Ikawa Town

200 cherry kinds, gathered from Japan.

Nihon Kokkaen

Photo by 掬茶 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Suzaki site

From a well site that reused a dugout canoe,a tablet showing a mermaid came out.

The Suzaki site is a settlement site estimated to date from the 13th to the 16th century, where more than 300 well sites have been found. One well used a dugout canoe hollowed from a single log: it was cut in two with an adze and the halves were fitted together lengthwise, facing inward, to form the outer frame. Tree-ring dating gives the late 13th century. From this well site came a mermaid memorial tablet, the Ningyo Kuyo-fuda, showing a priest and a mermaid.

Over 300 well sites
Late 13th century (tree rings)
Mermaid memorial tablet

02 ／ Itabi

Close to the Suzaki site, a graveyardholds medieval itabi stone tablets.

Around Hachirōgata, medieval itabi stone tablets have been recorded in the main villages along the old roads. Ikawa has a group at a temple in Imado and a group at a graveyard, and the graveyard, very close to the Suzaki site, has seven tablets made from natural andesite stones. In Imado, the Ganjin odori dance, said to have been brought by ganjin monks, is performed every 5 May.

Seven itabi at one graveyard
A group at a temple in Imado
Ganjin odori, 5 May

03 ／ Sculpture Path

All over the grounds,ten years of prize works stand.

The grounds hold 41 prize-winning works from the Sakura no Mori Sculpture Competition, held for ten years from 2000. The town lists the year, prize and artist of each work on a sculpture map titled "Sculpture Path", and the 2003 excellence-prize work, Ikawa Goriyama, is one of them.

Sakura no Mori Competition, ten years from 2000
41 prize works
2003 excellence prize: Ikawa Goriyama

Living here

From Akita Station, about 30 minutes on the Ōu Main Line.

about 5,000 people
Rural district town

The town has Ikawa-Sakura Station on the JR Ōu Main Line, which opened in December 1995. The town's guidance puts it at about 30 minutes from Akita Station. Along National Route 285 runs 2.8 km of crape myrtle trees, and in the Inai district Genji fireflies can be seen from early June to mid-July.

People living here: 4,566people
Area: 47.95km²
Households: 1,528households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 3 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —1 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities.

Ikawa Town in Japan39.914°N 140.081°E

Territory of Ikawa Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

8.8km

五城目町, 潟上市, 秋田市, 八郎潟町

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Ikawa Town isthis kind of town.

01Founded in 1972, Nihon Kokkaen is a park of about 40 hectares where 200 kinds of cherry, 2,000 trees in all, were gathered from across Japan and planted over two years, and the town's own page says the same varieties as the cherries sent to seven European countries during the Shōwa Emperor and Empress's tour of Europe were also planted
02From the Suzaki site, estimated to date from the 13th to the 16th century, came a well framed with a dugout canoe cut in two and a mermaid memorial tablet showing a priest and a mermaid
03The Sculpture Path in the grounds holds 41 prize works from the Sakura no Mori Sculpture Competition, and a graveyard very close to the Suzaki site has medieval itabi stone tablets

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Ikawa Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗