Kawatana Town

Built by the town, run by a local group.

Ogushigō Station

Photo by Atsasebo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Koba Furyu

Bronze mirrors were gatheredand made into five bells, it is said.

Koba Furyu (木場浮立) is a furyu that Koba received in the early Taisho era (1915) from Fudoyama Village in Saga. In 1915 the town ordered bells from an ironworks in Hizen-Kashima. Because adding bronze mirrors (銅鏡) was said to improve the tone, mirrors were gathered and five bells were made, it is said. It became a town-designated intangible cultural property in 1977.

Bells cast in 1915 (town's official site)
Five bells made from gathered bronze mirrors, it is said (same)
Designated a town intangible cultural property in 1977

02 ／ Mt. Kokuzo and Iwaya Gongen

199 steps climb through cedars.A legend says an ogre built them in one night.

Mt.Kokuzou.jpg — Photo by Antake (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Mt. Kokuzo (虚空蔵山) stands 608 m high; the town's official site calls it the town's symbol, with the nickname "Matterhorn of Kyushu." The town's tourism guide records that Iwaya Gongen (岩屋権現) was founded by Kobo Daishi and long drew worshippers as a mountain-ascetic training site. The rock passage linking its halls is called the Ear Hole; it is said an undutiful child gets stuck and cannot pass.

Mt. Kokuzo is 608 m high (town's official site)
199 steps to Iwaya Gongen (town's tourism guide)
Nicknamed "Matterhorn of Kyushu" (town's official site)

03 ／ Hinata Terraces

The Hinata Terraces are faced with stone,and repairs to the stonework are set to go on.

The Hinata Terraces (日向の棚田, read "Hinata") in Koba cover 13.4 ha, with stone-faced slopes. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' "Tsunagu Tanada Isan" (つなぐ棚田遺産) form records that stonework restoration will continue along with upkeep of the terraces, farm roads and channels. The town's official site says they were certified as one of Japan's Top 100 Rice Terraces.

13.4 ha, stone-faced slopes (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)
Certified one of Japan's Top 100 Rice Terraces (town's tourism guide)
Landscape contest prize, fiscal 2000 (same)

Living here

On Omura Bay, with a 608 m peak to the east.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

The town lies near the middle of Nagasaki Prefecture, facing Omura Bay (大村湾). A river rising on Mt. Kokuzo to the east joins the Kawatana River and flows through the center of the town into the bay. It became a town in 1934, and its present boundaries date from 1962. The town's site gives 40 minutes from Isahaya Station and from JR Sasebo Station on the JR Omura Line.

People living here: 13,377people
Area: 37.25km²
Households: 5,195households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 10 clinics

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

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.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Kawatana Town in Japan33.073°N 129.861°E

Territory of Kawatana Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

8.2km

Nagasaki Prefecture: 波佐見町, 佐世保市, 東彼杵町
Saga Prefecture: 嬉野市

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

Kawatana Town isthis kind of town.

01Ogushigō Station is a JR station that the town's site calls the nearest to the Ōsaki Peninsula. Its name comes from a Kogushi Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture; "-gō" was added. The present station building was newly built by Kawatana Town in 1985 and is managed by the Ogushigō Station Management Committee, formed from local neighborhood associations. Its platform is decorated with seasonal flowers tended by a local volunteer group.
02Mt. Kokuzo is the town's symbol. The Hinata Terraces in Koba are both a "Tsunagu Tanada Isan" site and one of Japan's Top 100 Rice Terraces, and Koba Furyu is a town intangible cultural property. A Christian gravestone in the woods of Shimokumi-gō is a prefectural historic site; its inscription carries the year Genna 8 (1622) and the name "Tominaga Nisuke's wife."
03A town in 東彼杵郡, with Kawatana and Ogushigō stations on the JR Omura Line. The town's official list of cultural properties gathers nine town-designated properties and one prefecture-designated property.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kawatana Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗