Kawabe Town

A torii-like tower juts out of the lake.

Old Yamakawa Bridge, main tower

Photo by へぼ飯 (CC0)

01 ／ Sake-buying rite

A rite in which Tenjin's messenger buys sacred sakeis performed entirely in pantomime.

A messenger of Tenjin, accompanied by a lion, goes to a local brewer to buy sacred sake. When the town puts it into words, the haggling runs: the price is twelve mon but "one mon is short", and the flask "is only eight-tenths full". It is held at 6 a.m. on the Sunday at a brewery near the shrine.

Entirely in pantomime
Price: twelve mon (Kan'ei Tsuho coins)
Town-designated folk custom (1 Sept 2001)

02 ／ Fly-chasing rite

A man in a Sarutahiko mask strikes worshippers' backswith a sakaki branch as he goes about.

At the Abushina Shrine festival in Kamikawabe, held on the third Saturday and Sunday of April each year, a man in a Sarutahiko mask and reddish-chestnut costume goes about striking worshippers' backs with a sakaki branch, praying for health. The town calls this "fly-chasing" rite famous.

Third Saturday and Sunday of April
Sarutahiko mask, reddish-chestnut costume
Shrine grounds' trees: town natural monument (16 June 2010)

03 ／ Kasane-iwa rock

On a bedrock slab,another huge rock sits.

A town-designated place of scenic beauty in Kashio; the town's description gives it as volcanic rock, 6 m high and 5 m across. The town writes that how it came to be "is not clear", and says that an oni is said to have set down a great rock it was carrying to rest, but could not lift it, so the boulders stayed stacked.

Town-designated scenic site (1 Oct 1978)
Volcanic rock, 6 m high, 5 m across (town's description)
Origin: "not clear", says the town

Living here

Two stations on the Takayama Line; 46 minutes from Gifu at best.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

The town has two JR Takayama Main Line stations, Nakakawabe and Shimoaso. Limited express Hida passes both without stopping, and from Gifu Station to Nakakawabe Station takes 46 minutes at best by local train (section timetable of 15 October 2026). The town says it takes about 20 minutes from Nagoya Station to Gifu Station by special rapid train.

People living here: 9,860people
Area: 41.16km²
Households: 3,702households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 7 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —3 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

Borders 3 municipalities.

Kawabe Town in Japan35.487°N 137.071°E

Territory of Kawabe Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.5km

美濃加茂市, 七宗町, 八百津町

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

Kawabe Town isthis kind of town.

01Yamakawa Bridge is a concrete bridge built across the Hida River's dam lake in 1937 (Showa 12), selected as a JSCE Selected Civil Engineering Heritage in fiscal 2021. The first suspension bridge of 1923 was replaced by a second bridge because it would be submerged, and the torii-like main tower of the old bridge now rises from the lake. The bridge was named for the donor Yamamoto Kamejiro's "yama" and the Hida River's "kawa"
02At Tabekoten Shrine, the "sake-buying rite", a wordless pantomime in which a messenger of Tenjin, accompanied by a lion, goes to a brewer to buy sacred sake, is designated by the town as a folk custom. At the Abushina Shrine festival, a man in a Sarutahiko mask goes about striking worshippers' backs with sakaki branches
03Kasane-iwa in Kashio is a town-designated place of scenic beauty where a huge rock sits on a bedrock slab, and the town itself writes that its origin is not clear. The town also has the site of the Shimoaso Tsunaba, which flourished with log driving on the Hida River (town-designated historic site)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kawabe Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗