Tsunagi Town

This breccia crag is the town symbol.

Chohangan, Maizuru-jo Park

Photo by hyolee2 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Tatsubutsu (達仏)

A golden Buddha was carved directly intoa living tree in a forest no longer in use.

The “Minna no Mori” (みんなの森) near the town office was a forest developed as a place of rest but no longer used. There, golden Buddha statues were carved directly into standing trees. The town website writes that they look different with the seasons, the sunlight and the growth of the trees. They were made in 2017 for the results exhibition of a resident-participation project of the Tsunagi Art Museum.

Near the town office, in the “Minna no Mori”
Carved directly into standing trees
Made in 2017 (museum website)

02 ／ Filial Daughter Chiyo (孝女千代)

Chiyo, who warmed her grandparents' bedding first,is said to have received ten bales of rice a year from the lord of Kumamoto.

In the town website's folktale, Chiyo, a girl from a poor farming family in Tsunagi, was found to have been warming her grandparents' bedding first, and is said to have received ten bales of rice every year from the lord of Kumamoto. The Chiyozuka (千代塚) is a town-designated cultural property, and a statue of Chiyo beckoning a horse was placed in front of Tsunagi Station.

Ten bales of rice a year
Chiyozuka: town-designated cultural property
Station-front statue installed in 2003

03 ／ Sculptures on the Bridges (橋の上の彫刻)

Sculptures placed on three bridgestake wind as their theme and represent a family.

“Sōfū” (爽風) was placed on Akebono Bridge, “Kunpū” (薫風) on Tsunagi Ohashi Bridge, and “Kazenko” (風ん子) on Akane Bridge. The town website writes that the three works, made on the theme of wind, represent a peaceful, ideal family of father, mother and children. Akebono Bridge received the Construction Ministry's first “Tezukuri Kyōdo-shō” (手づくり郷土賞, Handmade Hometown Award).

Three works: Sōfū, Kunpū and Kazenko
Theme: wind
Akebono Bridge: first Handmade Hometown Award

Living here

Ten minutes' walk from Tsunagi Station to the museum.

about 4,000 people
Rural district town

The town's only railway station is Tsunagi Station on the Hisatsu Orange Railway. The Tsunagi Art Museum's website says it is a 10-minute walk from Tsunagi Station and a 10-minute drive from Shin-Minamata Station (in Minamata) on the Kyushu Shinkansen. The monorail can be ridden on its own, and runs only on days the museum is open.

People living here: 4,254people
Area: 34.08km²
Households: 1,687households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 3 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —2 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.

Tsunagi Town in Japan32.234°N 130.440°E

Territory of Tsunagi Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.1km

芦北町, 水俣市

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

Tsunagi Town isthis kind of town.

01Chohangan (重盤岩) is a rocky hill that serves as the town's symbol, which the prefecture's museum network portal describes as a cliff of volcanic breccia, made of volcanic-rock fragments cemented together. Maizuru-jo Park (舞鶴城公園) is a park with a lookout and walking paths built around the rock; the lookout can also be reached by the Tsunagi Art Museum's monorail (about 5 minutes one way).
02Chohangan Meganebashi (重盤岩眼鏡橋), below the rock, was designated a prefectural Important Cultural Property in 1974. The Tsunagi Tunnel (津奈木隧道) on Tsunagi Taro Pass (津奈木太郎峠) is a brick tunnel 212 m long and a nationally registered tangible cultural property.
03Tsunagi is a town in Ashikita District, surrounded by mountains on the east, south and north and facing the Shiranui Sea (不知火海) on the west. The Tsunagi Art Museum, the starting point of the monorail, is a town-run museum that opened in 2001.

See the town as it is now.

Instagram@tsunagi_official ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Tsunagi Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗