Awara City

Rennyo stayed here 4 years, 2 months.

Site of Yoshizaki Gobō

Photo by 藤谷良秀 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Professor Fujino

In Lu Xun's Beijing home,a village doctor's photo remains.

In 1904 Fujino Genkurō (藤野厳九郎), a professor at Sendai Medical College, corrected in red ink the lecture notes of Zhou Shuren, a student from Qing China. That student, later known as Lu Xun, wrote about him in "Mr. Fujino". Born in Honjō Village (本荘村, now part of Awara), Fujino worked as a town doctor in his home area. The house in Mikuni (三国) where he spent his last years was moved here after Awara Town (芦原町) and Lu Xun's home city of Shaoxing became friendship cities in 1983, and it is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

Sendai Medical College, 1904
Friendship city with Shaoxing, 1983
Registered Tangible Cultural Property

02 ／ Awara Onsen

A well dug to water a rice fieldbrought up water at about 80°C.

In 1883 a farmer in Horie Jūraku (堀江十楽) dug a well in his rice field looking for irrigation water, and salty water at about 80°C came up. Inns opened the next year, and the number of hot spring wells is now limited to 74. The water is not managed in common: each establishment has wells of its own, so the composition differs slightly from inn to inn. The Ashiyu (芦湯) foot bath in the hot spring town is free.

Found in 1883
About 80°C
74 hot spring wells

03 ／ Kunugi Kofun

An ancient burial chamberbecame a place of practice in the Kamakura period.

Kunugi Kofun (椚古墳) is a round mound about 30 m across and 5 m high from the late Kofun period, with an open corridor-type stone chamber 5.54 m long. On its single-stone back wall are carved Sanskrit seed syllables for Buddhas such as Dainichi, and a five-tiered stupa. Their Echizen-style moon discs and lotus pedestals date them to the late Kamakura period, showing that the chamber was open then and used for religious practice.

Chamber 5.54 m long
Seed syllables and stupa
Prefectural historic site

Living here

Grants and a vacant house bank for newcomers.

about 30,000 people
Shinkansen stops here

On 16 March 2024 the Hokuriku Shinkansen opened at Awaraonsen Station in the city, and the fastest Kagayaki now reaches it from Tokyo in 2 hours 51 minutes. The city is at the northern tip of Fukui Prefecture, and in Yoshizaki (吉崎) in the north the border with Ishikawa Prefecture runs through the town. There is a relocation and employment grant for people moving from the Tokyo area, and a vacant house bank.

People living here: 27,524people
Area: 116.98km²
Households: 9,933households
Rent (average for rentals): 43,322yen
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 17 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —11 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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Awara City in Japan36.211°N 136.229°E

to TokyoHokuriku Shinkansen171min

Travel times follow 観光公式（一般社団法人あわら市観光協会）「アクセス」の『東京駅（金沢経由） → 北陸新幹線「かがやき」最速2時間51分 → 芦原温泉駅』。駅探の時刻表（東京→芦原温泉・2026-09-25 の運行）で、東京から芦原温泉へ直通するのは、かがやき507号 9:20→12:16（2時間56分）・かがやき509号 10:22→13:13（2時間51分）と、はくたか561〜569号（3時間22分〜3時間24分）。**かがやき509号の2時間51分が観光公式の『最速2時間51分』と合う**。市公式「あわら市へのアクセス」（2024-03-28 更新）は『東京駅から北陸新幹線（かがやき）で芦原温泉駅下車（約2時間55分）』 (checked 2026-09-25). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 2 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Awara City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

13.6km

Fukui Prefecture: 坂井市
Ishikawa Prefecture: 加賀市

Awara City isthis kind of town.

01The site of Yoshizaki Gobō (吉崎御坊), where Rennyo spent 4 years and 2 months from 1471, is a national historic site, and each spring his portrait is carried here on foot about 240 km from Higashi Honganji in Kyoto
02It is the home village of Fujino Genkurō, Lu Xun's teacher, and keeps the house of his last years, moved from Mikuni, as a memorial hall in the hot spring town
03Water from a rice-field well grew into a hot spring town with 74 wells, and the back wall of the Kunugi Kofun chamber bears Kamakura-period seed syllables and a stupa

See the town as it is now.

Facebookawaracity ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Awara City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗