Misato Town

He quit the Diet and built an avenue.

Pine and cedar avenue, Togaku

Photo by 掬茶 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Spring

A gazetteer wrote of this spring:"Surely Rokugo's finest water."

Sugae Masumi's gazetteer Tsuki no Dewaji praises the Niteko spring as "a small spring, yet a wondrous well whose water never rises or falls" and writes that it is "surely Rokugo's finest water". In 1881, the 14th year of Meiji, water from it was offered to Emperor Meiji on his tour, and it became known as Gozensui, "water for the imperial table". Its name is said to come from the Ainu language.

Tsuki no Dewaji
Emperor Meiji's tour, 1881
Also called Gozensui

02 ／ Water divider

Water from 180 holesis split among 10 areas.

Water from the Maruko River, taken in at the Sekita headworks, flows into a cylindrical tank. The water that leaves through 180 holes around its rim is divided among 10 weirs, in proportion to the farmland each serves. A weir for two-tenths of all the farmland, for example, gets 36 holes. Completed in 1938, it is 12 m across and became a nationally registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2024.

180 holes
10 areas
Completed 1938

03 ／ Takeuchi

If the north wins, a good harvest;if the south wins, rice prices rise, they say.

On the last night of the New Year festival Rokugo no Kamakura, the town splits into a north army and a south army along the old Ushu Kaido road and strikes at each other with green bamboo. There are three bouts. If the north wins, the harvest is said to be good; if the south wins, the price of rice is said to rise. Since 1955 the north has won 21 times, the south 24, and 18 bouts were drawn. The festival was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1982.

Three bouts
North 21 wins, south 24
National designation, 1982

Living here

20 minutes by car from Ōmagari Station.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

The town says the town hall is about 20 minutes by car from Ōmagari Station, where the Akita Shinkansen stops. Within the town are Iizume Station and Gosannen Station on the Ōu Main Line, and Ugo Kotsu buses also run. The western side lies on the lower edge of an alluvial fan 40 to 50 m above sea level, and winter snow averages around 150 cm on the plain.

People living here: 18,613people
Area: 168.32km²
Households: 5,999households
Rent (average for rentals): 25,887yen
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 11 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —3 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 3 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Misato Town in Japan39.462°N 140.582°E

Territory of Misato 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

16.3km

Akita Prefecture: 大仙市, 横手市
Iwate Prefecture: 西和賀町

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

Misato Town isthis kind of town.

01Sakamoto Togaku left the Diet and set about building a model village, and the town says he laid out six straight roads radiating from a park, lined with pines and cedars. The avenue was chosen as one of the New Hundred Views of Japan's Roadside Trees
02In Rokugo, the Niteko spring, which Tsuki no Dewaji calls "surely Rokugo's finest water", is known as Gozensui, and the Sekita circular water divider sends water from 180 holes to 10 areas
03On the last night of Rokugo no Kamakura, a north army and a south army strike at each other with green bamboo along the old Ushu Kaido road in the takeuchi. It is a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property

See the town as it is now.

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Misato Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗