Minamitane Town

No tumuli, but a cemetery in the dunes.

Hirota Site, dune cemetery

Photo by Bokanmania (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Ingie Chicken

A British ship's crew was rescued withislanders' help; its thank-you chickens remain.

In 1894 (Meiji 27) the British sailing ship Drumeltan ran aground at Maenohama, and its 29 crew were rescued with the islanders' help. The town site writes that locals call the 11 chickens received from the ship, in thanks for the crew's stay, "Ingie chickens" and have carefully kept them since. They are a prefectural Natural Monument.

29 crew
11 chickens received
Prefectural Natural Monument (2013)

02 ／ Homan Shrine Rice-Planting Festival

A married couple dances with red-rice seedlingsand plants them in the triangular Funada paddy.

宝満神社IMGP1499.JPG — Photo by Bokanmania (CC BY-SA 4.0)

At Homan Shrine's sacred paddy, red-rice seedlings are planted by men alone, to field-planting songs and drums. Then, in a triangular paddy called Funada, one married couple of parishioners dances with seedlings in both hands as an offering and plants them. It became a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2016.

Planting by men only
Triangular Funada paddy
2016: national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property

03 ／ Shimama Shiho Festival

Beach stones are offered in place of coins,so the stone mound rises year by year.

At Miyamatsubara in Shimama, beside Ebisu Shrine, stands a large oddly shaped fossil mass with a mound of beach stones piled before it. The town site says that participants in the Shiho Festival offer beach stones instead of coins, and after the rite each receives one slice of unsalted raw fish.

Miyamatsubara, Shimama
Mound of beach stones
Town-designated cultural property (2021)

Living here

Port and airport lie outside, in the island's south.

about 5,000 people
Rural district town

Minamitane has no railway. The town site gives the drive to the town center as about 60 minutes from Nishinoomote Port, about 40 from Tanegashima Airport and about 15 from Shimama Port. From Kagoshima Port to Nishinoomote Port, the Tane-Yaku high-speed ferry takes about 95 minutes.

People living here: 5,445people
Area: 109.94km²
Households: 2,673households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 3 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —2 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 1 municipalities.

Minamitane Town in Japan30.414°N 130.901°E

Territory of Minamitane Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

23.6km

中種子町

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

Minamitane Town isthis kind of town.

01Hirota Site is a collective cemetery on a coastal dune facing the Pacific; the dead were buried with shell bracelets and shell tablets made from shells found in the Amami and Okinawa islands, and over 44,000 shell items were found; it is a national Historic Site
02Tanegashima Space Center is here; the monument commemorating the arrival of firearms is a town-selected cultural property, and Homan Shrine's main hall was prefecturally designated a Tangible Cultural Property in 2024
03Yokomine Site is a national Historic Site; Hirayama has a monument to Shojuin's river realignment, Hirota has an iwaana cave for rock-cave steam bathing, and the Zashikimaa dance is passed down in Hirayama and Shimama

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Minamitane Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗