Hasami Town

Straw crossed a pass to pack the wares.

Nakao Sarayama & Onigi Terraces

Photo by Barry Silver (CC BY 2.0)

01 ／ Sanryoseki

In 1742, officials of three domains were presentwhen a triangular stone marker was raised.

The Sanpozakai Bojiseki (三方境傍示石), known as Sanryoseki (三領石), stands on a pass in Muragi (村木郷). It is a stone marker of the boundary of the Omura, Saga and Hirado domains: a triangular pillar about 2.2 m high. The area adjoined pottery-producing districts, and disputes over cutting firewood never ceased, so the prefecture records that the boundary had to be made clear.

Erected in 1742 (prefectural cultural property database)
Prefectural Historic Site (designated 2015)
About 2.2 m high, thought to be andesite (same source)

02 ／ Former Chuo Elementary School Hall

Its open central space suggests a church hall.Built in 1937 as a school auditorium and public hall.

Built in 1937 as the auditorium and public hall of Hasami Jinjo Koto Elementary School (波佐見尋常高等小学校), a large wooden Western-style building. It was designed by Shimizu Genji (清水玄治), who worked around Hasami. The ceiling material changes from place to place, for acoustics. A prefectural document records that no other building this large exists in the prefecture or in Kyushu.

Built in 1937 (prefectural cultural property database)
Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 2010)
Owned by the town of Hasami (same source)

03 ／ Sarayama puppet theater

In the great Kyoho famine they toured to earn food;that is said to be the origin.

A puppet theater (人形浄瑠璃) handed down in Sarayama-go (皿山郷). The town's site records that in the great Kyoho famine, when villagers were starving, they performed on the Nishisonogi peninsula, in Goto and in Hirado, earned food and saved themselves from hunger, and this is said to be the origin. The prefecture records that it is said to have begun in 1733 and that over 50 puppets remain.

Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property (designated 1977)
Said to have begun in 1733 (prefecture)
November 2026 performance cancelled; planned for 2027 (town's site)

Living here

No sea, no station, ringed by low mountains.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

The town measures 10.5 km east to west and 7 km north to south, and borders Arita, Takeo and Ureshino in Saga Prefecture to the north and east. The town's site says it is the only town in Nagasaki Prefecture that does not face the sea. The plain along the Kawatana River in the center has long been farmed. There is no railway station in town; the town's site gives taxi from JR Arita Station at about 10 minutes, among other routes.

People living here: 14,291people
Area: 56km²
Households: 5,005households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 10 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —5 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 across 1 prefectures.

Hasami Town in Japan33.138°N 129.895°E

Territory of Hasami Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

7.2km

Nagasaki Prefecture: 川棚町, 佐世保市
Saga Prefecture: 有田町, 武雄市, 嬉野市

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

Hasami Town isthis kind of town.

01The Nakao district (中尾郷), a pottery village, and the Onigi district (鬼木郷), a farming village, sit side by side at the southern end of eastern Hasami. On 17 February 2026 they were selected as a national Important Cultural Landscape, "Hasami Nakao Sarayama and Onigi Terraces". The town board of education's conservation plan records that, as interviews have shown, rice straw from Onigi was used to pack ware shipped from Nakao.
02The Sanpozakai Bojiseki (Sanryoseki) on a pass in Muragi is a prefectural Historic Site, the former Hasami Chuo Elementary School auditorium and public hall is a registered national Tangible Cultural Property, and the Sarayama puppet theater is a prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property. In Nagao (永尾郷) stands Chieji Noborigama Kiln Site, a prefectural Historic Site with three chambers surviving to the ceiling; Sarayama Yakusho Site and Mitsumata Togishigawa Pottery-stone Quarry Site are part of the national Historic Site "Hizen Hasami Ceramic Kiln Sites".
03The town lies in 東彼杵郡, bordered by Sasebo to the west and Kawatana to the south, and by Saga Prefecture to the north and east. Hienoo Spectacles Bridge (稗ノ尾眼鏡橋), which linked Nagao and Mitsumata (三股郷), was rebuilt in stone in 1908 and has been moved into Hienoo Riverside Park. The town's site records that Hara Martinho (原マルチノ), a member of the Tensho embassy to Europe, was born in Hasami.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Hasami Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗