Kirishima City

Three pagodas and four kings on a hill.

Hayatozuka, pagodas and kings

Photo by Saigen Jiro (CC0)

01 ／ Miyauchibaru Canal

Under a small hill, tunnels were cutleft and right of a standing pillar.

The Miyauchibaru canal, drawn from Suitenbuchi in Saikoji, Hayato, was begun in the first year of Shotoku (1711) and finished in the sixth (1716). Its twin tunnels at Uchiyamada look like a pair of nostrils, hence the nickname Hanansu, "nose holes"; they are thought to have opened then. The city designates them a historic site.

Begun 1711, finished 1716
Twin tunnels, Hanansu
2005: city-designated historic site

02 ／ Kareigawa Station Building

The station opened in 1903, and its buildingkeeps much of its original form.

Kareigawa Station opened on January 15, 1903, two years after the line from Kagoshima to Kokubu opened. It became unmanned in 1984, and in 2003 the former town of Hayato bought the building. The city calls it a precious historic building that strongly keeps its original form. It became a nationally registered tangible cultural property in 2006.

Opened Jan. 15, 1903
2003: bought by former Hayato town
2006: nationally registered cultural property

03 ／ Hangiri Dashi of Komura Shinden

Horse-feed tubs become rafts,to catch fish at the end of the Bon fast.

It is held every August 16 at the reclaimed tidal pond in Kokubu Hirose. A shallow horse-feed tub, the hangiri, is bound to bamboo and boards as a raft, and cast nets catch eha, young mullet. The city's report says it found no other event centered on ending the Bon fast. It became a city-designated intangible folk cultural property in 2023.

Every August 16
Shallow horse-feed tub, the hangiri
2023: city-designated folk cultural property

Living here

From Kokubu Station, City Hall is about a five-minute walk.

about 120,000 people

The city's access page says the main City Hall building is about a five-minute walk from JR Nippo Line's Kokubu Station. The city faces Kinko Bay from Hayato and Kokubu to Fukuyama, and Makizono, Yokogawa and Hayato meet along the middle Amori River.

People living here: 123,135people
Area: 603.17km²
Households: 55,586households
Rent (average for rentals): 32,820yen
Healthcare: 15 hospitals ／ 96 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —37 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 10 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Kirishima City in Japan31.741°N 130.763°E

Territory of Kirishima City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

37.5km

Kagoshima Prefecture: 姶良市, 曽於市, 湧水町, さつま町, 垂水市, 鹿屋市
Miyazaki Prefecture: 都城市, 小林市, えびの市, 高原町

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

Kirishima City isthis kind of town.

01Hayatozuka in Hayato is a national historic site where three five-tier stone pagodas and four guardian-king statues stand; it is thought to date from the late Heian period, and its founding has several theories, including a temple called Shokokuji
02The main hall, worship hall and other buildings of Kagoshima Jingu were designated national Important Cultural Properties in 2022, and its precinct, the shrine-families' sites, and the Osumi Kokubunji ruins are national historic sites
03Along the middle Amori River, where Makizono, Yokogawa and Hayato meet, pyroclastic flows from three calderas lie exposed in layers, a national Natural Monument

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kirishima City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗