Ochiai-Shuraku (Community of Ochiai)
Ochiai-Shuraku (Community of Ochiai) lies almost in the center of Higashi-Iya Valley and village houses are scattered along hillside from the point where Iya and Ochiai rivers meet. This is a community of folk dwellings built during the middle of the Edo period (circa.1700) up to the beginning of the Showa period (circa 1930). Although it is not clear when at first, people started settling here, there subsist in this Iya region the legend of fleeting Heike Clan or folklore of frontier settlers. The slope of this hillside is quite steep and difference in relief within village community is about 390 meters. With the stone walls, built by piling the stones one at a time, and fields spread over the steep slope, you can encounter the long-forgotten scene of the mountain village and their natural beauty. Designated in 2005 as a national preservation area of the important traditional buildings.