Saikai City

A cave in sandstone, not limestone.

Nanatsugama Cave

01 ／ Hoget Soapstone Pot Workshop Site

The wall was marked off in 30–40 cm grids,and the steps of cutting the pots can be read.

Pots of soapstone (talc) came into wide use in western Japan from the late Heian period into the medieval era. More than 70 workshop sites lie in the mountains of the Nishisonogi Peninsula, and here 11 workshops cluster. On the wall of Workshop No. 6, about 6 m high and about 60 m wide, many unfinished pots and gouged hollows can be seen.

National historic site (designated September 8, 1981)
11 workshops clustered (city)
Workshop No. 6: rock wall about 6 m high and about 60 m wide (city)

02 ／ Landing Place of the Nanban Ships

Merchants arriving with Portuguese shipswere exempt from customs duty for 10 years.

In 1562 (Eiroku 5), Yokoseura was opened as a port for Nanban trade. Its lord was Omura Sumitada. In 1563 (Eiroku 6) it burned in an attack by the anti-Sumitada faction, and the trading port later moved to Fukuda and then to Nagasaki. Yokoseura Park has a museum introducing the history of Yokoseura.

Prefectural historic site (designated January 17, 1941)
Port opened in 1562 (Eiroku 5)
Customs exemption for 10 years for arriving merchants (city)

03 ／ Nishisonogi Peninsula Boar-Wall Base Stone

The inscription "Kyoho 7" on the base stonematches the Gosonki record of the start of work.

This is the base point of a stone wall built to keep boars and deer from the fields, at Nakaura. On the basalt is carved "Kyoho 7 □ tora year" (□ is one illegible character) in two lines, matching the Gosonki (郷村記) entry that work began in June of Kyoho 7 (1722). A 1976 survey found that the wall runs nearly all the way around the peninsula's mountains.

Prefectural designated tangible folk cultural property (designated April 23, 1968)
Each inscribed character is about 10 cm square (city)
1976 survey: runs nearly all the way around the mountains (city)

Living here

Omura Bay to the east, Gotonada to the west.

about 30,000 people

The city lies in the northern part of the Nishisonogi Peninsula, midway between Nagasaki and Sasebo. Its east coast faces Omura Bay and its west coast faces the Gotonada and Sumonada seas. Hirashima, Ejima and Matsushima are inhabited islands with no bridge. It was formed in 2005 by the equal merger of five towns: Seihi (西彼町), Saikai (西海町), Oshima (大島町), Sakito (崎戸町) and Oseto (大瀬戸町). The bus from Nagasaki Station to Saikai City Office takes about 1 hour 35 minutes.

People living here: 26,275people
Area: 241.98km²
Households: 11,180households
Rent (average for rentals): 23,319yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 23 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —18 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 1 municipalities.

Saikai City in Japan32.933°N 129.643°E

Territory of Saikai City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

22.7km

長崎市

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

Saikai City isthis kind of town.

01Nanatsugama Cave (七釜鍾乳洞) is the collective name for a group of caves in the basins of the Egouchi and Shimizu rivers in Nakaura, Saikai (西海町), and a national natural monument. Its host rock is calcareous sandstone about 30 million years old, and 35 caves have been confirmed inside and outside the designated area.
02The city also has the prefectural historic sites Nakaura Julian's Birthplace (中浦ジュリアン出生の地), the Kozasa Clan Graveyard at Taira (多以良の小佐々氏墓所) and the Matsushima Coal Mine Pit No. 4 site (松島炭鉱第4坑跡). The city's island map says the sandstone quarried at Toishiyama (砥石山) on Hirashima was processed into pulpstone for making paper.
03A city in the northern Nishisonogi Peninsula in western Nagasaki Prefecture, facing Omura Bay to the east and Gotonada to the west, with islands such as Hirashima, Ejima and Matsushima.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Saikai City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗