Hikawa Town

A limestone cliff 75m high, 250m wide.

Tategami Gorge, Higo Empty Falls

Photo by 水だらけのプール (CC0)

01 ／ Onono-iwaya Kofun

The burial chamber's ceiling is 6.5m high --'the highest in Japan,' says the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

This keyhole-shaped tumulus is about 123m long. The main room of its corridor-style stone chamber (横穴式石室) measures 5.2m long, 3.0m wide and 6.5m high, a ceiling height the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes as the highest in Japan. The mound was once thought to be a round tumulus 39m long, but excavations from fiscal 2003 to 2008 showed it to be keyhole-shaped.

Chamber ceiling: 6.5m high
Length: about 123m
Late Kofun period (late 6th century)

02 ／ Kawakami Mochitsuki

About ten men leap arounda single mortar.

This is a town-designated intangible folk custom of the Kawakami district in Tategami (立神). It is said to have been taught in thanks to a mountain ascetic (山伏) whom locals helped in the late Edo period, and after its records and tools burned in 1877 it was carried on through people's memory. The town also designates the Takatsuka Amagoi Daiko (高塚雨乞い太鼓); the present drum dates from 1883 and is 124cm across.

Town-designated folk custom
About ten men, one mortar
Takatsuka drum: 124cm across

03 ／ Bronze Amida Buddha Statue

Resembling a Unified Silla Buddha,thought to date from the 8th century.

This gilt-bronze statue, 8.7cm tall, belongs to a temple in Nozu (野津) and is designated by Kumamoto Prefecture. Its flared earlobes and robe hem and its openwork pedestal resemble Buddhist statues of the Unified Silla period. The town states that the statue is preserved at the Yatsushiro Municipal Museum.

Kumamoto Prefecture designation
8.7cm tall, 12.1cm with pedestal
Unified Silla period (around 8th century)

Living here

Ryuhoku and Miyahara merged to form Hikawa.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

The town was formed on October 1, 2005, when Ryuhoku Town (竜北町) and Miyahara Town (宮原町) merged. The Hikawa River flows through it, and the whole town lies within the Yatsushiro Plain. The town describes itself as a farming area, with the cherry blossom as its flower, the pear as its tree and the swallow as its bird.

People living here: 11,094people
Area: 33.36km²
Households: 3,932households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 8 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —6 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 2 municipalities.

Hikawa Town in Japan32.583°N 130.674°E

Territory of Hikawa Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.6km

八代市, 宇城市

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

Hikawa Town isthis kind of town.

01The cliff, cut by the Hikawa River through limestone, is 75m high and 250m wide. The town lists 'Higo Empty Falls' (肥後の空滝) and 'Higo Red Wall' (肥後の赤壁) among its other names, and the cliff and gorge form the heart of Tategami Gorge Park.
02Onono-iwaya Kofun is a keyhole-shaped tumulus about 123m long, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes its 6.5m chamber ceiling as the highest in Japan. The town's Nozu Kofun Group, a national historic site, packs together tumuli of 60 to 100m.
03The town-designated Kawakami Mochitsuki has about ten men leaping around a single mortar. A bronze Amida Buddha statue is thought to date from the 8th century, resembling Unified Silla Buddhas.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Hikawa Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗