Tsunan Town

In the snowmelt, rock clatters down.

Ishiotoshi, a rock screen

Photo by Syced (CC0)

01 ／ Okinohara Site

From a larger house in the ring-shaped villagecame a great quantity of dumpling-shaped carbonized lumps.

Pit dwellings stand in a ring about 130 m across, with a plaza in the middle that has no special facilities. From one of the larger rectangular houses on the east and west sides of the ring came a large quantity of flat, dumpling-shaped carbonized lumps, 2 to 4 cm across. Called "cookie-like carbonized matter," they are described by the geopark as nut flour that was baked and then charred.

A ring about 130 m across
Carbonized lumps 2 to 4 cm across
National Historic Site, 1978

02 ／ Motonoki Site

Were the stone spearheads and the pottery of the same age?The two surveyors disagreed.

Motonoki Site is the Tsunan part of the National Historic Site "Motonoki and Tazawa Sites." Serizawa Chosuke surveyed it in 1956 and Yamanouchi Sugao the next year, and their views clashed over whether the pointed stone tools and the pottery found there belonged together or one came before the other. The town records that the "Motonoki dispute" swept the academic world. The finds became an Important Cultural Property in 2020.

Surveyed by Serizawa Chosuke, 1956
Surveyed by Yamanouchi Sugao, 1957
Finds designated Important Cultural Property, 2020

03 ／ Ryugakubo

The pond's water is replaced in a day.In Oka, the spring water melts the snow too.

Ryugakubo is a pond formed by a large volume of groundwater welling up at the tip of the Naeba lava flow; the water of the pond, about 1.2 ha, is replaced in a day. In the nearby hamlet of Oka, a network of channels uses the spring water for rice fields and also to melt snow in winter. Known as a pond where a dragon lives, it has many legends, and in 1985 it was chosen as one of Japan's 100 Famous Waters.

Pond area about 1.2 ha
Water replaced in a day
100 Famous Waters, 1985

Living here

At the prefecture's southern edge, about 3 m of snow settles.

about 9,000 people
Rural district town

Tsunan lies at the southern edge of Niigata Prefecture and, along National Route 117, borders Tokamachi City and Sakae Village in Nagano Prefecture. The town's own site says about 3 m of snow settles each year and that snow covers the ground for nearly a third of the year. Four stations of the JR Iiyama Line are in the town, and its gateway is Tsunan Station.

People living here: 8,989people
Area: 170.21km²
Households: 3,119households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 8 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —6 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.

Tsunan Town in Japan37.014°N 138.653°E

Territory of Tsunan Town

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

24.4km

Niigata Prefecture: 十日町市, 湯沢町
Nagano Prefecture: 栄村

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

Tsunan Town isthis kind of town.

01The rock screen of columnar joints on the left bank of the Nakatsu River, Ishiotoshi, is said to be named for the way its rock layers break away in the early-spring snowmelt and fall with a clatter; it is a town-designated place of scenic beauty
02Okinohara Site, a ring-shaped village about 130 m across, and Motonoki Site, the setting of a dispute over the beginnings of the Jomon period, are both National Historic Sites
03Ryugakubo, a pond fed from the tip of the Naeba lava flow, is one of Japan's 100 Famous Waters; the town lies at the southern edge of Niigata Prefecture, on the Nagano border, with four JR Iiyama Line stations

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Tsunan Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗