Masaki Town

A farmer said to spare the seed wheat.

Gino Sakubei's grave

Photo by CT-May (CC0)

01 ／ Otata (おたた)

Women of the Masaki shore sold fish on foot,and Otata is said to begin with Princess Takihime's dress.

Otata (おたた) were shore women who walked to Masaki and Matsuyama's castle town selling fish. The trade is said to have begun when they dressed like Princess Takihime (瀧姫). A goyō-bata (御用旗, service banner) thought to date from the rebuilding of Matsuyama Castle is a designated town cultural property.

Peddling dress was seen until before the war (town website)
Takihime Shrine stands on the Tenpō mound (天保山) pier (town website)
The banner was designated a town cultural property in March 2024 (town website)

02 ／ Hi-nagashi (火流し)

At Bon in Ōma, fire is set to strawfloated on the river to welcome ancestral spirits.

Ariake Park in Ōma (大間) lies along the Kunichika River, whose banks were built with a washing place for each house, called kumiji (くみじ). Hi-nagashi (火流し, floating fire) was held on August 14 and 15 and lantern floating on the 25th, including in 2025. Springs fed by the Shigenobu River's underflow dot the town.

Straw floated on the river is set alight to welcome the ancestral spirits (town website)
In 2025: fire floating Aug. 14–15, lantern floating Aug. 25 (Kōhō Masaki)
Four springs, including Ariake and Fukutoku, are on the Ministry of the Environment's list

03 ／ Masaki Castle Ruins (松前城跡)

When Katō Yoshiaki built Matsuyama Castle,stones, a turret and the Tsutsui Gate of Masaki Castle were used.

The Masaki Castle Ruins are a town-designated historic site. Katō Yoshiaki entered the castle in 1595 and moved to Matsuyama Castle in 1603, after which it was abandoned. A monument to the castle was erected in 1925. One foundation stone of the Tsutsui Gate lies on a town road just east of Yano Jizō.

Katō Yoshiaki entered Masaki Castle in 1595 (town website)
Castle monument erected in October 1925 (town website)
Castle ruins and gate foundation stone are town-designated historic sites (town website)

Living here

Next to Matsuyama across the Shigenobu River, facing the Iyo-nada Sea to the west.

about 30,000 people
Rural district town

The town website says Masaki borders the prefectural capital, Matsuyama, across the Shigenobu River, a first-class river rising in the Ishizuchi mountains; it lies in the southwest of the Dōgo Plain and faces the Iyo-nada Sea to the west. The former town of Masaki and the villages of Kita-Iyo and Okada merged in March 1955. The town office is described as a five-minute walk from Masaki Station on the Iyotetsu Gunchū Line.

People living here: 29,630people
Area: 20.38km²
Households: 11,898households
Rent (average for rentals): 33,928yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 26 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —7 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.

Shape

Surrounded by 3 municipalities, and almost entirely flat.

Masaki Town in Japan33.787°N 132.711°E

Territory of Masaki Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

4.2km

伊予市, 松山市, 砥部町

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Masaki Town isthis kind of town.

01The grave of Gino Sakubei in Masaki is that of a Tsutsui Village farmer who, during the Great Kyōhō Famine, is said to have left next year's seed wheat uneaten; it is a historic site designated by Ehime Prefecture. Gino Park, where the grave lies, is closed for rainwater storage construction until February 2027 (planned). The Gino Festival is held every April 23.
02Otata (おたた), shore women who sold fish on foot, are said to begin with Princess Takihime (瀧姫), and Takihime Shrine stands on the Tenpō mound (天保山) pier. At Ariake Park in Ōma, hi-nagashi and lantern floating are held at Bon, and the Masaki Castle Ruins mark a castle whose stones and turret were used for Matsuyama Castle. The Shussaku Site is a large ritual site of the mid-Kofun period, and its finds are shown in the Local History and Folklore Room.
03The town sits beside Matsuyama across the Shigenobu River, with springs dotted around it. It has been certified by the Japan Hockey Association as a "Hockey Town." The town office is about a five-minute walk from Masaki Station on the Iyotetsu Gunchū Line.

See the town as it is now.

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Masaki Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗