Arida City

Eight patriarchs painted in a tower.

Jomyo-ji Temple, tahoto pagoda

Photo by 663highland (CC BY 2.5)

01 ／ Kishu mandarin

Itoga has a prefectural historic site,the "first place of Kishu mandarins."

The prefectural historic site is in Itoga-cho. The Ito family residence, also in Itoga-cho, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property that the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes as facing south onto a field with a tradition as the birthplace of the mandarin. Noting that the origin is disputed, the city also presents an account that in 1574 a village headman of Itoga brought back two small mandarin saplings from Yatsushiro in Higo.

Prefectural historic site, March 2011
Ito family residence: Registered Tangible Cultural Property, 2018
Account of 1574 (Tensho 2)

02 ／ Himachi

Young men of Yabitsu enter the sea to purify themselves,then visit Nanryu Shrine together.

Yabitsu's Himachi is designated by the city as an Intangible Cultural Property, and this procession is popularly known as hadaka-mairi. After about 30 years of interruption it was revived in January 2017, and the city has announced it for 11 January 2026. The city writes that Yabitsu began when, in the Genna era, Tokugawa Yorinobu settled two fisher couples from Tsuga in Koza in the cove.

Municipal Intangible Cultural Property, August 2002
About 30 years' interruption, revived January 2017
Announced for 11 January 2026

03 ／ Senda Festival

The Senda Festival, a scramble for six sea bream offeredbefore the deity, has been held at Susa Shrine on 14 October.

In this rough-and-tumble festival, people scramble for six sea bream offered before the deity, and whoever gets one is said to be blessed with a big catch for the year. The festival is a municipally designated cultural property. The shrine's sword inscribed Inshu-no-ju Kagenaga, recorded as offered by Tokugawa Yoshimune, is an Important Cultural Property.

Every year on 14 October
Six sea bream
Sword: Important Cultural Property (designated 1950)

Living here

81 minutes from Osaka by Limited Express Kuroshio.

about 30,000 people
90 min to a city centre

The town has three JR Kisei Main Line (Kinokuni Line) stations: Hatsushima, Minoshima and Kii-Miyahara. The Limited Express Kuroshio stops at Minoshima Station. From departure at Osaka Station to arrival at Minoshima Station, the fastest daily service takes 81 minutes (timetable based on the October 2026 issue of the JR timetable, via JR-Odekake.net).

People living here: 26,538people
Area: 36.83km²
Households: 10,270households
Rent (average for rentals): 35,680yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 29 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —7 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.

Arida City in Japan34.083°N 135.128°E

to OsakaLtd. exp. Kuroshio81min

Travel times follow JRおでかけネット（JR西日本の時刻検索 timetable.jr-odekake.net）の『区間時刻表』きのくに線（紀勢本線）（2026年10月14日表示。line-timetable/2312〔新大阪・天王寺方面→新宮方面〕と line-timetable/2314〔新宮方面→天王寺・京都方面〕）と、列車ごとの『列車時刻表』（train-timetable/<番号>?date=20261014。列車ごとに運転日『毎日運転』と各駅の着発時刻が出る）。ページの注記は『JRデータの内容は、株式会社交通新聞社発行の「JR時刻表」2026年10月号に基づいています』 (checked 2026-10-14). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities.

Territory of Arida City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

7.0km

海南市, 湯浅町, 有田川町

Arida City isthis kind of town.

01The tahoto pagoda of Jomyo-ji Temple is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property, and in the Agency for Cultural Affairs record its period is late Kamakura. The city says that inside the tower the plank walls carry colored paintings of the Eight Patriarchs and the four walls bear paintings of the Eight Aspects of the Buddha's Enlightenment
02Itoga has the prefecturally designated historic site "First Place of Kishu Mandarins" and the Ito family residence, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, while Yabitsu's Himachi and the Senda Festival of Susa Shrine are municipal cultural properties
03The town has a stone stupa of the Myoe Kishu Ruins, a national historic site, the Hajikami Tumulus, a prefectural historic site, and a ferry-crossing ruin of the Kumano Kodo at Miyahara, and its fixed-net fishery began, the city says, in 1908 when an octagonal-net fisher from Taiji set a net

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Arida City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗