Hitoyoshi City

Stones jut out from the wall's crest.

Hitoyoshi Castle, Musha-gaeshi

Photo by Saigen Jiro (CC0)

01 ／ Unsun karuta

Even after a ban was issued,Unsun karuta was handed down in Hitoyoshi-Kuma.

うんすんカルタ.png — Photo by Outlookxp (CC BY-SA 4.0)

A card game reworked from cards that came from Portugal in the late 16th century. A ban was issued under the Kansei Reforms of the late Edo period and the game declined across Japan, but it was handed down in Hitoyoshi-Kuma (人吉球磨). Played with 75 cards in five suits, the game's rules are an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Kumamoto Prefecture.

75 cards in five suits
1965: prefectural designation
Arrived in the late 16th century

02 ／ Aoi Aso Shrine's Divine Masks

Yin-yang pairs of divine masks sit under the eavesat four corners and were named 'Hitoyoshi style.'

Under the eaves at the four corners of the roof of Aoi Aso Shrine's romon gate (楼門), divine masks with 'a' and 'un' expressions are fitted in yin-yang pairs, eight in all. The shrine says masks in such a place have no parallel elsewhere in Japan, and that Professor Yazaki Yoshimori (矢崎美盛), who surveyed it in 1944, named this 'Hitoyoshi style.'

8 masks in all
1944: named by Yazaki Yoshimori
2008: shrine buildings made a National Treasure

03 ／ Omura Cave Tombs

Horses and weapons are carved on theouter walls of the cliff's cave tombs.

A national historic site, with cave tombs (横穴) lined up in the cliff behind Hitoyoshi Station, said to date from the late 6th to the 7th century. Decorative patterns are carved on the outer walls, and the city's explanation lists horses, weapons and arrows among the designs. The city's basic plan stresses that the site lies at the southern limit of decorated cave tombs.

National historic site (designated 1921)
Said to date from the late 6th-7th century
Southern limit of decorated cave tombs

Living here

Hot spring sources number over 50 along the Kuma River.

about 30,000 people

Hitoyoshi's hot springs have a long history: a record says that in 1492 Sagara Tametsugu (相良為続), the family's 12th head, took the waters here. The city introduces more than 20 public bathhouses in addition to the inns (as of June 2025).

People living here: 31,108people
Area: 210.55km²
Households: 13,288households
Rent (average for rentals): 38,022yen
Healthcare: 9 hospitals ／ 38 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —12 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 6 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Hitoyoshi City in Japan32.210°N 130.762°E

Territory of Hitoyoshi City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

22.2km

Kumamoto Prefecture: 球磨村, 錦町, 山江村, 相良村
Miyazaki Prefecture: えびの市
Kagoshima Prefecture: 伊佐市

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

Hitoyoshi City isthis kind of town.

01Hitoyoshi Castle ruins, a national historic site, was the seat of the Sagara clan. Stones jut out from the crest of the stone wall facing the gate (水の手門) at the north end of the residence, which the national commentary says is called 'mushagaeshi' (武者返). The city's restoration plan describes the excavated underground remains as unparalleled in Japan.
02Unsun karuta is a card game from Portugal that kept being played in Hitoyoshi-Kuma after the Kansei Reforms banned it. It is also one of the cultural properties of the Japan Heritage story 'Hitoyoshi Kuma: Japan's Most Vibrant Hidden Village.'
03The main hall, corridor, heiden, worship hall and romon gate of Aoi Aso Shrine became National Treasures in 2008. The Omura cave tombs behind Hitoyoshi Station are a national historic site at the southern limit of decorated cave tombs.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Hitoyoshi City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗