Murakami City

A trail sign reads "Nihonkoku" (Japan).

Nihonkoku, a 555 m mountain

Photo by Faysal Nedjar (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Wakabayashi House

Finely divided rooms, a narrow earthen floor:a thatched mid-ranking samurai house.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the home of a mid-ranking samurai of the Murakami domain: thatched, with a reception section projecting from a hip-roofed living section. Its finely divided rooms and narrow earthen floor are among the layout's samurai-residence features. It became an Important Cultural Property in 1977; the four other samurai houses are city-designated.

Important Cultural Property, 1977
16.3 m by 8.5 m
Four other samurai houses are city-designated

02 ／ Murakami Festival Float Procession

Its floats come in three forms:Niwaka, Ohayashi and Shagiri.

On 6 and 7 July, 19 floats, 14 festival horses (arauma) and 4 parasol floats (kasaboko) parade through the old castle town. Each float has two tiers on two wheels: musicians ride on the lower tier, and dolls called nosemono stand on the upper. It was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2018, and on 11 December 2025 its addition to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list was decided.

19 floats, 14 festival horses, 4 parasol floats
National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, 2018
UNESCO listing decided, December 2025

03 ／ Tanegawa on the Miomote River

A bypass on the Miomote River for spawning,devised some 250 years ago by a Murakami samurai.

Salmon return to the river where they were born. Aoto Buheiji, a Murakami domain samurai, noticed this and devised the "Tanegawa system" for the natural hatching and propagation of salmon some 250 years ago. The city describes it as a bypass built off the Miomote River to encourage spawning and help the eggs hatch. The Tanegawa monument is city-designated.

Some 250 years ago
A bypass to encourage spawning
Tanegawa monument, city-designated (1893)

Living here

The northern tip of Niigata Prefecture, with about 50 km of coast.

about 60,000 people

The city borders Yamagata Prefecture to the north and east, and its area of about 1,174 km² is about 9.3% of Niigata Prefecture. It was formed on 1 April 2008 by the merger of the former city of Murakami, Arakawa, Kamihayashi, Asahi and Sanpoku. The gateway is Murakami Station on the JR Uetsu Line.

People living here: 57,418people
Area: 1,174.17km²
Households: 21,549households
Rent (average for rentals): 36,765yen
Healthcare: 6 hospitals ／ 40 clinics

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

Population from 2010 onward (municipal boundary changed).2008-04-01 に新設合併（荒川町・神林村・朝日村・山北町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

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.

Shape

Borders 5 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Murakami City in Japan38.224°N 139.480°E

Territory of Murakami City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)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

52.8km

Niigata Prefecture: 関川村, 胎内市
Yamagata Prefecture: 鶴岡市, 小国町, 西川町

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

Murakami City isthis kind of town.

01North of the Omata hamlet, on the watershed dividing Niigata and Yamagata prefectures, stands a 555 m mountain named Nihonkoku, whose name has several explanations, including one about a hawk presented to a shogun
02The excavated finds from the Motoyashiki site in the former Asahi, 1,718 items, are Important Cultural Properties, with more than 13,000 unfinished polished stone axes, and in the former Sanpoku the Botamochi festival has people make large rice cakes and keep a vigil at the local shrine
03Murakami Castle Ruins, a national historic site, keep both warring-states-era vertical moats and gate enclosures and Edo-period stone walls, and it takes about 20 minutes on foot from the foot of the hill to the summit

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Murakami City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗