Koya Town

Women barred from Koyasan stayed here.

Nyonindo, Fudozakaguchi

Photo by Naokijp (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Kasahoko festival

An oni with a kasahoko and bamboo leadsa festival said to pray for rain and ward off evil.

The festival is held on 16 August each year at Yasaka Shrine, the tutelary shrine of Hosokawa. A town document says the oni steps inside a large umbrella-shaped kasahoko and, calling "Yosoroi", strikes bamboo with a fan as it goes back and forth before the deity. The prefecture says the oni mask may go back to the Muromachi period. The kasahoko curtain shows an ama diver holding a jewel and a dragon chasing her.

Prefectural designation, 4 March 2024
Held every 16 August
Mask may date to the Muromachi period

02 ／ Yamato-toki

In Fuki, the medicinal crop Yamato-tokiwas widely grown from the Edo period.

A town document says Yamato-toki was widely grown in the Fuki district from the Edo period, and that it was a leading production area in Japan together with a neighbouring district of Gojo in Nara Prefecture. It takes two years from sowing to harvest. A June 2026 document says growers have fallen to a single farm, and the town has been training a successor since fiscal 2021.

Grown since the Edo period
Two years from sowing to harvest
Successor training since fiscal 2021

03 ／ Nyoninmichi

The path that links the Seven Entrancesand rings the basin is Nyoninmichi.

The prefecture's page on the Koya roads says the path linking the seven women's halls is called Nyoninmichi and encircles the Koyasan basin. It names Rokuro Pass, where women who could not enter the precincts are said to have stretched out their necks to peer in. The prefecture's route map numbers the signboards along the path from 1 to 57.

Links seven women's halls
Rokuro Pass
Signboards numbered 1 to 57

Living here

From Namba, 85 minutes by limited express to Gokurakubashi.

about 3,000 people
90 min to a city centre
Rural district town

The town's railway is three stations on the Nankai Koya Line, Gokurakubashi, Kii-Kamiya and Kii-Hosokawa, plus the cable car from Gokurakubashi up to Koyasan. By the Nankai timetable the fastest daily limited express takes 85 minutes from Namba to Gokurakubashi. The town says to reach the town office on Koyasan, take the cable car and then a bus from Gokurakubashi Station.

People living here: 2,970people
Area: 137.03km²
Households: 1,408households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 4 clinics

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.

Koya Town in Japan34.216°N 135.587°E

to OsakaNankai limited express85min

Travel times follow 南海電気鉄道『駅の時刻表』（kensaku.nankai.co.jp。ページに「2026年3月28日現在」）の高野線なんば駅〈高野山・和泉中央方面〉の平日・土休日の時刻表と、各列車の停車駅別の着発時刻（T7）で、難波『発』→極楽橋『着』を数えた。極楽橋発の向き（高野線極楽橋駅〈なんば方面〉の駅時刻表）も同じ方法で数えた。時刻表の表示日は 2026-10-14（水）と 2026-10-17（土）。 (checked 2026-10-14). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 5 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Koya Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

13.8km

Wakayama Prefecture: かつらぎ町, 九度山町, 橋本市
Nara Prefecture: 野迫川村, 五條市

Koya Town isthis kind of town.

01The Nyonindo at Fudozakaguchi is a hall where women pilgrims stayed until the Edo period; the prefecture's explanation calls it the only Nyonindo that survives. A hip-and-gable building 11.9 m wide, it is owned and managed by Kongobuji and is a prefecturally designated building (4 March 2024)
02The five items of festival equipment for the Hosokawa Kasahoko Festival were designated prefectural tangible folk cultural properties on 4 March 2024; a town document says Yamato-toki, a medicinal crop, was widely grown in Fuki from the Edo period
03Koyasan's Danjo Garan, Konpon Daito, Okunoin and Kongobuji are in the town. The Choishimichi and Nyoninmichi are registered as World Heritage, and Nishi-Hosokawa is one of the ten villages of Koya paper

See the town as it is now.

Facebooktownkoya ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Koya Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗