Article

20213 ／いいやまし

Iiyama City

Mountain water is led past stone walls.

Kawa and Tane, Kosuge's water

Photo by Indiana jo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Shojuan

The prefecture made it a historic sitefor the place, not the building: a monk's lifelong home.

Shojuan is the hermitage where Shoju Rojin (Etan Zenji), teacher of Hakuin, lived. A document of the Iiyama City Furusato Museum gives the reason for its Prefectural Historic Site designation as the place where Etan Zenji spent his whole life, not the thatched building. It also has a water-stone said to have been granted by the domain lord.

Prefectural Historic Site (designated 1960)
Called one of the "Three Hermitages of the Realm" in the Edo period
Main hall rebuilt in 1847

02 ／ Fish-Incised Pottery

On a Jomon pot, the fish's head is attachedand its body and fins are cut with a stick-like tool.

A fragment of Sano-type pottery from the middle of the Final Jomon period, excavated in 1972 at the Yamanokami Site. A prefectural document records an ichthyologist's view that the fish is a stylized hammerhead shark; the city museum's document says a pot with a fish picture was judged to have no other example.

Excavated in 1972
Mid-Final Jomon, about 2,700 years ago
Prefectural Treasure (designated 2015)

03 ／ Kosuge Approach to the Inner Shrine

On the approach to the inner shrine,the cedar avenue is kept renewed.

Along the approach from the third torii toward the inner shrine, the city's plan records a row of about 180 trees over about 600 m, including large trees estimated at about 300 years old. The Nio Gate at the village entrance is said to have stood by 1683, and the Goma Hall was built in 1750. Both are Prefectural Treasures.

Cedar avenue: Prefectural Natural Monument (designated 1974)
About 600 m, about 180 trees
Nio Gate and Goma Hall: Prefectural Treasures (designated 2017)

Iiyama City 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–October 2022)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

The basin along the Chikuma River lies under snow for about a third of the year.

about 20,000 people
2 hours to a city centre
Shinkansen stops here

Iiyama lies around the Iiyama Basin, spread over the lowest alluvial plain of the Chikuma River in Nagano Prefecture, with the Sekida Mountains to the west and the Mikuni Mountains to the east. The city's site gives the average maximum snow depth as 144 cm on the flat land and says snow covers the ground for about a third of the year. The gateway is Iiyama Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen.

People living here: 19,539people
Area: 202.43km²
Households: 7,251households
Rent (average for rentals): 34,653yen
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 16 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —9 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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Iiyama City in Japan36.852°N 138.365°E

to TokyoHokuriku Shinkansen98min

Travel times follow JR東日本の時刻表（2610版）の『上越・北陸新幹線下り』デジタル時刻表（平日 004d1・土曜休日 004d2）と飯山駅の下り時刻表の列車ページで、東京発と飯山着を同じ列車番号で突き合わせた。毎日運転の最速は、はくたか561号（東京11:24発→飯山13:02着）と565号（13:24→15:02）の1時間38分 (checked 2026-10-21). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 7 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Iiyama City

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

25.1km

Nagano Prefecture: Nozawaonsen Village, Nakano City, Kijimadaira Village, Sakae Village, Shinano Town
Niigata Prefecture: Myoko City, Joetsu City

Iiyama City isthis kind of town.

01Kosuge Village draws mountain spring water into ponds called kawa or tane and uses it for washing and melting snow; it is selected as a national Important Cultural Landscape
02Shojuan, a Prefectural Historic Site, is the hermitage of Hakuin's teacher, and the Prefectural Treasure fish-incised pot fragment from the mid-Final Jomon period has a fish with an attached head and a body cut in lines
03A Prefectural Natural Monument cedar avenue lines the approach to Kosuge Shrine's inner shrine; the city spreads across the Iiyama Basin along the Chikuma River, with Iiyama Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen as its gateway

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Iiyama City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes