Tokunoshima Town

Cycads form a tunnel about 200 m long.

Kanami Cycad Tunnel

Photo by Kotaro - User: (WT-shared) 耕太郎 at wts wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Inokawa Natsume Dance

Natsume dancing is performed on the nightof Hamaori, also called the "summer New Year".

In Inokawa, Tokunoshima, the prefecture writes that Hamaori, a thanksgiving for the harvest offered to ancestors, is held over three days. At night, split into three districts, dancers begin the Natsume dance to the signal of drums, singing in turns between men and women. It is also called the "summer New Year," and people are said to grow a year older.

Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property (2001)
Danced in 3 districts
2026: August 21-23

02 ／ Former Yama Jinjo Koto Elementary School Building

A two-story building that shows its corner pillars,the oldest surviving concrete school on the island.

This school building in northeast Tokunoshima is a two-story reinforced-concrete structure built in 1929. The Agency for Cultural Affairs writes that its exterior shows corner pillars, the entrance has a canopy, and the walls have evenly spaced horizontal joints. Inside, an entrance hall and stairwell are at the front, with classrooms at the back.

Reinforced concrete, 2 stories
Building area 65 m²
Oct. 14, 2021: nationally registered tangible cultural property

03 ／ Shoda Pond

A pond completed in Kanbun 10, in a magistrate's time.Its drained shallows become a haven for migratory birds.

Shoda Pond was completed in Kanbun 10 (1670), in the time of magistrate Ijichi Chikuemon, under the Satsuma domain's policy of promoting new rice fields. Its water surface is about 3.7 hectares, and 40 cho of paddies were opened. The town's site calls it the first such large project carried out in Michi no Shima (Oshima District), and says the shallows become a feeding ground for migratory birds after the sugar-making season.

Completed Kanbun 10 (1670)
Water surface about 3.7 ha
40 cho of paddies opened

Living here

Leaving Kagoshima in the evening, arriving at Kametoku in the morning.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

Tokunoshima has no railway; the town's gateway is Kametoku Port. In the ferry operator's schedule, a boat leaving Kagoshima Shinko Port at 18:00 arrives at Kametoku Port at 9:10 the next morning. Sailing days follow the operator's annual calendar, and Tokunoshima Airport is in neighboring Amagi.

People living here: 10,147people
Area: 104.92km²
Households: 4,714households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 4 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.

Tokunoshima Town in Japan27.727°N 129.019°E

Territory of Tokunoshima Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

25.3km

天城町, 伊仙町

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

Tokunoshima Town isthis kind of town.

01The Kanami Cycad Tunnel is a tunnel-like arch of cycads about 200 m long, and the town's site says the lookout beyond it gives views of Tonbara Rock and far off to Amami Oshima
02The group of natural stones with carved lines at Boma's Ishiwara is said to have once belonged to the noro, the priestess who governed Boma, and the town's site writes that no tradition tells when the lines were carved; it is a town-designated historic site
03Tete's Muchitabori is a rice-cake-collecting event in the Obon season, in which men veiled in white cloth dress as women and go from house to house; it is one of five villages in the prefecturally designated "Tokunoshima rice-cake-collecting events"

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Tokunoshima Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗