Kanehiranari-en, Bugaku garden, Kuroishi City
Article

02204 / くろいしし

Aomori Prefecture

Kuroishi City

Garden named for a wish: wealth for all.

Kanehiranari-en, Bugaku garden

Photo by MChew (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 / Merchant house

Rice dealers to the Kuroishi domainkept storehouses behind the house.

Merchant house in Kuroishi City
Photo by Suikotei (CC BY 4.0)

A merchant family that passed down the same name for generations, it dealt mainly in rice and is known as Komeya, the rice shop. The main house has a komise passage facing the street, and its second-floor beams are joined by a local technique that secures room height. A rice and miso storehouse and a document storehouse of the late Edo period stand behind.

  • House name: Komeya
  • Main house, Important Cultural Property, 1973
  • Storehouses added, 2004

02 / Fire station

A fire station carries a three-tierwatchtower, five storeys in all.

Fire station in Kuroishi City
Photo by 掬茶 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Built in 1924 as a two-storey wooden building, it carries a three-tier watchtower, designed as a fire lookout, at the front of the second floor, making five storeys in all. Upstairs, an 18-mat room and a 12-mat room were once used for weddings and meetings. The city has six fire stations with watchtowers.

  • Built 1924
  • Three-tier watchtower, five storeys
  • Prefectural Treasure, 2003

03 / Hinagashi

Boats for three kinds of riceare set alight and sent downriver.

Every year on the evening of 16 August, three boats woven of thatch grass and straw, about 3 m long, are set on the Nakano River, each standing for one of three kinds of rice: Wase, Naka and Okute. Their masts are lit and the boats are pushed about 500 m downstream to Okawara Bridge. If the flames last until the bridge, a good harvest is foretold.

  • Every 16 August
  • Three boats
  • Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property, 1983

Kuroishi City from the sky

Now and 1974–78. Tap a photo to zoom in.

Wide (about 6 km across)

Close (about 1.5 km across)

Now (shot June 2024)Shot 1974–78

Source: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) GSI Tiles(全国最新写真(シームレス)/国土画像情報(第一期:1974〜1978年撮影))

Open in GSI Maps (now)Open in GSI Maps (1974–78)

Living here

Hirosaki to Kuroishi: about 30 minutes by rail.

  • about 30,000 people

The city's sightseeing page gives about 40 minutes from Aomori or Shin-Aomori to Hirosaki by Limited Express Tsugaru, and about 30 minutes from Hirosaki to Kuroishi on the Konan Line of Konan Railway. The city's stations are Kuroishi and Sakaimatsu, both on the Konan Line.

People living here
31,946people
19952020

−6.8% since 2015

39,004 → 31,946

Area
217.05km²

73.56km² of it habitable

2024

Households
11,661households

2.7 people per household

2020

Rent (average for rentals)
35,803yen

National average 60,630 yen

2023

Healthcare
3 hospitals / 15 clinics

5.6 per 10,000 people

2023

Area217.05km²Habitable land73.56km² / 34%
Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103
Children waiting for childcare
—15 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.

Kuroishi City in Japan40.643°N 140.595°E
TokyoOsakaKuroishi City
Territory of Kuroishi City
Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (Administrative Area Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari.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

17.5km

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

Kuroishi City isthis kind of town.

  1. 01Kanehiranari-en is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty, a garden in the Oishi Bugaku style of the Tsugaru region, begun at a local businessman's request and finished in 1902; its name comes from a wish that wealth reach all people
  2. 02The Takahashi house in Nakamachi belonged to rice merchants to the Kuroishi domain; the No. 3 fire station is a five-storey Prefectural Treasure; and Okawara holds its fire-boat rite every 16 August
  3. 03The city's stations are Kuroishi and Sakaimatsu on the Konan Line, and the city's sightseeing page gives about 30 minutes from Hirosaki to Kuroishi

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.