Prince Akihito met Michiko Shoda on a tennis court here -- a match that would lead to a marriage that transformed the Japanese imperial family by bringing in its first commoner ...

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Image: Wen-Jui Tseng | CC BY 2.0

Karuizawa, Nagano: Olympic Ground, Twice Over

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kzaral, Public domain. Karuizawa holds a distinction no other city in the world can claim: it has hosted events in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. In 1964, equestrian competitions for the Tokyo Olympics were held on the cool highland plateau, the organizers having decided that Tokyo's August ...

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Image: Kzaral | Public domain

Karuizawa, Nagano: A Refuge in Wartime, a Stage for Art

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 663highland, CC BY 2.5. Karuizawa's story has a darker chapter that few visitors know. During World War II, the town became an internment and evacuation site for foreign nationals stranded in Japan. Swedish diplomat Widar Bagge, Russian painter Varvara Bubnova, German harpsichordist Eta Harich-Schneider...

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Image: 663highland | CC BY 2.5