Kamikoani Village

Over 60 homes, they said; so they split.

Yagisawa, a branch village

Photo by 佐藤良美 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Kobusugi

From about the height of an adult,the trunk swells into a burl.

Kobusugi is a natural Akita cedar in a nature observation and education forest. The village website says it has long been revered as a sacred tree. In 2000 the Forestry Agency chose it for Mori no Kyojin-tachi Hyakusen (One Hundred Giants of the Forest). The forest was designated in 1988, and the village says natural Akita cedars over 250 years old grow there.

Forest giants list, 2000
Forest designated, 1988
Cedars over 250 years old (village)

02 ／ Matobi

Old cloth rolled into danpo, soaked in kerosene,stands as letters of fire on Spring Equinox Day.

At dusk on Spring Equinox Day, lights are lit in the hamlets along the Koani River. A guide on the village website says the custom comes from burning straw in front of graves. Today, danpo, balls of old cloth soaked in kerosene, are fixed to frames that spell out hamlet names and the midpoint of the equinox week, Chunichi. Lighting times are staggered from hamlet to hamlet.

Lit at the equinox midpoint
Danpo: balls of old cloth
2005 Selected by the state for documentation (Ani-region Matobi)

03 ／ Okitaomote

On a post town between Kubota and the Ani Mine,a straw-boot run up to a shrine is handed down.

The village website says Okitaomote flourished as a post town for travel between Akita Kubota and the Ani Mine. A guide on the site introduces a hadaka-mairi with over 300 years of history: after cold-water purification, worshippers in white cotton cloth and straw boots run up to the shrine, aiming to worship at midnight on the third Sunday of February.

Flourished as a post town (village)
Hadaka-mairi over 300 years old (guide)
Midnight, third Sunday of February

Living here

No station; 92.7% of the village is forest and wild land.

about 2,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in the village, and the services the village website lists must be booked by phone by 5 p.m. the day before. The shared taxi runs from the front of homes in each hamlet straight to Odate-Noshiro Airport, Ani-Maeda-Onsen Station or Aniai Station. The village says 92.7% of its area is forest and wild land, and 75% of that is national forest.

People living here: 2,063people
Area: 256.72km²
Households: 830households
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 5 municipalities.

Kamikoani Village in Japan40.063°N 140.296°E

Territory of Kamikoani Village

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

32.8km

北秋田市, 五城目町, 秋田市, 三種町, 能代市

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

Kamikoani Village isthis kind of town.

01Yagisawa is a hamlet opened in 1813 by people from the Ani area, and is certified by the prefecture as one of its 50 satoyama landscapes to protect
02In a forest of natural Akita cedars over 250 years old stands Kobusugi, chosen for the Forestry Agency's list of one hundred giant trees of the forest
03The Matobi is passed down: at dusk on Spring Equinox Day, hamlets along the Koani River light letters of fire with cloth danpo, at staggered times

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kamikoani Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗