Sekikawa Village

Written “snake-eating,” read Jabami.

Jabami, a great snake legend

Photo by Drph17 (CC BY 4.0)

01 ／ Watanabe residence and garden

A wealthy merchant's house on the highwaypost town came with a Kyoto-style garden.

The main house became a national Important Cultural Property in 1954, and the garden a national Place of Scenic Beauty in 1963. The garden has a heart-shaped pond and three artificial hills, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes its layout and technique as Kyoto style. The main house dates from 1817. The agency calls it the Watanabe family residence; the village and its foundation call it Watanabe-tei.

Main house, 1954, Important Cultural Property
Garden, 1963, Place of Scenic Beauty
Heart-shaped pond, three hills

02 ／ Sato residence, Shimoseki

The Sato of Shimoseki were village headmen,and the second-largest landowners, the village says.

The Sato were influential landowners with their house along the Yonezawa Highway, and served as village headmen in the Edo period. The house name is Kosekiya. The main house dates from 1765 and became an Important Cultural Property in 1991. The national designation covers six buildings: the main house, a new parlor, storehouses and a gatehouse row. It is not open to the public.

Built 1765
Important Cultural Property, 1991
House name Kosekiya

03 ／ Tsuchizawa boundary stone

After the settlement of 1292,one of the stones set to mark the boundary.

A boundary marker means a stake or tablet set at the edge of a territory. In the Kamakura period the Arakawa and Okuyama estates disputed lands along their border many times, and settled on July 18, 1292. After documents were exchanged, stones were set at key points; one of them is in Tsuchizawa. It is a village cultural property.

Settlement of July 18, 1292
Stones set after documents were exchanged
Village cultural property

Living here

Over 80% mountain forest and moor, with a basin along the Arakawa.

about 5,000 people
Rural district town

The village was formed in 1954 by the merger of two villages. It spans about 20 km east to west and 30 km north to south, with an area of about 300 km². Surrounded by the Iide and Asahi mountain ranges, 87.5% of the land is forest and moor and 5.1% is farmland. The first-class Arakawa River runs through the center, about 31 km within the village.

People living here: 5,144people
Area: 299.61km²
Households: 1,756households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 4 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —1 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 3 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Sekikawa Village in Japan38.089°N 139.565°E

Territory of Sekikawa Village

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

27.9km

Niigata Prefecture: 胎内市, 村上市
Yamagata Prefecture: 小国町

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

Sekikawa Village isthis kind of town.

01Jabami is one setting of the great snake tale told in the village, and the tourist association presents the Ori Pass legend as a story recorded in a shrine's origin record of 1653
02In Shimoseki, once a post town on the Yonezawa Highway, stand the Watanabe and Sato residences, both national Important Cultural Properties, and the Watanabe garden is a national Place of Scenic Beauty
03At Tsuchizawa is a boundary stone set after the settlement of 1292, and each year on the last Sunday of August 54 hamlets share the body of a bamboo-and-straw serpent that parades through the village

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Sekikawa Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗