Ashiya Town

Under a Jizo hall site, 300-odd towers

Stone Towers of Doyama (堂山の石塔群)

Photo by C2revenge (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Ashiya-gama Tea Kettles (芦屋釜)

A tea kettle prized by Kyoto nobleswas cast at a port at the Onga River's mouth.

Tea kettles cast from around the Nanbokucho period at Kanaya in Ashiya-tsu, Chikuzen Province (now near Nakanohama). The town-owned "Ashiya Arare-ji Shinnari Kettle" is a national Important Cultural Property, kept at Ashiyagama-no-Sato. Ashiya kettles are also held by museums elsewhere, including the Tokyo National Museum.

From around the Nanbokucho period (mid-14th century)
The town's Ashiya Arare-ji Shinnari Kettle is a national Important Cultural Property
Also held by the Tokyo National Museum and others

02 ／ The Ashiya Hassaku Festival (芦屋の八朔行事)

In the home of a child's first Hassaku,a straw horse or a dumpling doll is made.

A celebration for a child's first Hassaku, the first day of the eighth lunar month (now September 1). A boy's family makes a straw horse bearing a flag with a warrior's name; a girl's family makes a doll of colored dumplings. Early on the 2nd they are given out to neighborhood children. In September the town holds a "Dagobina and Straw Horse Festival." The festival is a nationally selected and prefecturally designated Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the prefecture in 1976
Selected in 2007 by the nation as an intangible folk property for which records should be made
"Dagobina and Straw Horse Festival" in September (the 19th in 2024)

03 ／ The Ashiya Actors and the Daikoku-za (芦屋役者と大国座)

Actors whose art began as nenbutsu dance:their masks and instruments, sealed at the breakup, remain.

The Ashiya actors were a troupe of regional performers whose roots lay in the medieval Jishu nenbutsu dance. Their 23 related items are a prefecturally designated Folk Cultural Property and had been sealed at the time of the breakup. The theater Daikoku-za was built in 1900 and closed in August 1966.

23 related items (prefecturally designated, 2008)
Daikoku-za built in 1900
Closed in August 1966

Living here

Rocky shore to the east, sandy beach to the west.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

Ashiya lies at the mouth of the Onga River facing Hibiki-nada, bordering Kitakyushu to the east. The east coast is a rocky shore of strange rocks and fine scenery; the west coast is a gently sloping beach of white sand and green pines. The town says it is about 15 minutes by Ashiya Town Bus from JR Onga-gawa Station and about 30 minutes by Kitakyushu City Bus from Orio Station.

People living here: 13,545people
Area: 11.58km²
Households: 5,599households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 10 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 4 municipalities.

Ashiya Town in Japan33.894°N 130.664°E

Territory of Ashiya Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

5.7km

遠賀町, 北九州市, 岡垣町, 水巻町

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

Ashiya Town isthis kind of town.

01The Doyama stone towers are some 300 gorinto, slab markers and stone Buddhas that came out of the ground at Doyama in Yamaga around 1897 (Meiji 30), during work to build the Enmei Jizo hall; the town designates them a cultural property. One theory holds that fugitives of the Heike clan enshrined them; another, that the bereaved of the Yamaga naval force raised them as memorials.
02Ashiya kettles have been cast since around the Nanbokucho period at Ashiya-tsu, and the town-owned Ashiya Arare-ji Shinnari Kettle is a national Important Cultural Property. The Ashiya Hassaku Festival, celebrating a child's first Hassaku on the first day of the eighth lunar month, is a nationally selected and prefecturally designated Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
03The Ashiya actors began as a regional troupe of Jishu nenbutsu dance, and their 23 related items are a prefecturally designated Folk Cultural Property. Yamaga Shell Midden is a prefectural Historic Site and the Natsuigahama Hamayu (crinum lily) habitat a prefectural Natural Monument, both within the town.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Ashiya Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗