Muroto City

Ishiguro walls and a row of townhouses.

Kiragawa townscape, ishiguro

01 ／ Sakihama Niwaka (佐喜浜にわか)

Rehearsed in a single night,never staged a second time.

An improvised short play offered at the autumn festival of Sakihama Hachimangū (佐喜浜八幡宮). The Agency for Cultural Affairs writes that Sakihama has kept the original spirit of niwaka (にわか), born in early-modern Osaka, through one-night rehearsals, a ban on repeat performances, topical gags, and the presence of the obon-mochi (オボン持ち) prompter.

Nationally selected intangible folk cultural property (selected Dec. 13, 1994)
Preserved by the Sakihama Hachimangū Ancient Ritual Preservation Society (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
In 2026, the eve festival is Oct. 10 and the main festival day Oct. 11 (city)

02 ／ Ichiki Gonbei and Murotsu Port (一木権兵衛と室津港)

In his second term as works magistrate,Gonbei is said to have vowed to the sea god.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism records that Ichiki Gonbei (一木権兵衛) and others completed Murotsu Port's inner harbor in Enpō 7 (1679). A city board of education guide tells that three rocks at the harbor mouth (斧岩, 鮫岩, 鬼牙岩) resisted all human labor, and that they broke apart when Gonbei vowed to the sea god. The villagers later built Ichiki Shrine.

Inner harbor completed in Enpō 7 (1679) (MLIT Shikoku Regional Development Bureau)
Three named rocks stood at the harbor mouth (city board of education)
The Okama Rock (御釜岩), still bearing chisel marks, lies in Ichiki Shrine's grounds (city board of education)

03 ／ Onda Festival of Kiragawa (吉良川の御田祭)

After acting out farm work in the worship hall,the “sake-squeezing” rite follows.

A festival of Onda Hachimangū (御田八幡宮) in Kiragawa, with a strong element of rice-planting rites (田遊び). After the dengaku (田楽) players perform the “neri” (ねり), they dance pieces such as “Onna Sarugaku,” “Sanbanshin” and “Okina” in the worship hall, then act out farming. A woman drinks sake from a water bucket and gives birth: the “sake-shibori” (酒絞り) rite.

Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (designated May 17, 1977)
Performed on May 3 of odd-numbered years (Kōchi Prefecture)
The autumn Jinsai float event of the o-fune and hanadai was nationally selected on Mar. 10, 2014

Living here

At Kōchi's eastern edge,a town on a cape jutting into the Pacific.

about 10,000 people

Muroto lies 78 km east of Kōchi, the prefectural capital, with 53.3 km of coastline in an east-west line, centered on Cape Muroto, which juts into the Pacific in a V shape. Mountains and forest cover more than 80% of the area, and unusual marine terraces form near the coast. Muroto was founded in 1959 by the merger of five towns and villages.

People living here: 11,742people
Area: 248.22km²
Households: 5,933households
Rent (average for rentals): 20,362yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 8 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —7 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.

Muroto City in Japan33.290°N 134.152°E

to OsakaHighway bus357min

Travel times follow 徳島バス公式『室戸・生見・阿南大阪線』（https://www.tokubus.co.jp/highwaybus/ananosaka/ ・2024年3月16日改正のダイヤ）の時刻表。下り（大阪梅田・なんば発→室戸・生見・橘行き）103便：南海なんば12:00→ハービス大阪12:25→…→室戸18:22。上り（室戸・生見・橘発→大阪梅田・なんば行き）3便：室戸7:00→…→ハービス大阪13:24。『室戸』の停留所はのりば案内で『室戸（海の駅とろむ）』 (checked 2026-09-30). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities.

Territory of Muroto City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

27.4km

奈半利町, 北川村, 東洋町

Muroto City isthis kind of town.

01Kiragawa is a rural market town that formed along the road linking Kōchi and Muroto, and prospered from the Meiji era to the early Shōwa era as a gathering place for good-quality charcoal. Townhouses and storehouses with plentiful drip tiles (水切り瓦, mizukiri-gawara) survive in a continuous row, together with stone walls called ishiguro (いしぐろ), forming a historic landscape rich in local character. In 1997 it was selected as a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings.
02Because Murotsu Port has been dug deeper each time an earthquake lifted the land, the Muroto Geopark says, the water surface and the houses stand at very different heights. Muroto was certified a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2011, and has Hotsumisaki-ji (最御崎寺), Shinshō-ji (津照寺) and Kongōchō-ji (金剛頂寺), said to have been founded by Kōbō Daishi.
03Events selected as nationally recorded intangible folk cultural properties include the Shitroto dance (シットロト踊), the grand festival of Gichō Shrine (義長神社) with its taro offerings, and the o-fune and hanadai float event of Kiragawa Onda Hachimangū's Jinsai. Per the city, Gichō Shrine's festival falls on Nov. 7 and 8 in 2026. Muroto did not merge in the Heisei mergers.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Muroto City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗