Kanda Town

The yamakasa changes form three times.

Kanda Yamakasa, Uhara festival

Photo by Hiruya Nobuaki (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Togakuji Matsue (等覚寺の松会)

The host, purified in the sea,cuts off the offering wand atop the pillar.

Togakuji (等覚寺) was one of the Shugendo centers called the Six Peaks of Buzen (豊前六峰) until the Meiji-era suppression of Buddhism. Three days before the festival, the host bathes in the sea at Minoshima (蓑島), about 10 km away, to purify himself. On the day he climbs the pillar and cuts off the offering wand with a sword. The town announced that in 2026 it would be held for those involved only.

National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (designated Dec. 16, 1998)
Salt rite: about 10 km to Minoshima
Every third Sunday of April

02 ／ Seiryu Cave (青龍窟)

In a cave that was the inner sanctuary of Togakuji,a Naumann's elephant skull was unearthed.

A limestone cave about 3 km long on Hiraodai (平尾台), and a national Natural Monument. As the inner sanctuary (奥の院) of Fuchisan Togakuji (普智山等覚寺), it served as a Shugendo training site. A Naumann's elephant skull fossil was unearthed here in 1976. The entrance hall holds an altar to Toyotamahime (豊玉姫).

National Natural Monument
Total length about 3 km
Naumann's elephant skull fossil unearthed in 1976

03 ／ Ishizukayama Kofun (石塚山古墳) and Its Mirrors

A mirror fragment found in the Edo periodperfectly fit a fragment from the 1987 survey.

Ishizukayama Kofun is a keyhole-shaped tomb of the early Kofun period and a national Historic Site. A fragment of a triangular-rim mirror with deities and beasts (三角縁神獣鏡) found by a local village head in the Edo period fit a fragment unearthed in the 1987 survey by the town board of education; the town's text says they matched "across 200 years." Seven mirrors and other finds are held by Uhara Shrine (宇原神社).

National Historic Site (Jan. 31, 1985)
Finds designated Important Cultural Property (Mar. 31, 1953)
Seven mirrors held by Uhara Shrine

Living here

The Suō-nada Sea to the east, Hiraodai to the west.

about 40,000 people
Rural district town

Kanda lies between Kitakyushu and Yukuhashi, facing the Suō-nada Sea (周防灘) to the east and joining the karst plateau Hiraodai (平尾台) to the west. With Kanda Port (苅田港) and Kitakyushu Airport (北九州空港), the town describes itself as a transport hub of land, sea and air. The gateway is Kanda Station on the JR Nippo Main Line.

People living here: 37,684people
Area: 49.58km²
Households: 17,722households
Rent (average for rentals): 42,900yen
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 27 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —7 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 2 municipalities.

Kanda Town in Japan33.776°N 130.981°E

Territory of Kanda Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

11.1km

行橋市, 北九州市

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

Kanda Town isthis kind of town.

01The Kanda Yamakasa (苅田山笠) is a prefecturally designated Intangible Folk Cultural Property in which floats accompany the portable shrine (mikoshi) of Uhara Shrine (宇原神社). It changes form three times, as the lantern float (灯山), the banner float (幟山) and the rock float (岩山).
02Togakuji Matsue (等覚寺の松会) is a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, a festival of the area where Togakuji stood, once one of the Shugendo centers called the Six Peaks of Buzen (豊前六峰) along with Mt. Hiko (英彦山). Seiryu Cave (青龍窟), its former inner sanctuary, is a national Natural Monument on Hiraodai, where a Naumann's elephant skull fossil was unearthed in 1976.
03Ishizukayama Kofun is a national Historic Site, and seven triangular-rim mirrors with deities and beasts (三角縁神獣鏡) unearthed in the Edo period are held by Uhara Shrine. Fourteen rock floats are run to the former shrine site called the floating hall (浮殿) near this tomb, and the town also has Goshoyama Kofun (御所山古墳), a national Historic Site.

See the town as it is now.

Instagram@kandamachikk ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kanda Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗