01 ／ Yokai
From the pond in Tsujikawayama Park (辻川山公園), a kappa named Gajiro rises every 15 minutes between 9:00 and 21:00, and an upside-down tengu leans out of a hut. The five winning entries of a national yokai sculpture contest stand in the park as they were made.
02 ／ History
The house where Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男), the father of Japanese folklore studies, spent his boyhood. Five ken wide and four deep, it is the house he himself called “the smallest house in Japan” in his memoir. It now stands preserved just west of the museum named after him.
03 ／ Food
Grown here before the war, lost afterwards, and revived in 1986 as the town’s own crop. Mochimugi no Yakata (もちむぎのやかた) sells noodles, tea and sweets made from it, and the noodle-making line can be watched through glass.
Living here
The town sits where the Chugoku and Bantan expressways meet. You can drive in, see the yokai, eat the barley noodles and drive home.
−1.8% since 2015
19,854 → 19,377
21.19km² of it habitable
2024
2.5 people per household
2020
National average 60,630 yen
2023
11.4 per 10,000 people
2023
These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.
ACCESS
Travel times follow 2026年3月ダイヤ改正後に各社が公式サイトに掲載している値 (checked 2026-09-22). They vary by time of day.
Shape
North to south
11.3km
If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.
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