Ibara City

A summit stone is carved “birthplace.”

Takakoshi, Soun's birthplace

Photo by Satoshi shimaura (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Light Pollution Ordinance (光害防止条例)

The starry-sky ordinance opens its preamblewith a legend of shooting stars.

In November 1989, the former Bisei Town enacted an ordinance against light pollution. A Ministry of the Environment document says it was enacted “ahead of the rest of the country.” The preamble cites “a legend of shooting stars and a starry sky worthy of the name” and declares the right and duty to protect the night sky. The town’s Bisei Astronomical Observatory has a telescope with a 101 cm mirror.

Enacted 22 November 1989
Goal of the old ordinance: sky brightness up by no more than 10% of natural
Observatory telescope: 101 cm mirror

02 ／ Kojokan (興譲館)

The lecture hall and gate of a school an intendantfounded by inviting a scholar keep their original look.

In 1853, the intendant of the Hitotsubashi family, then lord of this land, invited the scholar of Chinese learning Sakatani Roro to Nishiebara and founded this local school to educate commoners’ sons. What keeps its original appearance is the lecture hall, the gate and a red plum tree said to have been planted by Roro. Two years earlier, in 1851, Roro had also opened a private academy at Sakuradani in Yanase, Yoshii.

Prefectural Historic Site (1954)
Founded 1853
Sakuradani Academy: 1851

03 ／ Ibara Civic Hall (井原市民会館)

A clock tower stands upright against thehorizontal lines of balcony and eaves.

The main and annex buildings of the civic hall, completed in 1971, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan in 2023, the first registered buildings in Ibara. It was designed by Kansai Architects’ Office (Murayama Eihiro). It includes a skip floor, with a floor set midway between storeys, and the exposed concrete uses both wooden panels and plywood formwork.

Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 2023)
Completed 1971
Designer: Kansai Architects’ Office (Murayama Eihiro)

Living here

Tenjinkyo, Dosokei and Watari-byoshiare all in the city.

about 40,000 people

Tenjinkyo in Yoshii, Yoshii Town, is a prefecturally designated place of scenic beauty where a gorge runs 1 km along the Oda River, inside a prefectural natural park. Dosokei in Nishiebara is a gorge of diabase rock stretching about 2 km up the Ogami River, also a prefectural place of scenic beauty. In Nishi-Mihara and Higashi-Mihara, Yoshii Town, autumn festival rites are held on the second Saturday of November and the day after, and the prefecturally designated Watari-byoshi is performed.

People living here: 38,384people
Area: 243.54km²
Households: 14,732households
Rent (average for rentals): 36,462yen
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 27 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-03-01 に合併。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —9 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 6 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Ibara City in Japan34.598°N 133.464°E

Territory of Ibara City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

22.7km

Okayama Prefecture: 高梁市, 矢掛町, 笠岡市, 総社市
Hiroshima Prefecture: 福山市, 神石高原町

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

Ibara City isthis kind of town.

01Takakoshi Castle site is a mountain-castle ruin on Mt. Takakoshi (172 m) in Higashiebara and Kamiyo. A stone on the summit reads “Birthplace of Hojo Soun”; it was the seat of the Bitchu Ise clan, and Ise Shinkuro Moritoki (later Hojo Soun) is said to have spent his youth here.
02Bisei has the Bisei Astronomical Observatory and an ordinance protecting the starry sky, Nishiebara has the local school Kojokan, and Ibara-cho has the civic hall completed in 1971. Hosen-ji temple in Nishiebara holds old documents used to study Soun’s origins.
03Beside the civic hall are the museum of Hirakushi Denchu, a sculptor from the city, and Denchu-en garden. Bisei has the prefecturally designated Fossil Bed of Naruwa (成羽の化石層), and Onigatake, a nationally designated place of scenic beauty, straddles Yakage Town.

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Ibara City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗