Echizen Town

Nobunaga's “Oda” is said to be from here.

Tsurugi Shrine, Oda clan shrine

Photo by Saigen Jiro (CC0)

01 ／ Echizen ware

It has been called “Echizen ware”only since 1947.

The pottery fired here since the end of the Heian period was known by village names: “Ota ware” (織田焼) in the Edo period, and others such as “Kumagai ware” (熊谷焼). The name “Echizen” was given to it by the ceramics scholar Koyama Fujio (小山冨士夫), first in print in a 1947 journal. Large jars are built by nejitate (捻じたて): coils of clay are stacked while the potter walks around the pot.

“Echizen” named in 1947
Nejitate: prefectural intangible cultural property
Over 200 old kiln sites

02 ／ Temple bell

A bell cast in 770is still owned by the same shrine.

The bell of Tsurugi Shrine (劔神社) bears the inscription “Bell of Tsurugi-miko-ji, 11th day of the 9th month, 4th year of Jingo-keiun”, showing it belonged to Tsurugi-miko-ji (劔御子寺), the shrine's own temple. It is about 110 cm tall. Nara-period bells with a date are very few; it became a National Treasure in 1902 and was designated again in 1956. It is now entrusted to the town's Ota Cultural History Museum (織田文化歴史館) and on display.

Inscribed 770
National Treasure
About 110 cm tall

03 ／ Kochomon

A national highwayonce ran through a rock tunnel.

About 1.7 km north of Cape Echizen, wind and waves have bored a hole through a rock jutting into the sea: this natural tunnel is Kochomon (呼鳥門). It is about 15 m high and 30 m wide. The national highway once passed beneath it, but a bypass of Route 305 was built to avoid the section prone to rockfalls, and the Sō Tunnel (左右トンネル) opened in 2002. Today a footpath leads right under the arch.

About 15 m high, 30 m wide
Bypass tunnel, 2002
1.7 km north of Cape Echizen

Living here

Around town, you get about by bus and on-call taxi.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in the town. From the stop in front of the town office, Fukui Railway's Sabaura bus line (鯖浦線) runs to Shinmei and Kita-Sabae stations in neighbouring Sabae. Within the town there are the Friendly (フレンドリー号) community bus and the Choisoko Echizen (チョイソコえちぜん) on-demand taxi. Households of two or more who move from the Tokyo area and take a job receive a 1,000,000 yen relocation grant, and the town runs a bank of vacant houses and land.

People living here: 20,118people
Area: 153.15km²
Households: 6,581households
Rent (average for rentals): 29,622yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 9 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-02-01 に合併。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —12 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.

Echizen Town in Japan35.974°N 136.130°E

Territory of Echizen Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

17.3km

福井市, 越前市, 鯖江市, 南越前町

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

Echizen Town isthis kind of town.

01In Ota, the place said to have given Oda Nobunaga his surname, stands Tsurugi Shrine, which Shibata Katsuie recorded as Nobunaga's clan shrine
02It keeps a National Treasure bell inscribed in 770, and kilns fired since the late Heian period make the pottery named “Echizen ware” in 1947
03On the coast around Echizen fishing port stands Kochomon, a rock tunnel a national highway once passed through

See the town as it is now.

YouTubeChannel ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Echizen Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗