Goto City

A fort-like ruin of head-sized stones.

Yamasaki Rampart, Kanji's Castle

01 ／ Hetomato

Little New Year divination rites merge into one,ending with women tossed on a giant sandal.

In the Hetomato (ヘトマト) rites of Shimosakiyama (下崎山), a shrine sumo bout is offered at Shirahama Shrine (白浜神社), followed by battledore-and-shuttlecock, a ball-kicking game and a tug-of-war. At the end, a 3 m giant straw sandal is carried to Yamashiro Shrine (山城神社); along the way, spectating women are put on it and tossed into the air. The origin is unknown, and there is no settled theory of the name.

Nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (1987)
Giant sandal, 3 m long
Every third Sunday of January

02 ／ Mt. Onidake

In Onidake's crater, scattered lava hardenedinto grains called "Pele's tears".

鬼岳スコリア丘（福江単成火山群に位置する。長崎県,福江島）.jpg — Photo by Ryo KUROKI (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Onidake (鬼岳) is the largest of the cinder cones rising behind the city centre: 315 m high, with a crater that opens to the north. Inside the crater are volcanic tears (火山涙), grains formed when magma flung out by eruptions hardened, and the prefecture designates the site a Natural Monument. The stones and artificial hills of the Ishida Castle Goto Clan Garden (石田城五島氏庭園) are all this mountain's lava.

315 m above sea level
1.5 km across the base
Prefectural Natural Monument (1954)

03 ／ Rokkaku Well and Minjindo

A hexagonal well that the Chinese aresaid to have built below Ekawa Castle.

In 1540 (Tenbun 9), Wang Zhi (五峰王直, Gohō Ōchoku) came seeking trade, and the lord, Morisada, had a Chinese quarter (唐人町, Tōjinmachi) opened across from Ekawa Castle (江川城). The Rokkaku well (六角井) is said to have been made by those Chinese, and is one of three hexagonal wells in the prefecture. Minjindo (明人堂) is regarded as the site of a shrine where Wang Zhi and his men prayed for safe voyages.

1540: Wang Zhi arrives
3 hexagonal wells in the prefecture
Present shrine rebuilt in 1999

Living here

85 minutes by sea from Nagasaki at the fastest.

about 30,000 people

Fukue Port is the gateway to Fukue Island, reached from Nagasaki Port in as little as 1 hour 25 minutes by Kyushu Shosen jetfoil. Near the port stands the Jotobana (常灯鼻), said to have been built to break the waves when Ishida Castle was built; it is about a 5-minute walk from Fukue Port.

People living here: 34,391people
Area: 420.12km²
Households: 16,526households
Rent (average for rentals): 36,471yen
Healthcare: 4 hospitals ／ 38 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —17 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.

Goto City in Japan32.696°N 128.841°E

to NagasakiKyushu Shosen85min

Travel times follow 島の町の決め（上島町・38356 と同じ。町内の玄関口の港へ乗り換えなしで着く船の起点を都市名に、事業者名だけを mode に）。事業者公式・九州商船『航路・所要時間』（kyusho.co.jp/routes・2026-09-30 に開いた）の図に「長崎 → 福江：ジェットフォイル最短 1時間25分／フェリー最短 3時間10分」（図の文字の並びから読んだ。奈良尾行きの「1時間10分／2時間35分」と取り違えていないかを、下の時刻表で確かめた）。同『運航ダイヤ・運賃』（kyusho.co.jp/schedule?shuppatsu=nagasaki&touchaku=fukue&start=日付）で長崎港発→福江港着を 2026-10-01・10-04・10-07・10-14・11-10 の5日で読むと、ジェットフォイルは 7:40→9:05（85分）・11:30→12:55（85分）・14:00→15:25（85分）・15:45→17:30（105分。奈良尾に寄る便とみられる）の4便（11-10 は 13:55→15:20・15:25→17:10 に変わる）で、85分が最短。フェリーは 10-01・10-04・11-10 が 8:05→11:15（190分）・12:25→16:20（235分）・16:50→20:00（190分）の3便、10-07・10-14 が 12:25→16:20・20:20→23:30（190分）の2便。観光公式『島外からのアクセス』（goto.nagasaki-tabinet.com/access）も「長崎港～福江島（福江港）約1時間25分」「ジェットフォイル約1時間25～45分フェリー約3時間10～55分」。事業者と観光公式が一致する。 (checked 2026-09-30). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 0 municipalities.

Territory of Goto City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

37.6km

Goto City isthis kind of town.

01On the coast at Tomie, in the south of Fukue Island, stands the Yamasaki Rampart, a fort-like structure built of head-sized volcanic stones. It is also said to have been built by a carpenter named Kanji, hence the name "Kanji's Castle" (勘次が城); it is a prefectural historic site
02The site of Ishida Castle, completed at the end of the shogunate era, is a prefectural historic site, and the Goto Clan Garden, whose stones come from Onidake's lava, is a national Place of Scenic Beauty. The villages of Hisaka Island (久賀島) and Egami (江上) on Naru Island (奈留島) are World Heritage components
03On Hisaka Island, a city survey confirmed 811,580 wild camellia trees, and a work garment called "tonza" (トンザ) was worn for climbing the trees to pick the seeds. The Miiraku (三井楽) coast is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty said to be where the Japanese embassies to Tang China set sail

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Goto City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗