Japan’s Manhole Cover Art: Street Design, Regional Collections, and the Manhōru Culture
Japan’s decorative manhole covers — manhōru futa — are one of the country’s most unexpected art forms. Every city, town, and village designs its own cover featuring local landmarks, mascots, flora, fauna, or historical scenes. Walking Japan’s streets with awareness of the pavement reveals a distributed gallery of municipal identity stretching across the entire country.
Why Japan Decorates Its Manholes
The tradition began in 1985 when government official Yasutake Kameda, seeking public acceptance for expensive sewer infrastructure, proposed that local governments personalize their manhole covers to create community pride. The idea spread rapidly. Today an estimated 6,000 municipalities across Japan have produced unique designs, with many towns commissioning updated versions for seasonal events, anniversaries, and tourist campaigns.
The covers are cast in iron; the designs are created by local artists, schoolchildren in design competitions, or collaboration with national mascot programs. Some cities — Matsuyama, Kyoto, Kobe — have produced dozens of different designs. Collecting photographs of manholes has grown into a recognized hobby called manhōru kado (manhole card) collecting.
Manhole Cards
Since 2016 the Japan Sewage Works Association has distributed free manhōru kādo — trading cards featuring a photograph of a specific manhole cover alongside information about its location and design. Over 900 cards covering hundreds of municipalities are available; collectors visit local government offices, tourism centers, or michi no eki roadside stations to obtain them. The card specifies the exact street location of the featured cover, encouraging visitors to find and photograph the original.
Manhole card distribution points are marked on the official manhōru card website (gk.or.jp/manholecard) and listed by prefecture. Cards are free and limited to one per visit; popular limited editions — released for events, anime tie-ins, or seasonal designs — generate queues and sell out quickly.
Notable Manhole Covers by Region
Kyoto: Multiple designs featuring Maiko dancers, the Gion Matsuri floats, and seasonal flowers appear throughout different city wards. Central Kyoto’s Shijo-Kawaramachi intersection area and Higashiyama contain several distinctive examples.
Matsuyama (Ehime): Famous for its onsen heritage, Matsuyama produces covers featuring Dōgo Onsen’s historic bathhouse and the character Botchan from Natsume Soseki’s novel.
Osaka: The city’s trademark motanka (textile pattern) and octopus-themed covers appear throughout the Namba and Shinsaibashi areas; Osaka’s manhole covers reflect the city’s merchant history and food culture.
Hokkaido: Wildlife-themed covers are common — brown bear, whooper swan, and lavender field designs appear in different municipalities. Sapporo’s covers feature the city’s clock tower and the Hokkaido University ginkgo avenue.
Anime collaborations: Several municipalities have produced limited-edition covers featuring characters from anime series with local connections — Sakaiminato (GeGeGe no Kitarō), Ōarai (Girls und Panzer), and others draw dedicated fan collectors.
Colored Manhole Covers
The most photographed covers use color-filled enamel paint on the raised iron designs, producing vibrant street-level artworks. Colored covers are concentrated in tourist areas and along designated walking routes; tourist offices in most major cities can provide maps showing their locations. The colored versions are often reproduced on tote bags, stamps, and stationery sold in local souvenir shops.
How to Build a Collection
The simplest approach is to photograph manholes as you walk — looking down rather than up reveals a layer of Japan that most visitors miss entirely. Dedicated manhōru enthusiasts use GPS tracking apps to log locations and share discoveries; the Japanese app Manhole Map aggregates community-submitted photographs nationwide. For card collectors, planning routes around distribution points integrates easily with standard sightseeing — most cards are distributed from tourist offices that serve double duty as starting points for area exploration.