Motoyama Town

Named for reddish moss, it is said.

Akataki Falls

Photo by ball banban (CC BY 3.0)

01 ／ Pillow lava of the Asemi River

Lava thrown up by an ancient undersea volcanotook on the shape of a rugby ball.

The pillow lava in the Asemi River (汗見川) gorge formed, the town explains, when seawater entered the lava and reacted with it, giving it a pillow shape. It is a natural monument of Kochi Prefecture; the strata of the river basin are called the Sanbagawa Belt (三波川帯), where more than 30 kinds of metamorphic rock can be seen.

A natural monument of the prefecture (town website)
Basin strata are the Sanbagawa Belt, over 30 kinds of metamorphic rock (town website)
The Asemi River flows about 20 km to join the Yoshino River (town website)

02 ／ Kizenzan and Ōhara Tomie

The grave of Nonaka Kenzan's mother lies in Kizenzan.A writer who portrayed his daughter was born in Motoyama.

In Kizenzan Park (帰全山公園) lies the grave of Madame Akita, Kenzan's mother. The town's list records that in 1651 Kenzan gave up cremation and buried her by the rites of the Confucian school. The writer Ōhara Tomie (大原富枝) was born in Yoshino Village (now Motoyama) and wrote Wan to iu onna (婉という女) about Kenzan's daughter Wan.

Kizenzan is a prefectural historic site (designated 1953, prefecture)
Madame Akita's grave is a town historic site (designated 1972, town)
Ōhara Tomie was born in 1912 in Yoshino Village, now Motoyama (museum)

03 ／ Tosa Tenkū terraced fields (土佐天空の棚田群)

On both banks of the Yoshino, from 250 m to 850 m,terraced fields spread along the valleys.

Mt.Shiragayama-Motoyama.jpg — Photo by As6022014 (Public domain)

Many tributaries form gorges on both banks of the Yoshino River, and the paddies spread along them at altitudes between 250 m and 850 m. The town website writes that clear water in the valleys and the sharp temperature swings of the high ground made this, from ancient times, a place where delicious rice grows.

Spread between 250 m and 850 m above sea level (town website)
Rice growing is said to have begun in the Yayoi period (town website)
Joined the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan federation in October 2011 (town website)

Living here

89.1% of the town is steep forest.

about 3,000 people
Rural district town

Set in the middle of the Shikoku mountains, over 20 km north of Kochi City, the town covers 134.22 km². It took its present form when the old Motoyama Town and the old Yoshino Village merged in 1955; settlements and fields lie between 250 m and 740 m above sea level, and the population is 3,261 (2020 census). The town flower is the cherry, the tree the hinoki cypress, the bird the Japanese robin.

People living here: 3,261people
Area: 134.22km²
Households: 1,504households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 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 5 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Motoyama Town in Japan33.760°N 133.587°E

Territory of Motoyama Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

20.0km

Kochi Prefecture: 大豊町, 土佐町, 香美市, 南国市
Ehime Prefecture: 四国中央市

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

Motoyama Town isthis kind of town.

01Akataki Falls (赤滝) in Motoyama drops between the trees as you follow the Kuwanokawa (桑ノ川), a tributary of the Asemi River, upstream; its name is said to come from the rock face being tinged with reddish moss.
02The Asemi gorge holds a pillow lava that is a natural monument of the prefecture, Kizenzan has the grave of Kenzan's mother Madame Akita and the museum of Motoyama-born writer Ōhara Tomie, and terraced fields spread on both banks of the Yoshino.
03The Jōmon-period Matsunoki site (松ノ木遺跡) and the Matsunoki-style pottery named there, and the votive sumo at Kamizeki Amida-dō (the town records it as held each year on August 14), are also part of the town, which has belonged to the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan federation since 2011.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Motoyama Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗