Kurotaki Village

Village hall rented from a timber guild.

Former Kurotaki Village Office

Photo by Nankou Oronain (as36… (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Stone pagoda

A stone pagoda said to memorialize Shobobears an inscription of Sho-hei 24 (1369).

鳳閣寺廟塔02.JPG — Photo by 8-hachiro (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Hokakuji mausoleum pagoda is a granite stone hoto pagoda in Torisumi, Kurotaki. The Nara Prefecture record calls it a memorial pagoda to Rigen Daishi Shobo (832-909), regarded as the reviver of Shugendo, and dates it to Sho-hei 24 (1369) from the inscription on its base. It became an Important Cultural Property in 1915.

Important Cultural Property, 1915
Inscription of Sho-hei 24 (1369)
Rigen Daishi Shobo (832-909)

02 ／ Tarumaru

Sakai craftsmen came to Torisumi in the Kyoho eraand began making tarumaru, the village records.

Tarumaru are cedar boards rolled and bundled as the raw material of sake barrels. The village explains that in the Kyoho era (1716-1736) craftsmen from the port of Sakai brought craftsmen from Geishu to Torisumi village and made tarumaru there, the start of Yoshino tarumaru. The 103 tools were designated a prefectural folk cultural property in 2014 and are displayed on the second floor of the former village office.

Kyoho era (1716-1736)
103 tools
Prefectural designation, 28 March 2014

03 ／ Rites

At the fork of two rivers, it has long heldrites to pray for rain and to give thanks for it.

Kawawake Shrine stands in Nakato, at the centre of the village, and enshrines Ukanomitama-no-kami. The Japan Heritage Yoshino explanation says it stands at the fork of the Kurotaki River and another river, and that rites to pray for rain and give thanks for it were long held. The village's annual events list a summer festival on the first Sunday of June and an autumn festival on 3 November, with a dance offered before the deity to a sho of 17 bamboo pipes.

Fork of two rivers
Summer festival, first Sunday of June
Sho of 17 bamboo pipes

Living here

From Shimoichiguchi Station, 39 minutes by bus.

about 1,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in the village; the nearest is Shimoichiguchi Station on the Kintetsu line, in Oyodo. By Nara Kotsu bus it is 39 minutes to Kurotaki Annai Center on a service that runs every day. The village's introduction describes a gorge-type mountain village of 490 m average elevation and 47.70 km2, with 97 percent of its land in forest.

People living here: 623people
Area: 47.7km²
Households: 307households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 1 clinic

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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Kurotaki Village in Japan34.309°N 135.852°E

to ShimoichiguchiLocal bus39min

Travel times follow 奈良交通『奈良バスなびweb』（navi.narakotsu.co.jp）の区間検索時刻表（『下市口駅 ⇒ 黒滝案内センター』。stop1=1854・stop2=1996。表示日は 2026-10-14〔水・平日ダイヤ〕・2026-10-17〔土・土曜日ダイヤ〕・2026-10-18〔日・日曜祝日ダイヤ〕の3日。ダイヤ世代は gene24）。黒滝案内センターのりばの標準発車時刻表（PDF https://navi.narakotsu.co.jp/pdf/gene24/01996_021_ja.pdf・『2026年3月14日改正』・保存 $SP/kurotaki/tt_kurotaki_annai.pdf）と同じダイヤ。 (checked 2026-10-14). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 5 municipalities.

Territory of Kurotaki Village

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

8.4km

下市町, 天川村, 川上村, 吉野町, 五條市

Kurotaki Village isthis kind of town.

01The former Kurotaki village office was built in 1910 as the two-storey, Western-style office of the Yoshino Timber Kurotaki district trade association. The year after the village split off, in 1913, the village rented it and opened its office there; it became a prefectural cultural property in 1979 and was moved in 1995 from Nakato to its present site in Awaidani
02Hyakkaidake is said to take its name from the sound of a conch shell blown by Shobo, which echoed like a hundred conches. The village history page says the same tale gave Nara City's Mochiidono-cho its name
03The village also has Kurotaki white cucumbers, said to have been grown since the Edo period (a prefectural Yamato traditional vegetable), the Kosando hall in Makio said to hold the grave of the priest Kosan, and a Buddha head in Awaidani, said to have been received as a deity's body and designated by the village

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kurotaki Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗