Hinokage Town

Each of 7 houses has a stone storehouse.

Village of Stone Walls, Togawa

Photo by Sanjo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Former Daisan Gokasegawa Bridge (旧第三五ヶ瀬川橋梁)

Girder and legs form one frame:a railway bridge of linked "hozue rahmen."

第三五ヶ瀬川橋梁.jpg — Photo by Compass135 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

According to the Miyazaki Prefectural Documents Center, a rahmen (ラーメン) is a gate-shaped frame in which girder and legs are joined as one. This 267.8m bridge consists of six linked reinforced-concrete hozue rahmen (方杖ラーメン) spans among others, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs records Japan's first continuous hozue rahmen. The tourist association says visitors can walk on the bridge.

Bridge length 267.8m
Reinforced-concrete six-span hozue rahmen
Important Cultural Property: 2020-12-23

02 ／ Chrysanthemum-form calcite, Nanaore Limestone Cave (七折鍾乳洞)

Needle-shaped calcite crystalsgather radially in chrysanthemum shapes.

菊花状方解石.jpg — Photo by Amekoumori (CC BY-SA 4.0)

A national Natural Monument. The Agency for Cultural Affairs' designation text records radiating clusters of needle-shaped calcite crystals in chrysanthemum form on stalactites, stalagmites, columns and curtains, in a main cave and a branch cave totaling 140m. The town's site says the entrance is locked and visits are arranged through the Board of Education.

Total length 140m
Natural Monument: designated 1933
Visits: ask the Board of Education

03 ／ Ohito Kabuki (大人歌舞伎)

Plays a warlord loved, staged in his memory,are said to be how Ohito Kabuki began.

A village kabuki (農村歌舞伎) of the Ohito district, designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the prefecture. The town's site says it is said to have begun when people started offering, as a memorial, the plays that the warlord Kai Sosetsu (甲斐宗攝), who governed the area, loved in life. The tourist association says it is offered at the Ohito Shrine (大人神社) festival.

Prefectural designation: 1995
Ohito Kabuki Preservation Society
Shrine festival day: October

Living here

A town 55 minutes from Nobeoka by local bus.

about 4,000 people
Rural district town

The town's access page says it is 55 minutes by Miyazaki Kotsu (宮崎交通) bus from the Nobeoka side to the Seiunbashi (青雲橋) bus stop. In Miyazaki Kotsu's timetable, buses from Nobeoka Station to Seiunbashi take 55 or 64 minutes, and some runs of the Gokase-go highway bus from Hakata Bus Terminal take 221 minutes.

People living here: 3,635people
Area: 277.67km²
Households: 1,493households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 2 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —2 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.

Hinokage Town in Japan32.660°N 131.381°E

to NobeokaLocal bus55min
to HakataHighway bus221min

Travel times follow 【延岡〜青雲橋（路線バス）】宮崎交通『延岡～高千穂【平日】【土日】』時刻表（2026年10月1日改正。https://www.miyakoh.co.jp/rosen/0_jikoku/6-01_20261001.pdf）。延岡駅発→青雲橋着（平日）：5:55→6:59（64分）・6:50→7:45（55分）・8:45→9:49（64分）・10:00→10:55（55分）・11:00→12:04（64分）・12:00→12:55（55分）・13:00→14:04（64分）・14:00→14:55（55分）・15:00→16:04（64分）・16:55→17:50（55分）・17:20→18:24（64分）・18:25→19:20（55分）・19:40→20:31（51分）。土日祝も同じ時刻（5:55発と19:40発は日曜祝日運休）。特急バス（予約制・空席がある場合のみ）延岡駅7:30→青雲橋8:12（42分）などは採らない。町公式『交通アクセス』（総務課）は『延岡方面から宮崎交通バス（所要時間：55分）延岡BC＝国道218号＝青雲橋バス停』。【博多〜青雲橋（高速バス『ごかせ号』）】宮崎交通『延岡～福岡（ごかせ号）』時刻表（2024年4月22日改正。https://www.miyakoh.co.jp/express/mediafile/gokase_20240422.pdf。宮崎交通の路線ページ https://www.miyakoh.co.jp/express/gokase.html が2026-10-06にこの時刻表と2026年9月からの運賃カレンダーを載せている）。福岡⇒延岡（青雲橋は降車のみ）：博多バスターミナル 8:25→青雲橋 12:06（221分）・10:25→14:06（221分）・15:50→19:28（218分）・17:50→21:28（218分）。延岡⇒福岡（青雲橋は乗車のみ）：青雲橋 8:32→博多 12:11・10:42→14:21・16:12→19:51・18:12→21:51（いずれも219分）。運行は西鉄（53302・53304・53305・53307）と宮崎交通（53301・53303・53306・53308） (checked 2026-10-06). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Hinokage Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

30.8km

Miyazaki Prefecture: 延岡市, 高千穂町, 諸塚村, 美郷町
Oita Prefecture: 佐伯市, 豊後大野市

Hinokage Town isthis kind of town.

01Togawa (戸川) is a hamlet of seven households along the Hinokage River, which the town's site says is also called the "Village of Stone Walls." Each of the 7 houses has a stone storehouse of cut and piled stone, and according to surviving records the oldest stone wall was built in the Kaei–Ansei period.
02The Former Daisan Gokasegawa Bridge and the Former Tsuna-no-se Bridge (旧綱ノ瀬橋梁), which spans Nobeoka and Hinokage, are together one national Important Cultural Property. Nanaore Limestone Cave is a national Natural Monument, and Ohito Kabuki is a prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
03The town also has the Eikokukan (英国館), a club and villa for the Mitate Mine's foreign engineers that is a registered Tangible Cultural Property, the prefecturally designated Fukasumi Danshichi Odori (深角団七踊り), and the bamboo craft "karui" (かるい). The town's name is said to come from "hi no kage" (日の影), the sunlight that broke through when the rain stopped.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Hinokage Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗