Hirado City

A lord's isle: all plant-taking banned.

Kurokojima primeval forest

Photo by user:Atsasebo (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Konoura, Oshima Village

The seaward lots, reclaimed when the whaling group began,became townhouses after it closed.

A port town on an outlying island, and a nationally selected Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. The founding of a whaling group (鯨組) in the early Edo period led to land reclamation on the seaward side, which became townhouse lots after the group closed in the mid-Edo period. Shared wells were the main water source until 1965 (Showa 40), and stone wells and paving survive.

Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings (selected June 9, 2008)
Preservation district about 700 m east-west, 650 m north-south, about 21.2 ha (prefecture)
Shared wells were the main water source until 1965 (Showa 40) (prefecture)

02 ／ Saiwai Bridge

A bridge said to be the trial version of Saiwai Bridgestill stands in Kōyamachi (紺屋町).

In 1702 (Genroku 15), on the order of the 30th head of the Matsura family, local stonemasons built this single-arch stone bridge. It is 19.8 m long and 5.2 m wide. Its arch technique is said to have passed to the masons from a man named Buzen (豊前), who worked on the Dutch trading post, hence its other name, Oranda-bashi (Dutch Bridge). It is a national Important Cultural Property.

Important Cultural Property (structure; designated January 21, 1978)
19.8 m long, 5.2 m wide, single-arch stone bridge (city)
Hōonji Bridge (法音寺橋) is said to survive in Kōyamachi (city)

03 ／ Kasuga Village

Some of Hirado Island's stonework is thought to bethe hand of Ikitsuki's specialist stonemasons.

Kasuga, on the west coast of Hirado Island, is a World Heritage component. Its terraced fields, the larger ones running from the shore up to about 200 m above sea level, are faced with local conglomerate. Stonemasons from Ikitsuki worked until the mid-20th century, leaving traces as far as the Sea of Japan coast of Yamaguchi. The pastures have waist-high stone walls too.

World Heritage component (inscribed July 2018)
Important Cultural Landscape "Cultural Landscape of Hirado Island" (selected February 22, 2010)
The stonemasons' work continued until the mid-20th century (Agency for Cultural Affairs)

Living here

Hirado Island is 45 km north to south, about an hour by car end to end.

about 30,000 people

At the northwest tip of Nagasaki Prefecture, the city is made up of the inhabited islands of Hirado, Ikitsuki, Oshima, Takushima (度島) and Takashima (高島), plus Tabira and other parts of the Kyushu mainland. Hirado Island is joined to the mainland town of Tabira by the Hirado Ohashi Bridge, opened in 1977. The city was newly formed in 2005 by merging with Oshima Village, Ikitsuki Town and Tabira Town.

People living here: 29,365people
Area: 235.12km²
Households: 12,009households
Rent (average for rentals): 32,820yen
Healthcare: 7 hospitals ／ 17 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-10-01 に新設合併（大島村・生月町・田平町）。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —17 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.

Hirado City in Japan33.368°N 129.554°E

Territory of Hirado City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

55.1km

佐世保市, 松浦市

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

Hirado City isthis kind of town.

01Kurokojima primeval forest (黒子島原始林) is a 3-hectare islet in the Hirado Strait and a national natural monument. It was long owned by the Matsura family, the lords of Hirado, and because all gathering of plants and trees was banned, the Agency for Cultural Affairs writes, the island shows the true nature of a primeval forest well.
02The Hirado Dutch Trading Post site is a national historic site, with a warehouse built in 1639 and restored in 2011. The Zheng Chenggong residence site in Kawachi-cho is a prefectural historic site, where a great nagi tree remains, and Tabira Cathedral is a brick national Important Cultural Property designed and supervised by Tetsukawa Yosuke.
03A city of Hirado Island and its neighbors at the northwest tip of Nagasaki Prefecture, with Hirado Castle, its keep restored in 1962, standing at Kameoka. The Hirado Jangara dance (平戸のジャンガラ) is a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Hirado City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗