Echizen City

An unmatched roof for the god of paper.

Okafuto and Ōtaki Shrines

Photo by Osarusan (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Paper

A village of gampi paperthat also taught banknote papermaking.

Echizen torinoko paper (越前鳥の子紙) from the Goka (五箇) area is made from gampi (雁皮), a shrub of the daphne family, and is designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property. Its fibers are short, so forming an even sheet takes great skill. The village also made the paper for the Dajōkan-satsu (太政官札), the Meiji government's first notes, and in 1875 the Printing Bureau brought in Goka papermakers, who helped develop watermarked banknote paper. In 2025 the craft was also added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Made from gampi
Important Intangible Cultural Property
To the Printing Bureau, 1875

02 ／ Manzai

A bow-shaped stick rubbed on the drum.From the gate to the palace, still in geta.

Echizen Manzai (越前万歳) is a New Year blessing performance in which the tayū and the drum-carrying saizō trade lines. It became an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1995. In the Edo period the performers toured the domains of Echizen as far as Kanazawa, and in Fukui they were allowed to walk from the gate to the palace still wearing their wooden geta. The saizō's yumi-daiko (弓太鼓, bow drum) is unlike that of any other manzai, both in shape and in its rubbing style of play. Each New Year's Day the first performance is given at Ajimano Shrine (味真野神社).

Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, 1995
Yumi-daiko
First performance on New Year's Day

03 ／ Provincial capital

Where was the provincial capital?The city is digging to find out.

In the Nara period the kokufu, the capital of Echizen Province, was placed here, and Murasaki Shikibu lived here for a little over a year with her father, the provincial governor. Where exactly the kokufu stood is still unknown; since fiscal 2023 the city has been excavating under a five-year plan. The name Takefu (武生) was adopted in 1869, taken from the phrase "the kokufu of Takefu" in an ancient saibara (催馬楽) song.

Excavating since fiscal 2023
Renamed Takefu, 1869
Murasaki Shikibu stayed over a year

Living here

The shinkansen waiting room is walled in Echizen washi.

about 80,000 people
Shinkansen stops here

From Echizen-Takefu Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen, opened in 2024, a Kagayaki train reaches Tokyo Station in 3 hours 6 minutes without changing trains. The station waiting room is lined with Echizen washi on its walls. From the plaza on the west side, highway buses run to Meitetsu Bus Center in Nagoya in 2 hours 30 minutes.

People living here: 80,611people
Area: 230.7km²
Households: 29,634households
Rent (average for rentals): 43,541yen
Healthcare: 7 hospitals ／ 48 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —24 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.

Echizen City in Japan35.904°N 136.169°E

to TokyoHokuriku Shinkansen186min
to NagoyaHighway bus156min

Travel times follow 東京：市公式（地域交通課）の「越前たけふ駅実は便利でお得な駅チラシ（R6.1）」（PDF・北陸新幹線「越前たけふ駅」のご利用について 2026-09-16 更新のページに添付）の『かがやき（2往復）に乗車で東京駅へ！乗換なしで3時間6分で移動』。駅探の時刻表（東京→越前たけふ・2026-09-25 取得）で、東京から越前たけふへ直通するのはかがやき501号（6:16→9:22＝3時間6分）・517号（20:00→23:04＝3時間4分）と、はくたか561〜569号（11:24→15:04 ほか・3時間40〜42分）の7本。名古屋：福井鉄道「高速バス福井⇔名古屋」の時刻表（2026年4月1日〜）で、名鉄バスセンター→越前たけふ駅は11便とも2時間36分（7:00→9:36、8:00→10:36、10:00→12:36、12:00→14:36、13:30→16:06、15:00→17:36、16:00→18:36、特定日17:00→19:36、18:00→20:36、19:00→21:36、20:00→22:36）。市公式のチラシも『駅西交通広場は…名古屋往復高速バスの乗降場があります。高速バスは10往復/日』と書き、市公式の越前たけふ駅のページが福井鉄道の同じページへリンクしている (checked 2026-09-25). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities.

Territory of Echizen City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

15.6km

南越前町, 鯖江市, 越前町, 池田町

Echizen City isthis kind of town.

01Okafuto Shrine and Ōtaki Shrine (岡太神社・大瀧神社) in Ōtaki honor Kawakami Gozen (川上御前), who is said to have taught papermaking, and the roof of their 1843 buildings is said to have no equal
02In this home of gampi-based Echizen torinoko paper, Goka papermakers were invited to the Printing Bureau in the Meiji era and made banknote paper
03Echizen Manzai, with its saizō playing the yumi-daiko, lives on, as does the name Takefu from the Echizen provincial capital, whose site is still being dug for

See the town as it is now.

Facebookiine.echizen ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Echizen City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗