Article

46532 ／いせんちょう

Kagoshima Prefecture 大島郡

Isen Town

Coral reef covers a deep-sea stratum.

Inutabu Coast melange

Photo by Nao Iizuka (CC BY 2.0)

01 ／ Issansan

The good-harvest year was 133 years after Ryukyu's subjugation,so it is said to have been named Issansan.

Issansan is a rice-cake-collecting event of Inutabu. On the tsuchinoe-saru day nearest the full-moon night, children go from house to house behind a straw figure called Issansanbo. The ledger of town-designated cultural properties records that the name came from the year of a good harvest after a great famine some 400 years ago, 133 years after the subjugation of Ryukyu.

Town-designated cultural property (1978)
133 years after Ryukyu's subjugation
Straw figure Issansanbo

02 ／ Tokunoshima Kamuiyaki Pottery Kiln Sites

Across about 1.5 km east to west,about 100 kilns are estimated.

The Tokunoshima Kamuiyaki Pottery Kiln Sites are a national Historic Site where kilns lie in seven groups across about 1.5 km east to west and about 800 m north to south. Pottery is estimated to have been produced from the late 11th to the early 14th century. The prefecture's material writes that the name comes from the local pronunciation of Kameyaki, the area where it was found, Kameyaki.

National Historic Site (2007)
About 100 kilns estimated
Late 11th to early 14th century

03 ／ Giina Forest

A forest of Ryukyu limestone and many springsis also a water-source conservation forest.

Giina Forest is known by the name Giina. The ledger of town-designated cultural properties writes that it is a national forest and also a water-source conservation forest for the Isen area, with many springs and mainly Ryukyu limestone. Typical subtropical rain forest vegetation is seen, and it is a breeding ground for birds such as the Ryukyu robin.

Known as Giina
Part of a national Natural Monument (2013)
Town-designated cultural property (1978)

Living here

The town's site says it is 1 hour by air from Kagoshima.

about 6,000 people
Rural district town

Isen lies in the south of Tokunoshima, and has no railway station, no regular-ferry port and no airport within the town. The town's site gives 1 hour by air from Kagoshima to Tokunoshima. In Inutabu there is furicha, hojicha whipped to a froth in a tea tub, and the town's 60th anniversary book writes that it now survives only in Isen.

People living here: 6,139people
Area: 62.71km²
Households: 2,783households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 3 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 2 municipalities.

Isen Town in Japan27.674°N 128.938°E

Territory of Isen Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.2km

徳之島町, 天城町

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

Isen Town isthis kind of town.

01The Inutabu Coast melange is considered a stratum about 100 million years old, in which sandstone is mixed into mudstone as if torn apart; reef coral of 200,000 to 120,000 years ago covers it, and it is a prefectural Natural Monument
02The Tokunoshima Kamuiyaki Pottery Kiln Sites are a national Historic Site, and the Omonawa Shell Midden also became one in 2017; furicha is a town-designated cultural property, a tea drunk casually where people chat
03Ushi nakusami (bullfighting) is a town-designated cultural property; Tokunoshima's three towns each have a bullfighting association, united by the Tokunoshima Bullfighting Federation

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Isen Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗