Hitokabe Village

On the road from the town of Esashi on the way to Taneyamagahara there is a village called Hitokabe. If you go farther along the Mori Road in the direction of Tane Mountain, you will come across a bus stop called Kizaiku in front of the present day Kizaiku Elementary School. Next to it stands the dilapidated schoolhouse that was the former Kizaiku Elementary School. This schoolhouse was chosen as the location for the movie Matasaburo the Wind Imp because of its suitability as a small mountain village school. The Hitokabe River flows close by.
Uenohara (Taneyamagahara), the setting for the scene in the story where the children go to play and Kasuke faints in the mist, is right nearby. (While the name Taneyamagahara does not appear in the final version of Matasaburo the Wind Imp, this part of the story is modeled on a piece of writing that was titled "Taneyamagahara.") In the story, the main character Saburo Takada is transferred to the school because his father's work brought him there to look for molybdenum. Yukio Hayashi says that Kenji found molybdenum near Taneyamagahara. But in Kenji's day, unfortunately, there was no Kizaiku Elementary School.

"Matasaburo the Wind Imp"

Up in the sky, the clouds, shining a sinister gray, fled steadily to the north. The woods in the distance were roaring and pounding like a rough sea. Ichiro stood quite still, with the cold raindrops driving into his face and his kimono almost torn off him by the wind, listening and gazing up at the sky.
As he did so he seemed to feel a strange thrill run through his chest. But then, as he went on gazing up where the wind rushed roaring and howling and groaning, his body began to throb with excitement instead. (Excerpt from Matasaburo the Wind Imptranslated by John Bester, published by Kodansha International.)
The Complete Works of Miyazawa Kenji Vol.7, Chikuma Bunko

The old Kizaiku Elementary School where Matasaburo the Wind Imp was filmed.