Wazuka Town

Showa machinery made these tea hills.

Yamanari tea fields, Ishidera

Photo by Saigen Jiro (CC0)

01 ／ Front gate

A four-legged gate said to be a giftfrom Go-Mizunoo or Tofukumon'in.

表門(裏面).jpg — Photo by Yopey (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Shohoji is a Rinzai temple at the foot of Mt. Buppoji, on the east bank of the Wazuka River. Its front gate is a four-legged gate said to have been given in 1665 by Retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo or Tofukumon'in, and its style looks late 17th century. The Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education calls it small but of high quality. The town records that Wazuka was presented to the court as cosmetic-fee land in the early Edo period.

Said to be given in 1665
Style looks late 17th century
Prefectural designation, 17 March 2017

02 ／ Pagoda

Inside a national historic site,a late-Kamakura tahoto pagoda stands.

The grounds of Kontaiji became a national Historic Site in 1934. By the Agency for Cultural Affairs' dating the three-bay tahoto pagoda is from Einin 6 (1298), and it has been an Important Cultural Property since 1899. The town says Emperor Fushimi built it, and describes a richly coloured interior with sixteen wall boards painted with the Eight Patriarchs of Shingon and an image of Aizen Myoo at the centre.

Grounds a national Historic Site, 1934
Tahoto pagoda of Einin 6 (1298)
Sixteen wall boards of the Eight Patriarchs

03 ／ Main hall

The single-bay nagare-zukuri main halldates from Jowa 4 (1348).

By the Agency for Cultural Affairs' dating, the main hall of Wazuka Tenmangu is from Jowa 4 (1348): a single-bay nagare-zukuri building with a cypress-bark roof. It has been an Important Cultural Property since 1941. An explanation by the town council says Wazuka was an estate of Kofukuji Temple in the 10th century and of Kitano Tenmangu in the 12th, and introduces a view that Tenjin worship spread through such estates.

Jowa 4 (1348)
Important Cultural Property, 1941
12th century: Kitano Tenmangu estate

Living here

From Kamo Station, 14 minutes by bus.

about 3,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in the town; the nearest is Kamo Station on the JR Kansai Main Line, in Kizugawa. By the Nara Kotsu timetable it is 14 minutes by bus from Kamo Station to Wazukagawara, and the town says about 15 minutes to the town office. The Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties describes the terrain as a basin made by a fault, a narrow strip of flat land along the Wazuka River, and the slopes around it.

People living here: 3,478people
Area: 64.93km²
Households: 1,379households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 5 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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Wazuka Town in Japan34.796°N 135.905°E

to KamoLocal bus14min

Travel times follow 奈良交通和束木津線時刻表（令和8年3月14日改正。町公式『奈良交通和束木津線』のページ〈更新日 2026-03-17〉の PDF narajikokukaisei.pdf・Last-Modified 2026-03-17・保存 $SP/wazuka/bustt.pdf）。『加茂駅発→和束町原山行』の表で、加茂駅（西口）発→和束河原着・和束山の家着が、全13便とも14分（毎日運転の便：10:13発→10:27着、11:43→11:57、13:43→13:57、14:43→14:57、15:43→15:57、16:43→16:57、17:53→18:07、19:23→19:37、20:23→20:37。平日・土日祝の別の便：8:10→8:24〈土日祝〉、9:05→9:19〈平日〉ほか）。終点の和束町原山までは25分。町公式『交通アクセス』（更新日 2026-04-01）の『JR加茂駅から奈良交通バスで和束町役場まで約15分』 (checked 2026-10-08). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Wazuka Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

10.2km

Kyoto Prefecture: 宇治田原町, 木津川市, 南山城村, 井手町, 笠置町
Shiga Prefecture: 甲賀市

Wazuka Town isthis kind of town.

01Yamanari tea fields, which follow the lie of the hills, were cleared up to the summits with heavy machinery from the mid-1960s onward; the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, citing Kyoto Prefecture tea statistics, writes that the town's tea acreage doubled from 194 ha in 1960 to 405 ha in 1970
02Ishidera and Erihara were districts of many terraced paddies on granite, and the institute writes that many stone walls remain because the terraces were turned into tea fields as they were; the prefecture's list of Japan Heritage components names the tea fields of Ishidera, Shirasu, Erihara and Kamatsuka
03The front gate of Shohoji is a prefecturally designated four-legged gate; the tahoto pagoda of Kontaiji and the main hall of Wazuka Tenmangu are national Important Cultural Properties, and the grounds of Kontaiji are a national Historic Site

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Wazuka Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗