Aragijima Rice Terraces

Fifty-odd paddies cut into a hillside at a bend in the Arida River have been in continuous use since 1655, when a village headman personally funded the construction of a 3.2-kilometer irrigation canal to bring water here. That canal is still in use today. The terraces support not just rice but also the kōzo mulberry trees grown on the embankments for Yasudagami, the region's durable handmade paper. The site was designated an Important Cultural Landscape in 2013, partly because the flooded paddies still shelter the Japanese fire-bellied newt, a near-threatened species increasingly rare as rural terraces are abandoned.