Kumano Town

Off-season peddling led to brush-making.

Kumano Fude, traditional craft

Photo by Nobuyuki Kondo (CC BY 2.0)

01 ／ Sakakiyama Shrine steps and fence

In the age of brush-trade fortunes,99 stone steps were donated.

The 99 stone steps up to Sakakiyama Shrine (榊山神社) were donated by one of the great merchants who emerged from the brush trade in the late Edo period. Their cost is said to be about 20 million yen in today's money. The stone fence and lanterns bear the names of merchants from Nara, Osaka and Arima, showing how far the brush trade reached.

99 stone steps
Cost said to be about 20 million yen in today's money (town)
Stone fence made in 1859; town-designated (1994)
Names of merchants from the Kinki region carved on the fence and lanterns

02 ／ Sadayu Shrine

A leader of the uprising,Sadayu, is enshrined here.

Sadayu of Kumano was one of the leaders of an uprising in the Hiroshima domain in 1718 and, the record says, was beheaded and his head displayed. Legend says he was jailed on a false charge, freed, and killed on his way home; that summer insects ate the rice, and villagers feared his curse.

Uprising in the Hiroshima domain, 1718
Record says he was beheaded and his head displayed (town)
Legend: insects appeared as his curse
The town writes that the legend was probably made so he would not be forgotten

03 ／ Yurugi Rock and stone Buddhas

A rock said to move for a good person,and 36 Buddhas carved nearby.

Yurugi Rock (ゆるぎ岩) is a boulder about 150 cm long and 210 cm high that is said to move if a good person shakes it. The nearby hall is known as Yurugi Kannon. By the vow of Mizuki Kaemon, said to have recovered from an eye ailment, one Buddha was carved a year from the early Meiji era; with three extras the total reached 36 in 1914.

Rock about 150 cm long, 210 cm high
One Buddha carved a year from early Meiji; 36 by 1914
The area is a town-designated historic site (1989)
Kannon festival held on the 18th of each month (town)

Living here

A plateau-like basin ringed by mountains.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

It lies almost at the center of Hiroshima, Kure and Higashi-Hiroshima. The town emblem repeats the character ma (マ) nine times to read Kuma, with an inverted triangle for no (の) and the mountain-ringed basin (adopted 1948). There are 222 irrigation ponds. The 2020 industrial statistics list "other manufacturing (mainly brush-related)" as the top industry by shipments.

People living here: 22,834people
Area: 33.76km²
Households: 9,422households
Rent (average for rentals): 45,538yen
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 15 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —3 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.

Kumano Town in Japan34.336°N 132.585°E

Territory of Kumano Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

8.4km

広島市, 呉市, 東広島市, 海田町

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

Kumano Town isthis kind of town.

01Kumano is a town in a mountain-ringed basin where brush-making spread from off-season peddling and produces the traditional craft Kumano Fude (熊野筆).
02Sakakiyama Shrine has 99 stone steps donated by a brush-trade merchant, Sadayu Shrine honors a leader of an uprising, and 36 stone Buddhas are carved around Yurugi Rock.
03The town emblem repeats ma (マ) nine times to read Kuma, and on the autumn equinox the Fude Festival is held at Sakakiyama Shrine, where used brushes are burned in memorial.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kumano Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗