Higashishirakawa Village

The monument's mason split it in four.

Namu Amida Butsu monument

Photo by Opqr (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Banryu-ji site

A priest is said to have brought tea seeds from Uji;his temple stood atop a stone wall about 5 m high.

A village-designated historic site. The tea field atop a stone wall about 5 m high and 50 m long marks the grounds of Banryu-ji, a Rinzai temple restored in 1665. Shirakawa tea is said to have begun about 450 years ago, when a priest of this temple brought tea seeds from Uji and urged the villagers to grow them.

Wall about 5 m high, 50 m long
Temple restored in 1665
Tea said to date from about 450 years ago

02 ／ Banryu's Namu Amida Butsu monument

Laid face down in a river, hidden as a stepping stone.When floods turned it up, villagers pulled it out.

This monument was raised in 1835. Defying the Naegi domain's order to destroy all stone monuments, villagers hid it in a nearby river, laid face down. Whenever floods turned the inscription up, they pulled it to the bank and held services, and in 1928 it was re-erected. The inscription is said to be in the hand of the priest Banryu, known as the pioneer of Mount Yarigatake.

178 cm high
Raised in 1835
Re-erected in 1928

03 ／ Oppara hananoki grove

In a mountain wetland at 700 m,crimson flowers open before the leaves.

In hills at about 700 m, hananoki (Acer pycnanthum, a Japanese red maple) grows with red pines and other maples in a sphagnum-type wetland. The trees are either male or female, and from late April to early May their crimson flowers open before the young leaves. The site became a national natural monument in 1922, and the hananoki the village's official tree in 1980.

About 700 m above sea level
17,260 m²
National natural monument, 1922

Living here

About 90% forest; people live at 270 to 670 m.

about 2,000 people
Rural district town

The village was formed in 1889 by the merger of three villages, Kando, Oppara and Goka. Of its 8,709 ha, 7,807 ha is forest. The village office stands at 330 m and the highest point is 1,132 m; snow deeper than 30 cm is rare. The gateway is the Higashishirakawa Village Office bus stop, 30 minutes by Nohi Bus from JR Shirakawaguchi Station in Shirakawa Town.

People living here: 2,016people
Area: 87.09km²
Households: 780households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 2 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.

Higashishirakawa Village in Japan35.642°N 137.324°E

to ShirakawaguchiLocal bus30min

Travel times follow 東白川村公式『交通アクセス』（https://www.vill.higashishirakawa.gifu.jp/syoukai/access/）が載せる『おでかけしらかわひがししらかわ定期運行バス時刻表（2026年1月13日改正）白川東白川線』（濃飛バス。PDF https://www.vill.higashishirakawa.gifu.jp/files/upload/6969dccd-49e4-495f-a3d0-6416ac100234.pdf ）。白川口駅→東白川村役場の列を目で読んだ（PDFは文字層あり・運行日の欄の『土日祝運休』は画像で列を確かめた） (checked 2026-10-15). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 2 municipalities.

Territory of Higashishirakawa Village

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.9km

白川町, 中津川市

Higashishirakawa Village isthis kind of town.

01The Namu Amida Butsu monument beside the village office, raised in 1835, was split in four by a mason ordered to demolish it, and was gathered and re-erected in 1935 (Village Historic Site No. 1)
02The wall of Banryu-ji, which was closed in the early Meiji years, the monument hidden in a river, and the diary kept by a farmer all tell of the anti-Buddhist movement in the Naegi domain
03A village in the hills that calls itself the home of tea, cypress and clear water, and the village of the legendary tsuchinoko; it has the Oppara hananoki grove, a national natural monument, and the hananoki is its official tree

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Higashishirakawa Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗