Niwata Jinja Haiden.jpg
Article

28227 / しそうし

Hyogo Prefecture

Shiso City

The oldest record of sake points here.

Niwazake, Niwata Shrine

Photo by Zeter114514 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 / Sake

The first brewing with kojiis said to have happened at this shrine.

Niwata Jinja Honden.jpg
Photo by Zeter114514 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Harima no Kuni Fudoki, the oldest surviving gazetteer to mention sake, records that at Niwata Shrine (庭田神社) in Ichinomiya, sake called niwazake was first made with koji mould and offered to the gods. The city takes its name as the home of fermentation from that passage.

  • Recorded in the Harima Fudoki
  • "Niwazake" at Niwata Shrine
  • The city calls itself the home of fermentation

02 / Forest

Nine tenths of the cityis forest.

Forest covers 89.6 percent of the city's 658.54 square kilometres. That area is 7.8 percent of all Hyogo, second only to Toyooka. Its 22 national forests, Akasai among them, total 12,861 hectares — more than four tenths of all national forest in the prefecture.

  • 89.6% forest
  • Second-largest area in Hyogo
  • Four tenths of the prefecture's national forest

03 / Mountains

The prefecture's high peaksgather around this city.

Harafudou Falls No,01.JPG
Photo by Mti (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Hyonosen San-no-maru (1,464 m) stands at the northern edge, with Mimuro-yama at 1,358 m and Ushiro-yama at 1,344 m around it. Hara-fudo Falls, on the national list of 100 fine waterfalls, drops 88 metres. The city has picked out fifty peaks to climb, the Shiso 50.

  • Hyonosen San-no-maru: 1,464 m
  • Hara-fudo Falls: 88 m
  • The Shiso 50 peaks

Living here

No railway: 90 minutes to Sannomiya, 61 to Himeji, by bus.

  • about 30,000 people
  • 2 hours to a city centre

There is no railway station inside the city; the gateway is Harima-Shingu Station in neighbouring Tatsuno. The city hall sits at Yamasaki, where the Chugoku Expressway meets Route 29, and the headwaters of the Ibo and Chikusa rivers lie within the city.

People living here
34,819people
20052020

−7.8% since 2015

43,302 → 34,819

Area
658.54km²

72.09km² of it habitable

2024

Households
12,882households

2.7 people per household

2020

Rent (average for rentals)
46,442yen

National average 60,630 yen

2023

Healthcare
1 hospital / 28 clinics

8.3 per 10,000 people

2023

Area658.54km²Habitable land72.09km² / 11%
Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103
Children waiting for childcare
—14 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.

Shiso City in Japan35.004°N 134.549°E
TokyoShiso City
Harima-Shingu Station
播磨新宮駅2023
  • to OsakaHighway bus120min
  • to SannomiyaHighway bus90min
  • to HimejiLocal bus61min

Travel times follow 市公式「交通アクセス」と定住サイト「アクセス」が掲載している値 (checked 2026-09-23). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 9 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Territory of Shiso City
Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

42.8km

Hyogo Prefecture
姫路市, 養父市, 佐用町, 神河町, たつの市, 朝来市
Tottori Prefecture
若桜町
Okayama Prefecture
美作市, 西粟倉村

Shiso City isthis kind of town.

  1. 01Where the oldest written record of sake brewing with koji points
  2. 0289.6 percent forest, holding four tenths of Hyogo's national forest
  3. 03Ringed by the prefecture's highest peaks, with the 88-metre Hara-fudo Falls

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.