Article

07407 ／ばんだいまち

Fukushima Prefecture 耶麻郡

Bandai Town

Golden hall restored on excavated base.

Enichiji ruins, restored hall

Photo by Qwert1234 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Spring water

Springs and wells in the town fall, by thetown's survey, into soft, medium-hard and hard water.

The Ministry of the Environment's page on the Top 100 Waters names a spring as the representative site of the western-foothills spring group of Mt. Bandai. The town's fiscal 2024 report surveyed 27 springs and wells and found three water types: soft groundwater, medium-hard water and hard water.

Representative site: a spring in the foothills
27 sites surveyed
Hardness about 20, about 40, over 80

02 ／ Stone pagoda

The five-tier stone pagoda said to be a founding monk's gravehas a thinned shaft where it was scraped for medicine.

The town describes a Heian-period stone pagoda said to be the grave of the monk who founded Enichiji. It is 2.95 m tall; once thought to have three tiers, excavation showed five. Local people sometimes scraped it to take as medicine, so its shaft has thinned.

2.95 m tall
Heian-period stone pagoda
Within the national historic site

03 ／ Festival

Parishioners split east and west to pull a boat;an eastern win is said to mean a good harvest.

The town says the Funehiki festival of Bandai Shrine is a divination rite for the year ahead held every year on the spring equinox. The tourism association says parishioners, split east and west, pull a boat loaded with three rice bales three times; an eastern win is said to mean a good harvest.

Spring equinox
Boat with three rice bales
Prefectural Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property

Bandai Town from the sky

Now and 1974–78. Tap a photo to zoom in.

Now1974–78

Wide (about 6 km across)

Close (about 1.5 km across)

Now (shot June 2023)Shot 1974–78

Source: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) GSI Tiles（全国最新写真（シームレス）／国土画像情報（第一期：1974〜1978年撮影））

Open in GSI Maps (now)Open in GSI Maps (1974–78)

Living here

Bandaimachi Station on the JR Banetsu West Line is the town's gateway.

about 3,000 people
Rural district town

The town's public transport page lists Bandaimachi Station on the JR Banetsu West Line as its railway station, along with a community welfare bus and an on-demand transit service. The town's report says it lies in the northeast of the Aizu Basin, at the foot of Mt. Bandai.

People living here: 3,322people
Area: 59.77km²
Households: 1,079households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 2 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —1 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.

Bandai Town in Japan37.562°N 139.989°E

Territory of Bandai Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (Administrative Area Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari.Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

9.0km

Inawashiro Town, Aizuwakamatsu City, Kitakata City, Kitashiobara Village

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

Bandai Town isthis kind of town.

01The restored golden hall of the Enichiji ruins stands, the town says, at the same position as the hall site confirmed by excavation; the ruins are a national historic site
02The western-foothills spring group of Mt. Bandai, represented by one spring, was selected for the Top 100 Waters, and the town's survey found three water types
03A five-tier stone pagoda is said to be the grave of the monk who founded Enichiji, and Bandai Shrine's Funehiki festival is a spring-equinox divination rite designated a prefectural important intangible folk cultural property

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Bandai Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes