Okuizumo Town

Where iron was mined, rice now grows.

Rice terraces on iron-sand pits

Photo by Indiana jo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Nittoho Tatara

The only tatara furnace still fired today.A furnace master pulls out 2.5 tons of kera.

Nittoho Tatara stands on the former Yasukuni tatara site in Okuizumo. The Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Swords revived it in 1977. A furnace master, or murage, leads each firing. About 2.5 tons of kera come from one furnace, and the tamahagane sorted from it goes to swordsmiths nationwide.

1977: officially revived
About 2.5 tons of kera per firing
The murage is a certified holder of a national preservation technique

02 ／ Izumo-Sakane's spring and switchback

A spring stays warm in winter, cool in summer.The train climbs 160m in two switchbacks.

Izumo-Sakane Station's nickname is Amenomanai. Its platform spring, Enmei-sui, is said to have been favored by a long-lived old raccoon dog, and villagers began drinking it as water for long life. To reach Miinohara, the next station, the train climbs about 160m by reversing direction twice. The Okuizumo Orochi trolley train, which used to stop here, ended service in November 2023.

Elevation gain: about 160m
Enmei-sui is said to be water for long life
November 2023: the Okuizumo Orochi trolley train ended service

03 ／ Oni no Shitaburui

A crocodile courted a goddess, legend says, and boulders blocked it.Round hollows called ou-ketsu dot the granite gorge.

A roughly 2km V-shaped gorge carved by the Umaki River, designated a national scenic spot and natural monument in 1927. Legend says the name comes from a crocodile that longed for the goddess Tamahime, who blocked the river with huge boulders. Granite worn by erosion forms round hollows called ou-ketsu. A 45m suspension bridge opened here in 2013.

1927: national scenic spot and natural monument
V-shaped gorge: about 2km
2013: suspension bridge (45m high) opened

Living here

Ringed by mountains, source of the Hii River.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

Okuizumo sits in the mountains of southeastern Shimane, bordering Tottori and Hiroshima along the Chugoku range, with the flatlands still 200-400m above sea level. It lies at the uppermost reach of the Hii River, which rises on Mt. Sentsu. Nita rice ripens in paddies left by old iron-sand mining, and National Route 314's Orochi Loop winds through the hills. The town covers 368.01 square kilometers.

People living here: 11,849people
Area: 368.01km²
Households: 4,356households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 10 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —6 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.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Okuizumo Town in Japan35.197°N 133.002°E

Territory of Okuizumo Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

20.3km

Shimane Prefecture: 雲南市, 安来市
Hiroshima Prefecture: 庄原市
Tottori Prefecture: 日南町

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Okuizumo Town isthis kind of town.

01Okuizumo is known for the Cultural Landscape of Tatara Ironmaking and Rice Terraces in Oku-Izumo, where terraces spread over land cut away for iron sand. In 2014 it became the first Important Cultural Landscape designated in the Chugoku region.
02Nittoho Tatara still fires its furnace and sends tamahagane to swordsmiths, while in Yokota, the nationally designated craft Unshu Soroban abacus is still made.
03Small stories dot these mountains: the Enmei-sui spring and three-stage switchback at Izumo-Sakane Station, and Oni no Shitaburui gorge with its crocodile legend. In the Inada district stands Inada Shrine, said to be where the goddess Inada-hime was born.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Okuizumo Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗