Mihara Village

A pond park that locals look after.

Hoshigaoka Park, Himenobotan

Photo by Lumi iori (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Tosa Inkstone (土佐硯)

Black stone from a deep gorge,carved into inkstones by the village guild.

Tosa inkstones are made from black slate (kuroshoku-nembangan) from Izakihatayama in Shimogiri, quarried from strata tens of millions of years old. The bluish-black stone contains a distinctive copper content, and calligraphers praise how the ink flows. The Mihara Suzuriishi Processing and Production Cooperative, founded in 1982, carries on the village craft.

Quarried from strata tens of millions of years old (prefecture)
Cooperative founded in 1982 (prefecture)
Trademark registered in 1986 as "Meiseki Tosa Tankei Tosa Suzuri" (village notice)

02 ／ Kazuyoshi Nomachi and Mihara Village Central Community Hall (野町和嘉と三原村中央公民館)

Works by a photographer from the villageare on view all year in a Mihara-cypress hall.

This wooden community hall, built generously with Mihara cypress, was completed in February 2020. Besides a folk-tool exhibition room, it has a storage room for photographs by Kazuyoshi Nomachi, a photographer from the village. The village keeps his works on permanent display under the theme "From Beyond the Horizon."

Built generously with Mihara cypress (prefecture)
Completed in February 2020 (prefecture)
Permanent display, "From Beyond the Horizon" (village)

03 ／ Gosha Shrine (五社神社)

Five deities, Amaterasu among them,are enshrined as the local guardian.

Gosha Shrine in Miyanokawa enshrines five deities, including Amaterasu Omikami, and is revered as the guardian of the area. A pair of guardian dogs sits on either side of its stone torii gate.

Enshrines five deities, including Amaterasu Omikami
Located in Miyanokawa, Mihara

Living here

On a 120 m plateau,13 hamlets are scattered along the rivers.

about 1,000 people
Rural district town

Mihara is ringed by mountains of 450 to 850 m, in a setting apart from the neighboring cities of Shimanto, Sukumo and Tosashimizu. Most of the village is forest, and its hamlets and fields follow the Shimonokae River and its tributaries. Specialties include Mihara rice, Tosa inkstones, yuzu, doburoku and tea.

People living here: 1,437people
Area: 85.37km²
Households: 658households
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.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities.

Mihara Village in Japan32.906°N 132.847°E

Territory of Mihara Village

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

9.6km

宿毛市, 土佐清水市, 四万十市

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

Mihara Village isthis kind of town.

01Hoshigaoka Park (星ヶ丘公園) centers on a pond of water lilies and giant water lilies, with wildflowers through the seasons. One of the Shikoku 88 Views, its Himenobotan, a species the prefecture lists as endangered, is grown each year from seed collected by the local people who manage the park. Admission is free, and it is open every day.
02Tosa inkstones, made from stone of Izakihatayama in Shimogiri and carved by the Mihara cooperative, are a traditional specialty of the prefecture. The central community hall shows works by the village-born photographer Kazuyoshi Nomachi, and Gosha Shrine enshrines five deities including Amaterasu Omikami.
03Home brewing was banned in 1899, but doburoku (unfiltered sake) returned when the village won a special-zone approval in 2004 (Heisei 16), and farm restaurants began brewing again in October 2005. The village has 13 hamlets, scattered along the Shimonokae River and its tributaries.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Mihara Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗