Article

10424 ／ながのはらまち

Gunma Prefecture 吾妻郡

Naganohara Town

White university initial on a transom

Former Kita-Karuizawa Station

Photo by Qurren (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Former Kariyado Tea-House Honjin

Reception rooms apart from the living quarters,and the highest-ranking upper room survives.

The town records that tea-house honjin were set up at Kariyado Shinden, where the Shinshu Kaido crosses the side roads linking Kutsukake, Kusatsu and Kawarayu, for daimyo and samurai to rest. The rooms for rest and lodging are separate from the daily living space, and the upper room, the most formal, remains.

Nationally registered Tangible Cultural Property
Dehari-zukuri overhanging beams
Shingled roof weighted with stones

02 ／ Chozui-shiki Kannon

Kannon set up as guideposts on a hard roadare now gathered in a Jizo hall's grounds.

The town records that Rokuri-ga-hara, north of Mt. Asama, was a hard stretch for travelers in the Edo period, and that guidepost Kannon were set up from the Wakare-jaya teahouse. The scattered statues were gathered at the Sakuraiwa Jizo hall, and missing ones were supplied in 1991. The site's signboard records that this came from a fundraising drive by Sukeshiro in 1808.

Town-designated Important Cultural Property, 1978
Bunka 5 (1808)
Fundraising drive by Sukeshiro

03 ／ Otsuka and the Itaya Maple

A small mound for the ascetic Sonshin,and a maple 32 m tall.

Locals call a small mound in the Urano family graveyard Otsuka, and the town records that a family register shows it is the grave of an ascetic monk named Sonshin. Oral tradition says he prayed for self-mummification at this mound. The cemetery's Itaya maple has a trunk circumference of 3.70 m at chest height, stands 32 m tall and is estimated to be 300 years old.

Otsuka: town-designated Historic Site, 1974
Itaya maple: town-designated Natural Monument, 1978
Height 32 m

Naganohara 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 August 2018)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

138 minutes from Ueno by limited express.

about 5,000 people
Rural district town

Naganoharakusatsuguchi Station on the JR Agatsuma Line is 138 minutes from Ueno on the fastest daily Limited Express Kusatsu/Shima (No. 1). From Shinjuku, a JR Bus Kanto highway bus takes 209 minutes, and from Tokyo Station 218 minutes, to the stop in front of the station.

People living here: 5,095people
Area: 133.85km²
Households: 2,191households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 4 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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Naganohara Town in Japan36.544°N 138.650°E

to UenoLtd. exp. Kusatsu/Shima138min
to ShinjukuHighway bus209min
to TokyoHighway bus218min

Travel times follow JR東日本の駅の時刻表（上野駅高崎線・平日／土曜休日・『JR時刻表』2026年10月号に基づく）と列車ごとの停車駅一覧（特急草津・四万 1号・3号）、JRバス関東のデジタル時刻表『東京・新宿～伊香保・草津温泉上州ゆめぐり号／東京ゆめぐり号』（2025年12月15日改正） (checked 2026-10-21). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Naganohara 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

19.0km

Gunma Prefecture: Tsumagoi Village, Higashiagatsuma Town, Nakanojo Town, Takasaki City, Kusatsu Town
Nagano Prefecture: Karuizawa Town

Naganohara Town isthis kind of town.

01The former Kusakaru Electric Railway Kita-Karuizawa Station is a nationally registered building that the town records was newly built and donated by the Hosei University village, and the transom above its entrance carries the university's initial in white
02The former Kariyado tea-house honjin stands where the Shinshu Kaido crosses side roads, and the guidepost Kannon of Rokuri-ga-hara are gathered in the grounds of the Sakuraiwa Jizo hall
03The mound Otsuka, said to be the grave of the ascetic monk Sonshin, and a large Itaya maple are town-designated; the town lies in Agatsuma District, 138 minutes from Ueno by limited express

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Naganohara Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes