Kawara Town

Mined to near mid-slope: the first peak

Mount Kawara, the town's symbol

Photo by Ozizo (Public domain)

01 ／ Seishiden Site (清祀殿跡)

The sacred mirror sent to Usa Shrineis thought to have been cast here.

A prefecturally designated Historic Site in Saidosho (採銅所). Its origin is debated, but a record survives that in 720 Komiya Hachimangu (古宮八幡宮) offered a sacred mirror to Usa Shrine, and this is thought to be where that mirror was actually cast. The nearby tunnel is called Kanmabu (神間歩), and the building's earthen floor had a smith's hearth at its center.

Prefectural Historic Site (1956)
Record of the offering: 720
Nearby tunnel: Kanmabu

02 ／ Saidosho Station Building (採銅所駅舎)

A wooden Western-style stationthat keeps its look from the 1915 opening.

This is the station building of JR Saidosho Station on the Hitahikosan Line, owned by the town and a town-designated Tangible Cultural Property. With the feel of a modern Western-style wooden building, it conveys its appearance at the 1915 opening to this day. In 2017 the former stationmaster's room became the "Daini Machiaishitsu" (第二待合室), a hub for migration and exchange.

Town-designated Tangible Cultural Property (Feb. 23, 2011)
Opened in 1915 (Taisho 4)
Second waiting room renovated in 2017

03 ／ Shinko-sai Procession of Komiya Hachiman Shrine (古宮八幡神社)

A portable shrine with a cedar-leaf roofmakes a two-day round of Saidosho.

A prefecturally designated Intangible Folk Cultural Property. The event began around the Horeki era (1751-1764) and has been held on the last Saturday and Sunday of April each year. The portable shrine visits the Otabisho (御旅所), Seishiden, Mitarai (御手洗, at the foot of San-no-take) and Kotai Jingu (皇太神宮), among others. Its roof is covered with cedar leaves, a rare, old-fashioned design even for Japan.

Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property (Feb. 18, 2004)
Last Saturday and Sunday of April
Cedar-leaf roof on the portable shrine

Living here

Ringed by green mountains, in the northeast of Tagawa District.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

Near the center of Fukuoka Prefecture, in the northeast of Tagawa District, the town measures 6.45 km east to west and 10.68 km north to south. In 1956 the three municipalities of Kawara, Magarikane and Saidosho were merged. Within the town are Kawara, Saidosho and Ippommatsu stations on the Hitahikosan Line; from Soeda to Yoake, BRT Hikoboshi Line buses have run since August 28, 2023.

People living here: 10,191people
Area: 44.5km²
Households: 4,337households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 7 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —5 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 6 municipalities.

Kawara Town in Japan33.668°N 130.847°E

Territory of Kawara Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.7km

みやこ町, 田川市, 北九州市, 赤村, 福智町, 大任町

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

Kawara Town isthis kind of town.

01Mount Kawara (香春岳) is a group of three peaks rising a little west of the town's center, and the town lists it among its symbols. It is known in the Fudoki for its unusual shape, and as a limestone mountain it has been mined up to near the mid-slope of the first peak (一の岳). The Manyoshu has seven poems about Kawara.
02The Seishiden Site (清祀殿跡) in Saidosho is a prefecturally designated Historic Site, thought to be where the sacred mirror offered to Usa Shrine was cast. In the Shinko-sai of Komiya Hachiman Shrine, a portable shrine with a cedar-leaf roof makes a two-day round.
03The Saidosho Station building keeps its look from the 1915 opening as a Western-style wooden building, and is a town-designated Tangible Cultural Property owned by the town. The Kurekawa Spectacles Bridge (呉川眼鏡橋) is a nationally registered Tangible Cultural Property; in the closing years of the shogunate the domain office moved from Kokura to Kawara and governed for three years.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kawara Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗