Article

02441 ／さんのへまち

Aomori Prefecture 三戸郡

Sannohe Town

A Taisho-era concrete shop still stands.

Sataki Honten, Sannohe Town

Photo by Ty19080914 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Sannohe Castle Site

Excavation showed the 1857 map depictsSannohe Castle well as it was abandoned.

Sannohe Castle Site in Sannohe Town — Photo by 小池隆 (CC BY 3.0)

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the map drawn in 1857 is a precise survey on which gate positions and castle roads can be checked on site, and excavations from fiscal 2004 to 2019 confirmed that it shows the castle well as it was when abandoned. The main approach lay on the west side, entered at the Tsunamon gate site, the town says. The gate in the photo is a reconstruction.

National Historic Site, 2022
Map of 1857
Excavations, fiscal 2004-2019

02 ／ Izumiyama climbing rite

Boys of seven by Japanese count, with elders,climb a 2.5 km mountain path to the summit.

Every year on the morning of the 12th day of the sixth lunar month, boys who turn seven by Japanese count visit the village shrine, then climb the second peak of Mount Nakui. The prefecture notes that visits for age seven are made at shrines and temples across Japan, but in Aomori Prefecture survive only in Izumiyama.

Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, 1997
Boys aged seven by Japanese count
2.5 km to the summit

03 ／ Karauma Monument

A monument for a Persian horsegiven by Shogun Yoshimune to the Morioka domain.

The Karauma Monument, a prefectural historic site, commemorates a Persian horse that the eighth shogun, Yoshimune, gave to the Morioka domain. The prefecture records that the horse was turned out to graze in Sumiyano, under the Sannohe magistrate's office, and used as a stud. When it died at nine, an official in charge of the domain's pasture horses enshrined it for its repose and set up the monument with two verses.

Prefectural Historic Site, 1960
Given to the Morioka domain by Yoshimune
Died at age nine

Sannohe Town from the sky

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

Now1974–78

Wide (about 6 km across)

Close (about 1.5 km across)

Now (shot May–October 2021)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

The town's only railway station is Metoki.

about 9,000 people
Rural district town

The only railway station in the town is Metoki Station, served by the Aoimori Railway and the IGR Iwate Galaxy Railway. The town's access page lists 16 minutes from Ninohe Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen to Sannohe Station on the Aoimori Railway (in Nanbu Town), and 23 minutes from Hachinohe Station (updated June 26, 2025).

People living here: 9,082people
Area: 151.79km²
Households: 3,566households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 3 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —4 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 across 2 prefectures.

Sannohe Town in Japan40.378°N 141.259°E

Territory of Sannohe Town

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

13.0km

Aomori Prefecture: Takko Town, Shingo Village, Nanbu Town
Iwate Prefecture: Ninohe City
Akita Prefecture: Kazuno City

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

Sannohe Town isthis kind of town.

01Sataki Honten in Sannohe is a nationally registered tangible cultural property, and the prefecture records it as a reinforced-concrete store completed in Taisho 14 whose interior takes a bank as its motif
02Sannohe Castle Site became a National Historic Site in 2022, and excavation showed that its 1857 map depicts the castle well as it was when abandoned
03In Izumiyama, boys aged seven by Japanese count climb a peak of Mount Nakui in an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, and the Karauma Monument is a prefectural historic site

See the town as it is now.

X@Sannohe_Nyago ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Sannohe Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes