Katsuyama City

Fossils and their strata, both protected.

Dinosaur fossils, Tetori Group

Photo by 紫煙 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Sagicho

People sit on half the drumto damp it, and play with a swagger.

At Katsuyama Sagicho (勝山左義長), drummers in red under-kimonos play on yagura towers built by each neighbourhood, clowning in time with the music. Children or young people sit on half of the drumhead to damp its ring, and the three move as one: a way of drumming found only in Katsuyama. There were towers at 5 spots in 1764; today there are 12. It is a prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

12 towers
5 spots in 1764
Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property

02 ／ Terrace

River stones on a terrace cliffsplit the castle town into upper and lower.

The right bank of the Kuzuryu River (九頭竜川) rises in 2 to 3 river terraces, and the terrace cliffs running on and off for some twenty-odd km downstream are called Shichiri-kabe (七里壁). The Edo-period castle town used a 5 to 7 m wall of river stones on the cliff as its boundary: the castle and samurai houses above, temples, shrines and townhouses below. It is part of a Japan Heritage story.

Some twenty-odd km
5 to 7 m high
Japan Heritage

03 ／ Stone paving

South of the mossy precinct,stone-paved lanes run in a grid.

Heisen-ji (平泉寺), founded at the Echizen-side gateway for pilgrims climbing Mount Haku, is said to have had 6,000 lodgings for monks at its height. Excavations since 1989 have shown stone-paved lanes with side ditches running like a mesh between the lodgings in Minamidani (南谷), with gates set at even intervals. Today moss spreads beneath the cedars, and about 200 ha is a National Historic Site.

Excavated since 1989
6,000 monks' lodgings
About 200 ha, National Historic Site

Living here

A town that prospered on silk, then rayon.

about 20,000 people

The city was formed in 1954 when the town of Katsuyama merged with 8 villages. Katsuyama Station at the end of the line keeps its station building from the 1914 opening, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. From the Meiji era the town prospered on habutae silk, and from the early Showa era on rayon. In April 2026 a campus for Fukui Prefectural University's dinosaur faculty opened next to the dinosaur museum.

People living here: 22,150people
Area: 253.88km²
Households: 7,524households
Rent (average for rentals): 43,970yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 12 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —10 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 7 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Katsuyama City in Japan36.061°N 136.501°E

Territory of Katsuyama City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

16.9km

Fukui Prefecture: 大野市, 永平寺町, 坂井市, 福井市
Ishikawa Prefecture: 白山市, 小松市, 加賀市

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

Katsuyama City isthis kind of town.

01Five new species of dinosaur have been found in the Tetori Group at Sugiyama, Kitadani, and both the fossils and the excavation outcrop are a Natural Monument
02At Katsuyama Sagicho in February, drummers on 12 towers play the ukidaiko, with people sitting on half of each drum to damp its ring
03The Shichiri-kabe wall of river stones on a terrace cliff divides the old castle town into upper and lower, and medieval stone-paved lanes run south of Heisen-ji's mossy precinct

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Katsuyama City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗