Shiiba Village

Terraces in a "don't marry in" district.

Sennin no Tanada, Shimomatsuo

Photo by Asset utilitist (CC0)

01 ／ Tonegawa Shrine and the Yamura Cedar

The old records say "Shiiba" arose becausea camp in Tonegawa was thatched with shii leaves.

The tourist association says old documents handed down in the village record that Nasu Daihachiro's camp was thatched with shii leaves. The Yamura cedar is said to have been planted by Daihachiro in the Gennin era, and the nation designated it a Natural Monument in 1935. Until 1871 the shrine was called Yamura Daimyojin.

Yamura cedar: National Natural Monument, 1935
Said to be planted in the Gennin era
Called Yamura Daimyojin until 1871

02 ／ Shiiba Slash-and-Burn Farming and the Burning Rite

Before the burn, a spoken prayer:"I now set fire to this yabo."

A prefectural document says that before the burn in around August, offerings of sake and a spoken prayer are made to the gods, and quotes it: "I now set fire to this yabo (slash-and-burn plot). Snakes, wakudo (frogs) and insects, leave at once." Shiiba no Yakihata Noko (Shiiba slash-and-burn farming) is a prefectural intangible folk cultural property, and the designation table gives the preservation society's location as Mukaiyama-hinata in Fudono.

Prefectural intangible folk cultural property
Burn on a run of clear days around August
Returned to woodland over 20-30 years

03 ／ The Chigi of Tsurutomi Yashiki

Nine chigi are set along the ridgeof the hip roof as ornament.

Tsurutomi Yashiki is formally the Nasu family house, an Important Cultural Property. The national database records a hip-roofed building 25.1m long and 8.6m deep. At designation it was thatched, but the village's site says it has been copper-plated since 1963 to prevent fires.

Nine chigi
25.1m long, 8.6m deep
Important Cultural Property, 1956

Living here

About 2 hours 30 minutes by car from Kumamoto city.

about 3,000 people
Rural district town

The village's access map gives about 2 hours 30 minutes by car from Kumamoto city, about 2 hours 20 minutes from Hitoyoshi, and about 1 hour 10 minutes from Takachiho. The village's Shiiba Museum of Folklore and Performing Arts presents the spring archery rite, autumn usudaiko dance and winter kagura alongside the changing seasons of daily life.

People living here: 2,503people
Area: 537.29km²
Households: 1,057households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 2 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —0 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 8 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Shiiba Village in Japan32.467°N 131.158°E

Territory of Shiiba Village

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

33.5km

Miyazaki Prefecture: 美郷町, 諸塚村, 五ヶ瀬町, 西米良村, 西都市
Kumamoto Prefecture: 水上村, 山都町, 八代市

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

Shiiba Village isthis kind of town.

01Sennin no Tanada (仙人の棚田, "Hermit's Terraces") are terraced fields in Shimomatsuo, Matsuo, Shiiba. The Ministry of Agriculture selected them as a Tsunagu Tanada Isan, noting that terraces short of water are kept up by the residents' efforts. The tourist association says the district was once so hard-pressed that people told others not to marry daughters into Shimomatsuo.
02Tonegawa is a nationally designated Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, and the woodland around the Yamura cedar is designated as one of its specified properties. Shiiba is one of the municipalities of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System "Takachiho-go and Shiiba-yama," and the Ministry of the Environment lists Shiiba-yama's slash-and-burn farming as an Important Satoyama.
03The village's site calls Shiiba a village of the Heike fugitive legend. The village's site says Tsurutomi Yashiki was also the setting of the love story of Tsurutomi-hime and Nasu Daihachiro.

See the town as it is now.

YouTubeChannel ↗

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Shiiba Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗