The Car Is the Plan. The Bus Is a Courtesy.
The Tomb of Christ is in Shingo, not at a JR station in Gonohe. Take the shinkansen to Hachinohe, then drive. The village says the bus link is poor.
The tomb is a real place with a published address. The train that some tourism pages still send you to is not.
Short answer
The Tomb of Christ is in Herai, Shingo, at Nozuki 33-1. From Tokyo, the shinkansen to Hachinohe takes about 2 hours 45 minutes, then drive. The village puts that drive at about 60 minutes to the office, plus 3 kilometers to the tomb. A bus exists. The village calls the connection poor and recommends a car.
What you can verify
Shingo Village's access map gives the driving distances to the village office, not to the tomb:
- Hachinohe: 36 km, about 60 minutes
- Gonohe: 13 km, about 20 minutes
- Towada: 27 km, about 40 minutes
- Aomori: 106 km, about 110 minutes
- Lake Towada: 30 km, about 45 minutes
From the office, the same page puts the tomb at 3 km, about 5 minutes. Visit Hachinohe says the Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Hachinohe takes about 2 hours 45 minutes with no transfer. Fares and the exact Hayabusa time change. Read JR East for the day you travel. Do not treat a third-party fare table as the ticket.
Amazing AOMORI says the drive from JR Hachinohe Station to Christ Park is about 40 minutes, and that parking at the park is free. That 40 minutes and the village's 60 minutes are not the same trip. One starts at the station and ends at the park. The other starts in Hachinohe and ends at the village office. Use 60 minutes plus the last 3 kilometers unless you have just driven it yourself.
The museum beside the mounds, the Christ Legend Museum, is on the village tomb page: open 9:00–17:00, closed Wednesday except during summer vacation, closed for the winter, 500 yen for high school age and older, 300 yen for elementary and junior high students, half price for groups of 20 or more. Phone 0178-78-3741. The winter contact on that page is the village promotion association, 0178-78-2511. The village page does not print the winter dates. Shingo Green Park prints the same 500 and 300 yen, then a different group rate: 400 and 200 yen from 15 people, and winter closure from early November through late April. Visit Hachinohe also says early November through late April. Amazing AOMORI still prints 200 and 100 yen. That admission is stale. Use the village page for the individual fee, and ask the desk which group rate it is charging. The winter start day is the other thing to confirm by phone.
What the legend says
The village tells the story as a story. The page says that in 1935 a claim in the Takeuchi family documents, kept at Kōso Kōtai Jingū in what is now Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki, brought a man named Takeuchi to the village, and that he identified the mound. It also says the reader can decide whether the mounds are the graves of Christ and a brother called Isukiri. That is the legend the park is built on. It is not a driving direction.
The bus, and the station that is not a station
For public transport, the village access map says:
- Nanbu Bus from Hachinohe Station to the last stop, the Gonohe Station bus stop.
- Change to the Kanegasawa line and ride to the Kanegasawa stop. The village office is about a five-minute walk.
It then says the connection is poor and recommends a rental car. The phones it prints are Nanbu Bus Hachinohe, 0178-44-7111, and Nanbu Bus Gonohe, 0178-62-3211. The tomb is not that walk. It is another 3 kilometers from the office. Visit Hachinohe publishes one weekday pattern that continues on the village community bus, Mizubasho, from Kanegasawa to the Christ Park stop, and says the pattern is almost a single round trip. The page itself says the times are a weekday sample and tells you to use a transfer app. A 2026 festival shuttle from Hachinohe to the park was a reserved, paid service for June 7. It is not the ordinary bus.
Amazing AOMORI's driving line says "about 20 minutes from JR Gonohe Station." There is no JR station in Gonohe. Gonohe Town's access page measures the town from JR Hachinohe, JR Misawa, the airports, and the Hachinohe interchange. It does not list a station of its own. The town tourism association says the railway does not run there, and that the buses do. The bus stop is still called Gonohe Station because the private Nanbu Railway, from what is now Hachinohe to Gonohe, was abolished in 1969 after the 1968 Tokachi offshore earthquake. NHK's archive describes that line. Do not buy a JR ticket to Gonohe. You will not find the platform.
The address to give a driver is on the map for Nozuki 33-1. The railhead is JR Hachinohe Station. The day's train is on JR East. The company the village names for the bus is Nanbu Bus, Iwate Kenpoku's Nanbu branch, based in Hachinohe.
The park's film shows the grounds. It is not a driving lesson.
As of 16 October 2026
Car from Hachinohe, then the last 3 kilometers. If you must use the bus, call both Nanbu Bus offices and read the current Mizubasho timetable before you leave Tokyo. Winter closure of the museum, and snow on the last road, are separate problems. The Japanese note on this site walks through the winter equipment rule and the closure.
The longer road notes are on Tokyo to Shingo, Get There, and the Herai pilgrimage. The park as it stands is Christ Park and Shingo today. The same access in Japanese is キリストの墓への行き方. The Japanese pages are キリストの墓 and 新郷村.
Get the next field note from Transmissions. The objects are on Relics, separate from the road.
FAQ
Is there a JR station in Gonohe?
No. Gonohe Town's tourism association says the town has bus lines and no railway. The name Gonohe Station on bus stops is left over from the Nanbu Railway, a private line abolished in 1969. Amazing AOMORI's JR Gonohe Station is not a current JR East station.
Can I reach the tomb by bus from Hachinohe?
Yes, with transfers, and Shingo Village says the connection is poor and recommends a rental car. The published weekday sample from Visit Hachinohe is nearly one round trip. Confirm both Nanbu Bus and the village community bus before you travel.
How long is the drive from Hachinohe?
Shingo Village says about 36 kilometers and 60 minutes from Hachinohe to the village office, then 3 kilometers and about 5 minutes to the tomb. Amazing AOMORI says about 40 minutes from JR Hachinohe Station to the park. Those are different measurements. Plan the longer one.
Sources
Checked 16 October 2026.
- 新郷村アクセスマップ — driving distances, the two-bus instruction, and the recommendation to rent a car.
- 新郷村・キリストの墓 — address, museum hours, 500/300 yen fees, winter closure without calendar dates.
- VISIT HACHINOHE access — Tokyo to Hachinohe, about 2 hours 45 minutes, no transfer.
- 五戸町アクセス — the town is reached from other JR stations, not from a station in Gonohe.
- 五戸町観光協会 — "鉄道は通っていません。"
- Amazing AOMORI, キリストの里公園 — the "JR五戸駅" line, the 40-minute drive, free parking, and the stale 200 yen fee.
- NHKアーカイブス・南部鉄道 — the private line to Gonohe, abolished in 1969.