Sakai City

A 13-tier pagoda of earth and tile.

Doto, a National Historic Site

Photo by Naokijp (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Lighthouse

A stonemason from Bizen Province worked on the base,and a carpenter living in Sakai on the building.

Built in 1877 (Meiji 10) as a Western-style wooden lighthouse, it is a National Historic Site. The city writes that most of the cost, about 2,125 yen for construction and about 360 yen for installing the equipment, came from donations by Sakai townspeople. It gave a steady green light, with a range of about 18.5 km, and went dark in 1968 (Showa 43).

Built 1877 (Meiji 10)
12 m high
National Historic Site since 1972

02 ／ Townhouse

Iron plates are nailed at even intervalsto the wall and eaves of the storehouse.

This was the workshop and home of a gunsmith family, the Inoue, who have worked in Sakai since the Edo period, and it is a Sakai City Tangible Cultural Property. The city calls the iron plates on the two-storey tool storehouse intriguing, whether for security or tied to the trade. Repairs begun in 2020 ended and it opened in 2024.

Tool storehouse: 2nd-floor wall and eaves
Over 20,000 old documents
Main house city-designated in 2004

03 ／ Temple school

A training hall for mountain asceticswas also used as the Seikodo temple school.

Seigakuin,Sakai.jpg — Photo by Ty19080914 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Recorded in the 1689 map Sakai Taiezu as "Yamabushi Seigakuin", this was a training hall of Shugendo, and the city writes that Kawaguchi Ekai studied here too. The Fudo hall, the priests' quarters and the gate stand on a 126 sq m plot and are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan.

Recorded on the 1689 map Sakai Taiezu
126 sq m site
Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 2002

Living here

10 minutes from Namba by Nankai express.

about 830,000 people
30 min to a city centre

To Sakai Station on the Nankai Main Line, the express, airport express and sub-express all take 10 minutes from Namba with no change (Nankai route search, checked for a weekday and a Sunday in October 2026; the limited express Rapi:t β takes 9 but needs a limited-express fee). The city names Sakaihigashi Station on the Koya Line as nearest to City Hall, about 200 m from its west exit. It is 11 minutes from Namba.

People living here: 826,161people
Area: 149.83km²
Households: 366,079households
Rent (average for rentals): 53,137yen
Healthcare: 43 hospitals ／ 744 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —116 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.

Sakai City in Japan34.573°N 135.483°E

to OsakaNankai Main Line express10min

Travel times follow 南海電鉄『ダイヤ検索』（kensaku.nankai.co.jp。事業者公式の経路検索）を、2026-10-14（水）と 2026-10-18（日）の05:00〜23:30、30分おきの出発時刻で引き、『乗換 0回』の経路で難波『発』→堺『着』（と堺『発』→難波『着』）の所要を数えた。特急料金の要らない列車（急行・空港急行・区間急行）の毎日運転の最速を採った。作業ファイルは $SP/osaka-sakai/s3_*.txt・nkscan_5*.json。 (checked 2026-10-14). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 8 municipalities.

Territory of Sakai City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

19.8km

和泉市, 大阪狭山市, 松原市, 高石市, 大阪市, 羽曳野市, 河内長野市, 富田林市

Sakai City isthis kind of town.

01The Doto in Naka Ward, Sakai, is a 13-tier pagoda said to have been built of earth and tile by Gyoki and others in the Nara period. A National Historic Site, it measures 53.1 m a side, with 12 square tiers and 1 round tier; over 1,000 excavated tiles carry inscriptions, most of them names
02The Old Sakai Lighthouse, at the tip of Sakai's old harbour, is a National Historic Site built in 1877. In Kitahatagocho Nishi 1-chome, in the same ward, a city-designated gunsmith's workshop and home and the Registered Tangible Cultural Property Seigakuin stand
03The Mozu Kofun Group in the city is part of the World Heritage Site Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group. It is 10 minutes from Namba by Nankai express

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Sakai City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗