Marugame City

Smallest of Japan's 12 original keeps.

Marugame Castle keep

Photo by Naokijp (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Shiwaku Kinbansho

Of the Kanrin Maru's 50 sailors,35 came from the Shiwaku Islands.

Built in 1798 as the seat of self-government for the Shiwaku Islands under the ninmyo (人名) system, the Kinbansho ruins on Honjima (本島) are a National Historic Site. In 1860, 35 of the 50 sailors who crossed the Pacific aboard the Kanrin Maru (咸臨丸) came from Shiwaku. Nearby, the port town of Kasajima (笠島) preserves streets recognised as a National Important Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings.

National Historic Site, 1970
Built 1798 (rebuilt 1860)
35 of 50 sailors were from Shiwaku

02 ／ Uchiwa

Nine in ten of Japan's uchiwa fansare made in Marugame.

The round uchiwa (うちわ) fan is said to have begun in the early Edo period as a souvenir for pilgrims visiting Kotohira, sold with a red seal stamped in gold. The Marugame domain encouraged lower-ranking samurai to make them as a side trade, and it grew into a local industry. Bamboo comes from Iyo, paper from Tosa and paste from Awa, all nearby. Marugame now makes about 83 million fans a year, some 90% of Japan's uchiwa, and was designated a National Traditional Craft in 1997.

About 90% of Japan's uchiwa (roughly 83 million a year)
National Traditional Craft, 1997
Began as a souvenir for Kotohira pilgrims

03 ／ Ikkanbari

A technique said to trace to Kobo Daishi,kept alive today by one craftsman.

Ikkanbari (一貫張) is said to have begun some 1,200 years ago, when the monk Kobo Daishi brought back the technique of coating persimmon tannin over paper. Japanese paper is layered some 60 times over a woven bamboo frame, then coated with persimmon tannin and dried in the shade over and over. Today, Hiroki Nishitani, who bears the name Manmanan Ikkansai VI (六代目万満庵一貫斎), is the only person still making it by hand in the traditional way.

Said to date back some 1,200 years
Japanese paper layered about 60 times
Made by a single craftsman, Hiroki Nishitani

Living here

No bullet train, but a bus to Osaka.

about 110,000 people

Limited expresses on JR Shikoku's Yosan Line stop at Marugame Station, but there is no Shinkansen station in the city. A highway bus runs to Osaka without changing buses, reaching Marugame Station in around three and a half hours.

People living here: 109,513people
Area: 111.83km²
Households: 45,721households
Rent (average for rentals): 44,408yen
Healthcare: 12 hospitals ／ 86 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-03-22 に合併。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —27 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.

Marugame City in Japan34.289°N 133.798°E

to OsakaHighway bus210min

Travel times follow 香川県の移住ポータルサイト「かがわ暮らし」の丸亀市のページに『関西方面から　高速バス：大阪駅から約3時間30分』。同じページの鉄道の値（新大阪から乗り換え1回、約1時間30分／東京から乗り換え1回、約4時間）はどちらも岡山での乗り換え込みの合計で採らない (checked 2026-09-25). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities.

Territory of Marugame City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

23.8km

坂出市, まんのう町, 善通寺市, 綾川町, 宇多津町, 多度津町

Marugame City isthis kind of town.

01The keep of Marugame Castle, the smallest of Japan's 12 surviving original castle keeps, is a National Important Cultural Property.
02The Kinbansho ruins on Honjima, a National Historic Site tied to the Kanrin Maru's Shiwaku sailors, stand near a city that still makes about 90% of Japan's uchiwa fans.
03Ikkanbari, a craft said to trace back to Kobo Daishi, is kept alive today by a single craftsman, Hiroki Nishitani, who bears the name Manmanan Ikkansai VI.

See the town as it is now.

FacebookMarugame.City ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Marugame City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗