【Designated by the City：Tangible Folk】Mimaga of Nanamata

The spring is located at the bottom of the cliff about 600m southeast of the Nanamata settlement. The Nanamata district was not blessed with sources of water, and it is believed that their struggles for securing drinking water was extremely hard. It is thought that fetching water was also very hard work to transport water since the spring is located at the bottom of the cliffs, and people would have had to climb down the rocks.
At around the end of the Meiji era (around 1912), the people spent much time and effort in cutting out the rocks, and piling stones to create steps to secure an easier path to and from the spring. Today, we can observe about ten steps that were made. This is the only source of water for the Nanamata settlement, and the water was also used for Nmariga for traditional festivals.
After the war, the residents dug a well, Nnaka-ga, at the west side of the Nanamata Community Center, but because the water was not abundant, the people continued to use the water from Mimaga up until 1955. From the perspective of water and everyday life, the Mimaga is an important local spring.