Sakiura District

    The four villages of Akao, Tomosumi, Kashiragashima, and Enohama compose the Sakiura area on the north eastern side of Nakadori Island. The area was previously supported half by fishing and half by agriculture, but from the Bakumatsu Period (1853) onward, the exposed sandstone on the coasts (dubbed "Goto stone") was quarried, starting a stonemasonry industry. The manufactured stone spread through wholesalers. The bronze plaque on the Tokiwagura building at Fumonji Shrine in Hirado (constructed 1852) is engraved with the words "Goto-area Kashiragashima Stone", confirming it was made with Goto stone. It's also said it was used for stone tiles and such for Hirado's houses and in Nagasaki. Many things in the Sakiura area use Goto stone, and even today, you'll find them used in many ways including in common use items such as stone monuments, gravestones, and mortars, surfacing material for roads, and for construction material such as house wall foundations and shrine torii gates.
    Thus, Sakiura Goto Stone Village Landscape has been designated as a cultural landscape for both its visibly high use of sandstone and its historically influential manufacturing of stone material, which from the Bakumatsu period to the Early Modern period was distributed not only to the Goto area, but the entire west Kyushu area including Nagasaki and Hirado.