Kumenan Town

Men dance slowly, dressed as women.

Banba Dance, Bukkyō-ji Temple

Photo by Reggaeman (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Tanjō-ji Temple

The main hall stands for the Pure Land;the Shaba-dō, 300 m out front, for this world.

Tanjō-ji (誕生寺) was built in 1193 on the site of Hōnen's birthplace. On the third Sunday of April each year, worshippers dressed as the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas carry the statues of his parents, enshrined in the Shaba-dō (娑婆堂), to the main hall on a palanquin. The rite dates from the Muromachi period; the Miei-dō and the main gate are Important Cultural Properties.

Nijūgo Bosatsu Neri-kuyō is held on the third Sunday of April (prefecture)
Prefectural Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (designated 1955)
Miei-dō and main gate: nationally designated Important Cultural Properties (town website)

02 ／ Senryū

The poem monuments in Senryū Park are all natural stone,and they carry entries sent in from across Japan.

Senryū Park, on a hilltop where cherry and azalea bloom, is the town's symbolic zone. The Senryū path to it is a climb of about 200 m, and the poem monuments number over 300. In 2014, at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the town, the "Largest Senryū Lesson" set a Guinness World Record.

Over 300 poem monuments (town website)
November 2014: "Largest Senryū Lesson" achieved a Guinness World Record (town chronology)
The West Japan Senryū Convention is an annual event in mid-October (town website)

03 ／ Katayama Sen

He worked farming and burning charcoal,and entered the prefectural normal school largely self-taught.

Katayama Sen was born in 1859 into a village headman's family in Hadeki Village, but the household was poor and he worked at farming and charcoal burning. Largely self-taught, he entered the Okayama Prefectural Normal School in 1880 and later went to the United States. After returning to Japan he helped organize the Socialism Study Society with Kōtoku Shūsui and others. A monument and a memorial hall stand at his birthplace.

Born in 1859 into a village headman's family in Hadeki Village (town website)
Entered the Okayama Prefectural Normal School in 1880 (Meiji 13) (town website)
Monument (1959) and memorial hall (1990) completed at his birthplace (town website)

Living here

Grape growing in Yamate began in 1904.

about 5,000 people
Rural district town

In the Yamate district, grapes have been grown since 1904 (Meiji 37). Seedless, large-berried grapes such as Pione, Aurora Black and Shine Muscat are raised, and early shipment from greenhouses is also practiced. Yuzu and cucumbers account for much of the prefecture's output (town website).

People living here: 4,530people
Area: 78.65km²
Households: 1,793households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 5 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —3 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.

Kumenan Town in Japan34.929°N 133.961°E

Territory of Kumenan Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

11.7km

岡山市, 美咲町, 赤磐市

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

Kumenan Town isthis kind of town.

01Bukkyō-ji Temple (佛教寺) in Kumenan holds the Banba Dance (バンバ踊), a prefectural Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Men from the temple's neighbouring parishioner households dance, and both the dancers and the drummers dress as women, repeating a slow dance. It is a dance of thanks, performed when rain has come after prayers during a drought, and it is held irregularly.
02At Tanjō-ji, built on the site of Hōnen's birthplace, the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas procession (二十五菩薩練供養) is held every third Sunday of April, and the Miei-dō and main gate are Important Cultural Properties. Known as a town of senryū, it has over 300 poem monuments in Senryū Park.
03Hadeki has a monument and a memorial hall at the birthplace of Katayama Sen, and the Kitashō and Kamimomi terraced rice fields were selected as one of Japan's 100 Best Terraced Rice Fields in 1999 and as "Tsunagu Tanada Isan" (つなぐ棚田遺産) in 2022. The town covers 78.65 km² and has three stations on the JR Tsuyama Line.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kumenan Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗