Maibara City

Nearly every home here made millstones.

Magatani millstones

Photo by Indiana jo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Mishima Pond

A pond made about 700 years ago,where students watched mallards for two years.

The pond, about 780 m around, was made about 700 years ago as an irrigation pond. In 1957 mallards were confirmed breeding naturally here, and students from a nearby junior high school observed them for two years. In 1959 it was designated a prefectural natural monument as the "southern limit of natural mallard breeding." In April, Mount Ibuki and cherry blossoms are reflected in the water.

Made about 700 years ago
About 780 m around
Natural monument, 1959

02 ／ Isame no Shimizu

On the bed of a spring-fed river,white flowers like plum blossoms bloom.

The Jizo River, which has the Isame no Shimizu spring as its source, flows through Samegai. Its water stays between 12.3 and 15.0 °C all year, and the spring yields about 15,000 tonnes a day. Baikamo, an aquatic plant, bears white flowers on the riverbed from early to late summer, and the rare fish hariyo lives here. Local residents clean the river.

12.3-15.0 °C water
About 15,000 tonnes a day
Baikamo and hariyo

03 ／ Toge boar fence

Guarding fields from boars and deer,a limestone fence about 2 km long.

In Koizumi and Okubo, a fence of local limestone runs about 2 km around an upland called Toge. Built to keep wild boars and deer off the fields, it stands about 2 m high in places. It comes in three types, including stone walls and stone walls faced on both sides, with many ways of keeping animals out. It is a city-designated historic site from the Edo period.

About 2 km long
Up to about 2 m high
Three types of construction

Living here

A Shinkansen station, and snowbound mountain valleys.

about 40,000 people
30 min to a city centre
Shinkansen stops here

The city was formed in 2005 by the merger of the towns of Santo, Ibuki and Maibara, and the town of Omi joined the same year. A connecting passage runs from the east exit of Maibara Station, where the Tokaido Shinkansen stops, to the city hall. Mount Ibuki and Mount Ryozen rise within the city, and in the mountain valleys of Higashikusano snow lies about 3 m deep even in the villages in winter.

People living here: 37,225people
Area: 250.39km²
Households: 13,385households
Rent (average for rentals): 54,826yen
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 25 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —9 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.

Maibara City in Japan35.315°N 136.292°E

to TokyoShinkansen Hikari130min
to NagoyaShinkansen Hikari23min
to KyotoShinkansen Hikari18min
to OsakaJR Special Rapid83min

Travel times follow JR西日本『JRおでかけネット』区間時刻表（ページの日付はどれも 2026年10月7日・水）：東海道･山陽･九州新幹線下り（line-timetable/1796）・同上り（line-timetable/2229）・ＪＲ神戸線・ＪＲ京都線・琵琶湖線・山陽・東海道本線姫路〜大阪〜米原上り（line-timetable/2235）。発駅の『発』と米原の『着』が同じ列車の列にある列車を数え、運転日注意欄に印（平など）のある列車を除いた毎日運転の列車の最速を採った。市公式『米原市へのアクセス』（更新 2024年5月13日）の『新幹線ご利用：新大阪から米原までひかり35分・名古屋から米原までひかり30分・東京から米原までひかり2時間15分／在来線ご利用：京都から米原まで新快速55分』は参考 (checked 2026-10-07). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Maibara City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

31.7km

Shiga Prefecture: 長浜市, 彦根市, 多賀町
Gifu Prefecture: 揖斐川町, 関ケ原町, 大垣市

Maibara City isthis kind of town.

01Magatani is known as a village of millstone makers, and traces of almost every household making millstones can still be seen around its houses. It is one of the four villages of the Higashikusano mountain village landscape, a national Important Cultural Landscape, where houses have long eaves called kaidare to cope with heavy snow
02Mishima Pond is a prefectural natural monument that the city presents as the "southern limit of natural mallard breeding," Isame no Shimizu in Samegai is one of the Heisei-era 100 Exquisite and Well-Conserved Waters, and the spring at Izumi Shrine is one of Japan's 100 Exquisite and Well-Conserved Waters
03In Koizumi and Okubo a limestone fence runs about 2 km around the fields, and the city's festivals include three kinds of yakko-furi, a festival procession of attendants: courtier, kicking and samurai styles

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Maibara City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗