Kumakogen Town

It is named for eight holes in a row.

Yakama Potholes

Photo by ball banban (CC BY 3.0)

01 ／ Kamikuroiwa Rock Shelter

A woman with long hair is carved in lineson a small chlorite-schist pebble.

In May 1961 a father and son who owned the land found the rock shelter beside the Kuma River; the son was then a first-year student at Mikawa Junior High School. The site dates from the Incipient to the Late Jōmon period. The engraved pebble called the sekigū (石偶, "goddess stone") is said to have been an object of worship. Finds are shown at the Kamikuroiwa Site Archaeological Museum beside the site (closed Mondays and December to March).

National Historic Site (designated 1971)
Composite site from the Incipient to the Late Jōmon (town website)
Found in May 1961 by a father and son who owned the land (National Museum of Japanese History)

02 ／ Gyōsai Canal

He hired workers on a promise: 1 shō of rock dustfor 1 shō of rice, to dig a channel through rock.

The Kuma River runs through a deep valley, and water for the paddies was brought by dozens of linked wooden flumes. To spare people the repairs when typhoons and heavy rain swept them away, Yamanouchi Hikozaemon (later called Gyōsai), a merchant of the Yamadaya house, began the work with his own funds. In three years a channel 57 m long was opened, about 12 m of it a tunnel.

57 m long, 1.2 m wide, 1.5 m deep (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)
About 12 m of it is a tunnel
Prefectural Historic Site (tourist association)

03 ／ Former Yamanaka House

A thatched farmhouse from Besshiyama Village, Uma District,was moved to Kamikuroiwa.

It seems to have been built between the mid and late 18th century, a thatched house with a hip-and-gable roof. Kumakōgen, designated a "Village of Rock-Shelter Culture" (岩陰文化の里), took it over and moved and preserved it here. Its narrow earthen floor and single row of rooms are strongly marked features of mountain farmhouses. Free entry; closed Mondays and from December to March.

Important Cultural Property (designated 1970)
Ridge 7 bays, span 3.5 bays (town website)
Free entry (town website)

Living here

Homes lie scattered between 300 and 1,000 m up.

about 7,000 people
Rural district town

Formed in August 2004 from the former towns and villages of Kuma, Omogo, Mikawa and Yanadani, the town covers 584 km². The Omogo and Kuma rivers are the source area of the Niyodo River. By the JR Shikoku Bus timetable, the ride from Matsuyama Station to Kumakōgen Station takes about 80 minutes. Agriculture and forestry are the basic industries; Kuma forestry traces its start to 1872, when the priest of Daihōji began planting trees and urged people nearby to do the same. The Kuma Museum of Art, a wooden building put up in 1988, houses a collection donated by the late Ibe Eiji.

People living here: 7,404people
Area: 583.69km²
Households: 3,638households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 11 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —1 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Kumakogen Town in Japan33.656°N 132.902°E

to MatsuyamaLocal bus80min

Travel times follow JR四国バス公式「久万高原線」の時刻表（2025年4月1日改正）。松山（JR松山駅）発→久万高原着が 6:30→7:54（便1・84分）、8:10→9:30、10:00→11:20、12:00→13:20、14:00→15:20、15:20→16:40、18:00→19:20、19:00→20:20（便15・平日のみ）がいずれも80分、19:30→20:40（便113・休日のみ）が70分。久万高原発→松山は 6:30→7:50 ほか80分の便が並び、6:50→8:00（便52・平日のみ）が70分 (checked 2026-09-30). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 10 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Kumakogen Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

34.0km

Ehime Prefecture: 内子町, 東温市, 西条市, 砥部町, 松山市, 西予市
Kochi Prefecture: 仁淀川町, 檮原町, 津野町, いの町

Kumakogen Town isthis kind of town.

01The Yakama Potholes (八釜の甌穴群) in Kumakōgen, a national Special Natural Monument, are more than thirty potholes of various sizes in the bed of a tributary of the Omogo River; the Agency for Cultural Affairs explains that the name "Yakama" comes from the group of eight in a row.
02Kamikuroiwa has a rock-shelter site from the Incipient to the Late Jōmon and the Former Yamanaka House (an Important Cultural Property) moved from Besshiyama Village, and in Nishimyōjin the Gyōsai Canal (a prefectural historic site) runs through rock cut in the Edo period.
03The town has Temples 44 (Daihōji) and 45 (Iwayaji) of the Shikoku pilgrimage, the nationally designated scenic places of Omogo Gorge and Furuiwaya, the Ishizuchi and Shikoku Karst mountains, and Kuma forestry, which began with tree planting in 1872, and the Kuma Museum of Art.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kumakogen Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗