Sera Town

The temple called “New Mount Kōya.”

Imakōyasan, Ōta Estate's office

Photo by HKT3012 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Yūgao-giri

A gourd on bamboo skewers, cut with a wooden blade—a rite said to have no equal in the prefecture.

A ritual at Ryōke Hachiman Shrine in Oguni. A man in the Yūgao mask props a gourd (winter melon) on four bamboo skewers like an animal's legs and cuts it with a wooden blade. It is said to have begun as a fulfilled vow for victory in the Sengoku period, and may echo a shrine legend of slaying a baboon-like monster (hihi).

Gourd on 4 bamboo skewers
Cut with a wooden blade
Town-designated intangible folk cultural property, 1971

02 ／ Kanda Tumulus No. 2

A tumulus whose stone chamber opens and closeswith a door stone set in a pivot stone.

A round mound 12 m across, at the start of the climb to the Manpukuji ruins in Horigoshi. In the T-shaped chamber, a pivot stone sits between the burial chamber and passage, and a door stone set in it can be opened and closed. Tombs with a single-leaf pivoting door stone are few even in the Kinki region.

Round mound, 12 m across
T-shaped stone chamber
Prefectural historic site, 1986

03 ／ Tribute rice

Rice from a donated estateis carried to Mount Kōya.

In 1186 Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa donated the Ōta Estate to Mount Kōya, and the tribute rice was sent by sea from Onomichi. The offering lapsed, but a local preservation society and others have brought Sera rice to Kongōbuji Temple on Mount Kōya.

Donated in 1186
By sea from Onomichi to Mount Kōya
Offering reported in 2024

Living here

A plateau, 350–450 m high, ringed by five cities.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

Sera lies in central-eastern Hiroshima Prefecture, bordered by Fuchū to the east, Onomichi and Mihara to the south, Higashihiroshima to the west and Miyoshi to the north. It covers 278.14 km². The Sera Plateau is a watershed between the Ashida and Gōnokawa river systems; the mean annual temperature is 13°C, 3–4°C lower than in Hiroshima City.

People living here: 15,125people
Area: 278.14km²
Households: 6,085households
Rent (average for rentals): 37,639yen
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 8 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2004-10-01 に合併。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —6 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 5 municipalities.

Sera Town in Japan34.587°N 133.057°E

Territory of Sera Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

16.3km

三次市, 三原市, 府中市, 尾道市, 東広島市

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

Sera Town isthis kind of town.

01Imakōyasan in Kōzan was built as the office of the Ōta Estate after it became Mount Kōya's territory—a “New Mount Kōya” and a prefectural historic site. Seven halls and twelve sub-temples were built around Ryūgeji and Tanjō Shrine.
02Ryōke Hachiman Shrine in Oguni holds the Yūgao-giri rite, and Horigoshi has Kanda Tumulus No. 2 with its openable door stone. In Kurokawa a bronze bell (dōtaku) came to light during irrigation work along a farm road; the find spot is a town historic site.
03The town flower is the lily of the valley, which grows wild on the north slope of Mt. Oga and is a prefectural natural monument. Flower and fruit farms spread across the Sera Plateau, 350–450 m above sea level.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Sera Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗