One night, Brooklyn-based artist and food writer Hannah Kirshner received a life-changing invitation to apprentice with a "sake evangelist" in a misty Japanese mountain town called Yamanaka. In a rapidly modernizing Japan, the region—a stronghold of the country's old-fashioned ways—was quickly becoming a destination for chefs and artisans looking to learn about the traditions that have long shaped Japanese culture. Taking readers deep into evergreen forests, terraced rice fields, and smoke-filled workshops, Kirshner captures the centuries-old traditions still alive in Yamanaka. Water, Wood, and Wild Things invites readers to see what goes into making a fine bowl, a cup of tea, or a harvest of rice and introduces the people who dedicate their lives to this work.