Mitsue Village

Named for Yamatohime's staff legend.

Mitsue Shrine, staff legend site

Photo by Opqr (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Ise Honkaido

The old road over Sakura, Iwasaka andKuratori passes keeps its pilgrim-road form.

The Ise Honkaido was an early modern road by which travellers from western Japan went through Yamato to Ise Jingu; the tourism association says it runs about 14 km east to west through the village. In the Agency for Cultural Affairs' records it is a national Historic Site, designated in 2021 with an addition on 11 October 2024. A prefectural document says the old road surface was found by excavation on the added Sakura and Iwasaka passes, and that the old road on Kuratori Pass remains in good condition.

National Historic Site, designated 2021, added 2024
Old road surface found at Sakura and Iwasaka passes
About 14 km east to west in the village (tourism association)

02 ／ Rime

Near the summit of 1,235 m Mt. Miune,rime appears in the depths of winter.

三峰山山頂直下の霧氷.jpg — Photo by Koda6029 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Mt. Miune is a 1,235 m mountain spanning Yamato and Ise, and it is part of Muro-Akame-Aoyama Quasi-National Park. The tourism association writes that near the summit, in the deep cold from January to March, moisture in the air freezes onto the branches as rime. Every January and February, the association holds a rime festival at the foot of the mountain.

1,235 m
Rime from January to March
Rime festival every January and February

03 ／ Kaya

Large kaya trees, a trace of kaya oil making,remain on the hill behind a homestead.

A Nara Prefecture Natural Monument (plants), designated on 29 March 2005. As a trace of the days when many kaya were planted in Kozue to produce kaya oil, nine large trees remain on the hill behind a homestead. Judging by the seeds, most are the original kaya species, and their survival in numbers on a narrow ridge was judged extremely valuable as a landscape.

Prefectural designation, 29 March 2005
Nine large kaya trees
A trace of kaya oil production

Living here

From Nabari Station, 54 minutes by bus.

about 1,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in the village. The village says it is about 55 minutes by Mie Kotsu bus from Kintetsu Nabari Station to the Shikizu stop, and by the timetable as of 4 November 2025 it is 54 minutes from Nabari Station to Kamisue-Shikizu. The village lies at the eastern end of Nara Prefecture; 90 percent of its 79.58 km² is forest, and more than half of its boundary is shared with Mie Prefecture.

People living here: 1,479people
Area: 79.58km²
Households: 705households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Mitsue Village in Japan34.488°N 136.166°E

to NabariLocal bus54min

Travel times follow 御杖村『御杖村デマンド交通「つえみ号」』のページ（総務課・更新2025-11-04）に載る『令和7年11月4日現在奥宇陀わくわくバス・三重交通バス時刻表（抜粋）』PDF（https://www.vill.mitsue.nara.jp/material/files/group/31/R7_11_4_busjikokuhyo.pdf・Word2019で2025-11-07作成・保存 $SP/mitsue/bustt.pdf・`pdftotext -layout` で読んだ）の『三重交通時刻表【神末敷津バス停⇔名張駅】』 (checked 2026-10-14). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Mitsue Village

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.4km

Nara Prefecture: 曽爾村, 東吉野村
Mie Prefecture: 津市, 松阪市

Mitsue Village isthis kind of town.

01Mitsue Shrine is said to be where Yamatohime left a staff as a sign of a candidate site for enshrining Amaterasu Omikami; the village says the name Mitsue comes from this tradition, and the tourism association notes cedars over 600 years old on both sides of the worship hall
02In Kozue stand the Shikizu Seven Wonders, seven legends linked to Yamatohime and Kobo Daishi, and in Okada Valley the hangesho (Saururus chinensis), listed as a rare species in the Nara Prefecture Red Data Book, grows over about 3,000 m²; the village gives early to mid July as the usual best time
03The large ginkgo at Kasuga Shrine in Tsuchiyahara, a prefectural protected tree whose leaf tips curl like a trumpet, was first noticed when the village history was compiled in 1969, the village says; the bell-tower gate of Annoji in Sugano is a prefecturally designated building found by its ridge tablet to date from 1712

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Mitsue Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗