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20204 ／おかやし

Okaya City

Western-style house joins a storehouse.

Former Hayashi Family Residence

Photo by Asturio Cantabrio (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Pottery type

A pottery style of the early Middle Jomoncarries this site's name.

Nashikubo Site is a nationally designated Historic Site on a small alluvial fan in the foothills northwest of Lake Suwa. Surveys in 1949–50 introduced the name "Nashikubo-style pottery" to scholars. Its marks are fine bamboo-tube and spatula-drawn patterns and small handles. The designation text counts 94 pit dwellings.

National Historic Site, 1984
Fan at 830–860 m
94 pit dwellings (at designation)

02 ／ Memorial tower

Memorials to silkworms are mostly stone.Shoko-ji's is a wooden temple tower.

The silkworm memorial tower at Shoko-ji was built in 1934: a wooden, two-tiered structure with a steel-sheet roof, 12.12 m high. Cultural Heritage Online says such memorials are mostly stone and that wooden ones built as temple towers are rare. It has been a Tangible Cultural Property (building) of Okaya City since 2011.

Built 1934
Height 12.12 m
City designation, 2011

03 ／ Water gate

31 rivers flow into Lake Suwa.Only the Tenryu River flows out.

Kamaguchi Water Gate, a Nagano Prefecture facility, stands at that outlet. It has three control gates, with a boat-way on the left bank and a fish-way on the right. The first gate was completed in 1936; the second, built about 80 m upstream, in 1988, set about 3 m down into the lake bed.

Three gates, boat-way, fish-way
First gate: 1936
Second gate: 1988

Okaya 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 2004)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

On Lake Suwa's west shore, 7.3 km by 16.7 km.

about 50,000 people

Okaya became a city in April 1936, when its predecessor village skipped town status altogether; three neighbouring villages joined in 1955 and 1957. The total area is 85.10 km². The gateway is JR Okaya Station, a stop for the Limited Express Azusa.

People living here: 47,790people
Area: 85.1km²
Households: 19,274households
Rent (average for rentals): 49,164yen
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 30 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —16 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.

Okaya City in Japan36.067°N 138.049°E

to ShinjukuJR limited express138min

Travel times follow JR東日本『駅の時刻表』岡谷駅（中央本線）の下り（みどり湖経由塩尻・松本方面）の平日・土曜休日と、各列車の『停車駅一覧』ページ。注記は『JRデータの内容は、株式会社交通新聞社発行の「JR時刻表」2026年10月号に基づいています』。2026-10-21 に読んだ (checked 2026-10-21). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 5 municipalities.

Territory of Okaya 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

17.6km

Shimosuwa Town, Shiojiri City, Tatsuno Town, Matsumoto City, Suwa City

Okaya City isthis kind of town.

01Okaya's Former Hayashi Family Residence was the home of the silk mill owner Hayashi Kunizo; the city says it was built in the Meiji 30s (1897–1906) and nearly complete by autumn of Meiji 40 (1907), its main house, annex, Western-style house and storehouses were designated Important Cultural Properties in 2002, and the annex's upper floor uses kinkarakawashi paper
02Nashikubo Site, a Jomon settlement northwest of Lake Suwa and the type site of Nashikubo-style pottery, is a nationally designated Historic Site, and the silkworm memorial tower at Shoko-ji, a wooden temple tower built in 1934, is a tangible cultural property designated by the city
03Lake Suwa drains only into the Tenryu River, and Kamaguchi Water Gate stands at the outlet; the Okaya tourist association also introduces Maruyama Tank, built in 1914 to store water for silk reeling, as a modernization heritage site

See the town as it is now.

Facebookokayacity ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Okaya City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes