Kiho Town

Boats circle a river island three times.

Mifune Island, festival venue

Photo by Miyuki Meinaka (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Morotobune

The 13.4 m Morotobune leadsthe boat carrying the deity's spirit.

At the Mifune Festival of Kumano-Hayatama Taisha Grand Shrine, the Morotobune leads the Shinko-sen, the boat carrying the deity's spirit, around Mifune Island while the Hari-hari dance is performed on board. Made in June 1932, the present boat is pointed out as keeping the form of the kobaya, the main warship of the Kumano naval force, and the prefecture records that 20-odd members of the Udono Shrine parishioners' committee look after it.

Made in June 1932
Total length 13.4 m (44 shaku 5 sun)
Prefectural Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property (2006)

02 ／ Hisetsu Falls

A poem likened the spray to flying snow,and the falls came to be called Hisetsu.

Hisetsu Falls stands just west of Asari Shrine and is 30 m high and 12 m wide. According to the town, Tokugawa Yorinobu, lord of the Kishu domain, visited and wrote a poem likening the spray to dancing snow, and from this the falls came to be called Hisetsu. A campsite and a walking path stand beside the falls.

30 m high, 12 m wide
West of Asari Shrine
Named after a poem by Tokugawa Yorinobu

03 ／ Miyako Castle Site

A castle site lined with vertical trenchesholds a boat-shaped Jizo dated 1481.

Miyako Castle Site is a hill castle thought to date from the Muromachi period, on a low hill north of the point where the Ono River joins the Onodani River. Vertical trenches are lined up in rows on the east slope and elsewhere, and a boat-shaped Jizo statue 40 cm high bears the year Bunmei 13 (1481). How the castle came to be built is said to be unknown.

Rows of vertical trenches
Boat-shaped Jizo, 40 cm high
Inscribed Bunmei 13 (1481)

Living here

253 minutes from Nagoya by highway bus.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

The town names Udono Station on the JR Kisei Main Line as its nearest; the town's other station is Kii-Ida. From Nagoya, the Mie Kotsu highway bus Nanki-VISON-Nagoya line takes 253 minutes at the fastest, from Meitetsu Bus Center to the Kiho-cho (Shobo Kiho Bunsho-mae) stop.

People living here: 10,321people
Area: 79.62km²
Households: 4,724households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 8 clinics

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

Population from 2010 onward (municipal boundary changed).2006-01-10 に新設合併（鵜殿村）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —5 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.

Kiho Town in Japan33.734°N 136.010°E

to NagoyaHighway bus253min

Travel times follow 三重交通『南紀～VISON(ヴィソン)～名古屋』の時刻表（2026年4月1日改正）。名古屋(名鉄バスセンター)→紀宝町(消防紀宝分署前) の降車（名古屋→新宮方面）と、紀宝町(消防紀宝分署前)→名古屋(名鉄バスセンター) の乗車（新宮・熊野・尾鷲→名古屋）を数えた。JRおでかけネットの区間時刻表（紀勢本線多気〜新宮。2026年10月13日・JR時刻表2026年10月号に基づく）で特急南紀の鵜殿の停車を確かめた (checked 2026-10-13). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Kiho Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

11.9km

Mie Prefecture: 御浜町, 熊野市
Wakayama Prefecture: 新宮市

Kiho Town isthis kind of town.

01Mifune Island is an uninhabited island in the Kumano River. At the Mifune Festival, the annual festival of Kumano-Hayatama Taisha Grand Shrine in Wakayama Prefecture, the Shinko-sen carrying the deity's spirit, led by the Morotobune, circles the island three times clockwise; it is part of the nationally designated historic site Kumano Sanzan (Kumano-Hayatama Taisha, Mifune Island)
02Konouchi Shrine has no main hall and venerates a rock cliff of trachyte pocked with water-eroded caves; its grove, rich in epiphytic plants, was designated a Mie Prefecture Natural Monument in 1941
03The town was formed in 2006 by the merger of the old Kiho Town and Udono Village, and three World Heritage component sites lie within it: the Shichiri Mihama beach, the Kumano River and Mifune Island

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kiho Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗