Miyako Town

A stone chamber gapes in a schoolyard.

Tachibanazuka Kofun, schoolyard

Photo by Saigen Jiro (CC0)

01 ／ Yoshida Masuzo

The scholar who submitted the era name “Showa”was born in Katsuyama-Ueda (勝山上田).

A scholar of Chinese classics with the pen name Gakken, born in 1866 in Ueda Village (now Katsuyama-Ueda). As an editor at the Imperial Household Ministry's Library Bureau, he was ordered by the Minister of the Imperial Household to devise a new era name and submitted drafts including “Showa.” The town's official site introduces him as its originator.

Born in 1866 (Keio 2), died in 1941 (Showa 16) (town)
Submitted several era-name drafts, including “Shinka,” “Genka” and “Showa” (town)
“Showa” is in all of the Imperial Household Ministry's first to third drafts (National Diet Library)
Memorial monument moved to the grounds of the Sun Great Miyako (サン・グレートみやこ) on February 28, 2026

02 ／ Sanjunoto of Buzen Kokubunji (豊前国分寺)

A pagoda that succeeds a seven-story onebears carvings of the 12 zodiac signs.

A pagoda standing on the Buzen Kokubunji (豊前国分寺) temple site, a prefecturally designated Important Cultural Property. Rebuilt in 1895 as the successor to a seven-story pagoda, it held its consecration service in 1896. It is 23.5 m tall, and its second story has carvings of the 12 zodiac signs, which the prefecture's tourism site calls a whiff of Meiji-era enlightenment.

Prefecturally designated Important Cultural Property (prefecture's tourism site)
Rebuilt in 1895; consecration service in 1896
23.5 m tall
12 zodiac carvings on the second story

03 ／ Ayatsuka Kofun (綾塚古墳)

Cutting up Ayatsuka Kofun's sarcophagus to carry it offis said to have brought a string of disasters.

The town's museum writes that the burial chamber holds the only house-shaped sarcophagus in the Kyochiku area. A legend says that in the Keicho era several Hosokawa retainers split the sarcophagus and tried to carry it to Kokura, but disasters struck and they put it back; the sarcophagus is cut into four pieces, body and lid alike, with wedge marks remaining.

National historic site (designated April 14, 1973)
The stone chamber is about 19 m long (town's museum)
The only house-shaped sarcophagus in the Kyochiku area (town's museum)
Sarcophagus split into four pieces, body and lid, with wedge marks remaining

Living here

Three towns, Katsuyama, Saigawa and Toyotsu, became one in 2006.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

Born from the merger of three towns in Kyoto District, it is described by Fukuoka Prefecture's tourism site as the largest town in the prefecture by area. Under the water and greenery that rise in the Hikosan mountains, sake brewing and farm production thrive, and in mountain hamlets above 300 m, hana-wasabi (花わさび), rare in Kyushu, is grown.

People living here: 18,825people
Area: 151.34km²
Households: 7,346households
Rent (average for rentals): 22,143yen
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 14 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —9 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.

Miyako Town in Japan33.699°N 130.920°E

Territory of Miyako Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

28.4km

Fukuoka Prefecture: 行橋市, 築上町, 赤村, 香春町, 添田町, 北九州市
Oita Prefecture: 中津市

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

Miyako Town isthis kind of town.

01Tachibanazuka Kofun (橘塚古墳) is a national historic site in the schoolyard of Kuroda Elementary School, run by the town. Excavations in 1995–96 showed it to be a square tomb; its horizontal-entry stone chamber of huge granite blocks is 16.3 m long and is estimated to date from the end of the 6th century.
02The Buzen Kokubunji (豊前国分寺) site has a three-story pagoda, a prefecturally designated Important Cultural Property rebuilt as the successor to a seven-story pagoda. There are also the Kuromon (黒門) gate at Toyotsu, the gate of Ikutokukan (育徳館), the domain school of the Ogasawara clan; the nationally designated Important Cultural Property Naganuma House (永沼家住宅); the Kuramochiyama (蔵持山) ascetic-practice site, counted among the six peaks of Hikosan; and the Oitatsu Hachiman Shrine yamakasa in May.
03A town in Kyoto District in the northeast of Fukuoka Prefecture, formed in 2006 by the merger of Katsuyama, Saigawa and Toyotsu.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Miyako Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗