Tanize Suspension Bridge (51930398475).jpg
Article

29449 / とつかわむら

Nara Prefecture 吉野郡

Totsukawa Village

Locals' wish for safety became a bridge.

Tanize Suspension Bridge, 1954

Photo by Raita Futo from Tokyo, Japan (CC BY 2.0)

01 / Old documents

A petition against the Kanayama mineis listed in the Totsukawa Hozo documents.

The Totsukawa-go Hozo documents are a prefecturally designated set of old documents, 515 items, held at Ohara. The village archive lists, as number 21 of the Totsukawa Hozo documents, a petition of Hoei 2 (1705). It says that copper mining from Kanbun 3 (1663) for two years turned trees such as horse chestnut and oak into charcoal and brought harm from the mine even to persimmons, chestnuts, arrowroot, bracken, sweetfish and tea, and it recounts how the mine came to be closed.

  • Prefectural designation, 6 August 1964
  • 515 items (Nanbokucho to Edo period)
  • Copper mine of Kanbun 3 (1663)

02 / Hamlet

The Kohechi route passes its house yards;its view also earns it the name “village in the sky.”

Rice terraces in Hatenashi village A.jpg
Photo by さかおり (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Hatenashi lies on the middle slopes of Hatenashi Pass, which the World Heritage Kohechi route crosses. Nara Prefecture has registered it as a landscape asset, a viewpoint with the Kohechi route in the foreground, the hamlet in the middle ground and the mountains of Totsukawa beyond. The village website also presents the hamlet's rice paddy as “the rice paddy of Hatenashi.”

  • Prefectural landscape asset (viewpoint)
  • Kohechi route passes house yards
  • Also called “village in the sky”

03 / Bon dance

Nishikawa's o-odori sets up no yagura,moving as one rectangular group.

The Totsukawa o-odori is handed down in three districts, Ohara, Musashi and Nishikawa, and is danced in the August Obon season in schoolyards and similar grounds. In Musashi men and women sing in alternation and end in a circle of three rows. In Nishikawa no yagura stage is set up, and the dancers move as one rectangular group. It was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1989.

  • National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, 1989
  • Held every year on 13–15 August (village notice)
  • Three districts: Ohara, Musashi, Nishikawa

Living here

From Yamato-Yagi, 3 hours 51 minutes by bus.

  • about 3,000 people
  • Rural district town

There is no railway station in the village. By the Nara Kotsu Yagi-Shingu express bus timetable revised on 21 July 2026, it takes 3 hours 51 minutes from Kintetsu Yamato-Yagi Station to Totsukawa Village Office, and 2 hours 31 minutes from JR Shingu Station. The explanation on Cultural Heritage Online says 96 percent of the village's total area is mountain forest and open land.

People living here
3,061people
19952020

−12.7% since 2015

5,202 → 3,061

Area
672.38km²

27.67km² of it habitable

2024

Households
1,410households

2.2 people per household

2020

Rent (average for rentals)
—
Healthcare
0 hospitals / 5 clinics

16.3 per 10,000 people

2023

Area672.38km²Habitable land27.67km² / 4%
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.

Totsukawa Village in Japan33.988°N 135.793°E
TokyoTotsukawa Village
Totsukawa Village Office
十津川村役場2014
  • to Yamato-YagiLocal bus231min
  • to ShinguLocal bus151min

Travel times follow 奈良交通『八木新宮特急バス』の2026年7月21日ダイヤ改正の時刻表(奈良交通公式 https://www.narakotsu.co.jp/timetable-yagi_shingu202607/ の PDF〈Adobe Illustrator 作成・作成日 2026-07-21・2ページ〉の2ページ目『主な停留所時刻表』。文字が図形化されていて文字抽出ができず、画像にして目で読んだ。保存 $SP/totsukawa/yagitt.pdf・yagitt-2.png・cropA-2.png)。表は『土・日祝日』と『平日』に分かれ、大和八木駅(南)発→新宮駅行きは9:15・11:38・13:38の3便、新宮駅発→大和八木駅(南)行きは5:53・7:46と、平日9:59/土日祝10:18(やまかぜ)の3便。『十津川村役場』の停留所は、大和八木駅(南)→新宮駅の向きで 風屋→十津川村役場→折立 の順。村公式『アクセス』(https://www.vill.totsukawa.lg.jp/access/)は『近鉄大和八木駅 奈良交通バス(4h)』『JR新宮駅 奈良交通バス(2.5h)』と、起点と目安を書く (checked 2026-10-14). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 8 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Territory of Totsukawa Village
Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

32.6km

Nara Prefecture
五條市, 下北山村, 野迫川村, 上北山村
Wakayama Prefecture
田辺市, 新宮市, 北山村
Mie Prefecture
熊野市

Totsukawa Village isthis kind of town.

  1. 01The Tanize Suspension Bridge is a 297 m long, 54 m high suspension bridge for everyday use over the Totsukawa River. In a valley where log bridges were often washed away, it was built in 1954 with funds pooled by residents plus public money, and reinforced in 1972. In 2021 it was selected by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers as a Selected Civil Engineering Heritage site
  2. 02The 3,174 items of mountain-village production tools of Totsukawa-go, held at Ohara, were designated a national Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property in 1991. The warrior procession of the annual festival at Kokuo Shrine is a village-designated Intangible Cultural Property
  3. 03The pillow-lava deposit on Mt. Tamaki is a prefectural Natural Monument. The Tsuji family house is a prefecturally designated building, and the ridge tablet of its main house is dated Kyoho 10 (1725)

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.