Kasaoka City

A bar's hole yielded a bronze mirror.

Ohishima Su-no-Minami Site

Photo by Saigen Jiro (CC0)

01 ／ Tsukumo Shell Mound

The wounds on one 3,000-year-old skeletonwere identified as a shark attack.

At the nationally designated Tsukumo Shell Mound, nearly 170 Jomon skeletons were collected in excavations in the Taisho era, and the custom of tooth extraction was seen. An international joint study identified the wounds on one of them, with Kyoto University among the researchers, as a shark attack. Some of the pottery and stone tools unearthed here are on display at the city's local history museum.

National historic site (designated May 11, 1968)
Nearly 170 Jomon skeletons collected in the Taisho era (city)
Wounds identified as a shark attack (Kyoto University, announced June 2021)

02 ／ Shiraishi Odori

To a single kudoki chant,13 kinds of dances are handed down.

This is the Bon dance of Shiraishijima, held on the nights of August 13 to 16 by the new calendar. Its hallmark is that many kinds of dances are performed to a single kudoki chant (ondo); 13 are handed down, including the men's, women's, girls' (moon-viewing), hat, footman and fan dances. It is said to have begun to console the spirits of those killed in the Genpei Mizushima battle.

National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (designated May 4, 1976)
13 kinds of dances are handed down
At its peak over 60 songs; about 20 remain today (city)
Inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list as Furyu-odori on November 30, 2022

03 ／ Sugawara Shrine Spectacles Bridge

The stone bridge's arches over the pondcurve on below the water too.

This stone bridge spans the Mitarashi pond of Sugawara Shrine in Yoshihama, completed in 1887 (Meiji 20) under the local Yoshihama stonemason Sato Toyokichi (Tozo) as master builder. Its two arches curve on below the waterline into full circles like spectacles, rare even nationwide. It is a prefectural Important Cultural Property, and in May the irises bloom.

Prefectural Important Cultural Property (structure; designated March 23, 2001)
Completed in 1887 (Meiji 20)
The pond's irises number as many as 2,000 plants (city)

Living here

A town with little rain and flat land made its land by reclamation.

about 50,000 people

In southwestern Okayama, the city borders Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, to the west. With no large river, it was prone to water shortages in dry summers; with the Kasaokawan reclamation project, a pipeline was laid from the Takahashi River, and tap water now reaches every household, islands included.

People living here: 46,088people
Area: 136.07km²
Households: 18,466households
Rent (average for rentals): 36,443yen
Healthcare: 5 hospitals ／ 40 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —13 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.

Kasaoka City in Japan34.507°N 133.507°E

Territory of Kasaoka City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

33.9km

Okayama Prefecture: 浅口市, 井原市, 里庄町, 矢掛町
Hiroshima Prefecture: 福山市

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

Kasaoka City isthis kind of town.

01The Ohishima Su-no-Minami Site (大飛島洲の南遺跡), on Tobishima (Ohishima), is an ancient ritual site thought to be where people prayed for safe sea travel. In 1962, while digging the schoolyard to install a horizontal bar, bronze mirrors, bronze bells, bronze coins and earthenware were unearthed, and the site was found by chance.
02The city has the nationally designated Tsukumo Shell Mound, the nationally designated Shiraishi Odori dance, and the prefectural Important Cultural Property Sugawara Shrine Spectacles Bridge; at the Oda Prefectural Office site, Kasaoka Elementary School still uses as its main gate the long gatehouse moved there as the office's main gate. The nationally designated Horseshoe Crab breeding ground lies in the waters between Kounoshima and Nishi-Oshima, and the city's Horseshoe Crab Museum works on its protection and research. There are also Kitagishima's Kitagi stone quarrying, the city's Chikkyo Museum of Art, and the flower fields of the Kasaoka Bay reclaimed land.
03A port town in southwestern Okayama, bordering Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, to the west, with the Kasaoka Islands spread offshore.

See the town as it is now.

X@KasaokaCity ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kasaoka City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗