Article

14361 ／なかいまち

Kanagawa Prefecture 足柄上郡

Nakai Town

The shrine's name has two explanations.

Minogasa Shrine, Inokuchi

Photo by Ishiniwatori2345 (CC BY 4.0)

01 ／ Shonan Light Railway

The place where up and down cars swappedwas called "surikeba" in the local speech.

Shonan Light Railway in Nakai Town — Photo by Y zai (CC BY-SA 3.0)

It opened in 1906 as a horse-drawn tramway, switched to steam locomotives in 1913 and was renamed the Shonan Light Railway. The town had two stops, Kami-Inokuchi and Shimo-Inokuchi, and service ended in 1937. The swapping yard lies about 30 m toward Ninomiya from the Inokuchi intersection; the town says it is now a gravel car park.

Opened 1906 as a horse-drawn tramway
Two stops in the town
Service ended in 1937

02 ／ Dosojin

Paired dosojin from the Kanbun erastand as four town-designated stones.

The town has five designated dosojin, all carved as pairs. The earliest, set up in 1669 (Kanbun 9), shows two standing figures in monks' dress with hands joined, and the town's museum calls it the oldest in the town. Two others date from 1671, one from 1672 and one from 1695.

5 town-designated dosojin
Oldest set up in 1669
4 date from the Kanbun era

03 ／ Gosho Hachimangu

Dancers in white wear heron, dragon and lionpapier-mache heads, one after another.

At the Gosho Hachimangu festival on April 29 each year, the Sagi no Mai is offered on a boat-shaped stage. It and four festival floats are town-designated. The town writes that the floats are seen as unusually ornate and valuable and the dance as rare, but neither has been clarified historically or academically.

Festival every April 29
4 floats town-designated
Heron, dragon and lion headpieces

Nakai Town from the sky

Now and 1974–78. Tap a photo to zoom in.

Now1974–78

Wide (about 6 km across)

Close (about 1.5 km across)

Now (shot July 2019 – March 2020)Shot 1974–78

Source: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) GSI Tiles（全国最新写真（シームレス）／国土画像情報（第一期：1974〜1978年撮影））

Open in GSI Maps (now)Open in GSI Maps (1974–78)

Living here

No station; buses come from Ninomiya or Hadano.

about 9,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in the town, and the town's access guide gives about 20 minutes by route bus from Ninomiya Station or Hadano Station (updated 2022). On a corner of the Oiso Hills, it looks to the Tanzawa Mountains in the north and Mount Fuji in the west, and covers about 20 km². Nakai and Inokuchi villages merged in 1908 to form Nakai Village, and the town was established in 1958.

People living here: 9,300people
Area: 19.99km²
Households: 3,436households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 9 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —1 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 5 municipalities.

Nakai Town in Japan35.331°N 139.219°E

Territory of Nakai Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (Administrative Area Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari.Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

6.0km

Hadano City, Odawara City, Oi Town, Hiratsuka City, Ninomiya Town

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

Nakai Town isthis kind of town.

01On the origin of the name of Minogasa Shrine, Inokuchi's guardian shrine, the town cites one account in which the deity Susanoo-no-Mikoto left his straw cape and hat here, and another in which straw capes and hats were plentiful at a farm-tool market and the grove was called the Minogasa grove
02Information boards in the town mark the sites of the Kami-Inokuchi and Shimo-Inokuchi stops of the Shonan Light Railway, which opened as a horse-drawn tramway in 1906, and the spot where cars were swapped, called surikeba
03Four paired dosojin from the Kanbun era are town-designated, as are the Sagi no Mai and floats of Gosho Hachimangu; the town also has the Nakai Enju, a prefectural natural monument, the spring-fed Itsukushima Wetland Park and Yonekura-ji Temple, the family temple of the Yonekura clan

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Nakai Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes