Shiiba Village located at mountain area of Miyazaki Pref. is one of the unexplored regions. After Genpei War between Minamoto clan(Genji) and Taira clan(Heike) in late 12 century, defeated soldiers of Heike rout to various places including Shiiba village.
There is quite small flat space in this mountain village, so you can see lots of rice terrace in the slide of the mountains. The most famous one is “Hermit’s rice terrace”, sometimes referred to as Shiiba’s “Machu Picchu”.
In Tonegawa Important Preservation District of Groups of Traditional Buildings, the houses are built in a unique architectural style as “Shiiba Style”. Due to the limitation of flat space along the slide of the mountain each rooms are made side by side.
Shiiba Village is also famous for its big trees, Okubo Cypress, the biggest cypress in Japan, estimated age of 800 years and Yamura Cedar, also 800 years at Tonegawa Shrine.
