Oi Town

A valley library named to waste no drop.

Jakushū Itteki Bunko

Photo by 663highland (CC BY 2.5)

01 ／ Onmyōdō

Fleeing the Ōnin War, the heads of Onmyōdōkept making calendars in a mountain village.

The Abe (Tsuchimikado) family, head house of Onmyōdō (陰陽道) and descendants of Abe no Seimei, left Kyoto to escape the Ōnin War and moved to their own estate at Natashō Notaoi (名田庄納田終). Two stone five-ring stupas stand in the valley grave of three generations: Arinobu, Ariharu and Arinaga. The family worked on calendars in Natashō until 1600. The Koyomi Kaikan (暦会館) shows about 1,000 items on calendars and astronomy.

Graves of three generations
Calendar-making until 1600
About 1,000 items

02 ／ Battery

The Obama domain's batteries standnot in Obama but on the Ōshima peninsula.

Late in the Edo period, on the shogunate's orders, the Obama domain built gun batteries on the Ōshima peninsula at the mouth of Obama Bay to guard against foreign ships. Of about 30 battery sites found along Wakasa Bay, the well-preserved Matsugase and Nokogirizaki batteries became a National Historic Site in 2001. At Matsugase, a straight Japanese-style No. 1 battery stands beside a semicircular Western-style No. 2 battery with five gun positions.

Two of about 30 sites
National Historic Site, 2001
Five gun positions

03 ／ Sacred groves

Groves no one may approachexcept on the festival day.

The Ōshima peninsula has about 32 sacred groves called Niso no Mori (ニソの杜), said to honour the ancestors of the 24 families who opened up the area. Households, alone or in small groups, hold rites on 22 or 23 November. People were not to approach the groves on other days, not to worship there alone, and not to cut their trees. In 2010 the custom was selected as a national intangible folk cultural property.

About 32 groves
Ancestors of 24 families
Nationally selected, 2010

Living here

One station, Wakasa-Hongō; 90% forest.

about 8,000 people
Rural district town

The town was formed in 2006 by merging Ōi Town and Natashō Village, and forest covers 90% of its area. It faces Wakasa Bay to the north, the Aoto Bridge (青戸大橋) links it to the Ōshima peninsula, and the Ōi Nuclear Power Plant stands on the peninsula. The gateway is Wakasa-Hongō Station on the JR Obama Line. The Koyomi Kaikan in Natashō, near the Kyoto border, is about 50 minutes by bus from Obama Station.

People living here: 7,910people
Area: 212.19km²
Households: 3,165households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 7 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.

Oi Town in Japan35.481°N 135.617°E

Territory of Oi Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

22.8km

Fukui Prefecture: 小浜市, 高浜町
Kyoto Prefecture: 南丹市, 綾部市
Shiga Prefecture: 高島市

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

Oi Town isthis kind of town.

01Jakushū Itteki Bunko (若州一滴文庫), opened in 1985 by the local novelist Mizukami Tsutomu, takes its name from the teaching "Sōgen itteki no mizu" (曹源一滴水) of the Zen monk Gisan Zenrai, born on Ōshima
02Natashō Notaoi has the graves of three generations of the Abe (Tsuchimikado) family, heads of Onmyōdō who fled the Ōnin War, and the Koyomi Kaikan, a museum of calendars and astronomy
03The Ōshima peninsula keeps late-Edo gun batteries of the Obama domain, a National Historic Site, and the Niso no Mori groves said to honour the ancestors of the 24 families who opened up the area

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Oi Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗