Waters that have upheld local life and farming for generations

Karato, located at the foot of 340-meter-high Mount Danzan, is home to a spring that is said to have never run dry. The clear water, whose temperature does not change throughout the year, has been indispensable to the local people, not only for daily life such as cooking and washing clothes, but also for rice cultivation in the terraced rice paddies surrounding the area. The water was built in its present form in 1929. The granite waterhole had tanks of different sizes and depths, and was used for washing clothes and cooling vegetables, among other purposes. Although the number of users has decreased since the water supply was installed in the 1960s, the local people continue to carefully protect the area by cleaning and maintaining it on a regular basis. The clear spring water, terraced rice paddies, and the blue sea and sky beyond. The scenery here symbolizes an island of abundance.