Wake Town

Stone boars guard, in place of komainu.

Koma-inoshishi, Wake Shrine

Photo by Reggaeman (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Former Ōkuni House

Two thatched roofs joinedby a tiled ridge on the main house.

The main house of the Ōkuni family, who ran a transport and sake-brewing business in the late Edo period, was newly built in 1760 (Hōreki 10). The town website says its form, two thatched irimoya roofs joined by a tiled roof, is rare even nationwide. Visits have been suspended since 2017 (Heisei 29), and it is under conservation repair.

Main house newly built in 1760
Important Cultural Property (designated 2004)
Visits suspended since 2017; under conservation repair

02 ／ Wake Fuji Park (藤公園)

Wisteria gathered from across Japanspreads over a 500 m trellis.

Wake Fuji Park opened in 1985 with famous wisteria gathered from around the country: about 100 varieties, 140 vines. A 7 m-wide trellis runs 500 m, with a walkway beneath it. Made to mark the 1,250th anniversary of Wake no Kiyomaro's birth, it charges admission during the peak-bloom Fuji Festival.

About 100 varieties, 140 vines (town website)
Trellis 7 m wide, 500 m long
Opened 1985 (marking Kiyomaro's 1,250th birth anniversary)

03 ／ Former Yamada Village Office

A symmetrical facade gives itthe dignity of a government office.

Completed in 1932 as the Yamada Village Office, this is an early reinforced-concrete building, with detailing on its outer columns and second-floor front windows. Now Furusato Hall, it displays about 500 items, including finds from Tenjinyama Castle ruins, folk tools and Katakami Railway materials. Visits are free by advance reservation.

Reinforced concrete, completed 1932
Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 1997)
About 500 items on display; free by advance reservation

Living here

The Yoshii River runs north to south through a town ringed by mountains.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

The town covers 144.21 km² and is ringed by mountains 200–400 m high. Plains stretch along the Yoshii River and its tributaries, such as the Ōji, Kongō and Hatsuse, where rice, vegetables and fruit are grown. Normals at the Wake weather station (1989–2009) are a mean temperature of 14.1°C and annual precipitation of 1,204.3 mm.

People living here: 13,623people
Area: 144.21km²
Households: 5,296households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 10 clinics

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

Population from 2010 onward (municipal boundary changed).2006-03-01 に新設合併（佐伯町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

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 4 municipalities.

Wake Town in Japan34.803°N 134.157°E

Territory of Wake Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

18.2km

赤磐市, 備前市, 美作市, 美咲町

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

Wake Town isthis kind of town.

01Wake Shrine, in Fujino, is said to stand at the birthplace of Wake no Kiyomaro, and in front of its worship hall stand komainu-in-the-form-of-boars, koma-inoshishi (狛亥). It is said that as Kiyomaro headed for Usa Hachiman Shrine, about three hundred boars appeared and guided him. Since then boars have been revered as his attendants and protectors of the legs and feet.
02Next door, Fuji Park was made to mark the 1,250th anniversary of Kiyomaro's birth, and in Shakusho the Former Ōkuni House is a village-headman-class residence that is a nationally Important Cultural Property. Furusato Hall in Iwato is a reinforced-concrete building put up in 1932 as the Yamada Village Office.
03The town holds the grave of Tsuda Nagatada (an appendix to the national historic site Graves of the Ikeda Family, Lords of Okayama Domain, 岡山藩主池田家墓所) and the Tahara Weir Museum, which shows materials on the Tahara Weir. The Okayama Prefectural Nature Conservation Center keeps red-crowned cranes, and every August 16 a fire character 「和」 is lit on Mt. Kannon.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Wake Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗