Arita Town

Western house, washi walls and ceilings.

Former Tashiro Western House

Photo by STA3816 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Great ginkgo

Domain officials were stationed by the great ginkgo,checking porcelain stone and ware taken out.

The great ginkgo (大公孫樹) in the grounds of the Benzaiten shrine at Izumiyama is estimated to be about 1,000 years old and stands about 30.5 m tall. It became a national Natural Monument in 1926. At the Kuchiya-bansho site (口屋番所跡) beneath it, the tourist association records, officials of the Saga domain were stationed in the Edo period and strictly checked porcelain stone and ware being taken out.

Estimated at about 1,000 years old (Arita town)
About 30.5 m tall; branches spread about 31 m east to west (Arita town)
Designated a national Natural Monument in 1926 (same)

02 ／ Tonbai walls

Walls of kiln waste, plastered with red clay.A monument to nameless potters is built of the same tonbai.

A tonbai wall (トンバイ塀) is made of discarded refractory bricks (tonbai) from building climbing kilns, and of used kiln tools, plastered together with red clay. They are seen along the back streets from the great ginkgo near Izumiyama to the Arita Ceramic Art Museum (有田陶磁美術館). The Monument to the Early Potters (先人陶工の碑) also uses tonbai and was raised in gratitude to the nameless potters who built up Arita ware.

The monument was planned as part of the 350th anniversary of Arita ware in 1966 (Arita Tourist Association)
Completed in February 1982 (same)
Its form is meant to suggest a climbing kiln (same)

03 ／ Coal-fired kiln

Built with funds from local volunteers, a shared kiln.It burned mainly coal; its chimney is about 12 m high.

The single-chamber coal-fired kiln at Chokodani (猪子谷) in Ōbō (応法) is a brick, down-draft kiln built between the Meiji era and the early Taisho era. It began as a shared kiln, later became a private one, and went out of use after the war. It was fired with wood at first, mainly with coal. The town says you cannot enter the kiln but can look in over the fence.

Built with funds from local volunteers, Meiji to early Taisho (Arita town)
Firing-chamber floor about 3.5 m wide and 4.6 m deep (same)
Designated a town historic site in 1998 (same)

Living here

About 70% of the town is forest and mountain.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

The town's southwest and south border Nagasaki Prefecture, and about 70% of its land is forest or mountains. The Arita River divides the town on its way to Imari Bay, and streets spread through the valleys. The tourist association describes it as a rice-growing area with terraced fields and one of the prefecture's leading livestock areas.

People living here: 19,010people
Area: 65.85km²
Households: 6,981households
Rent (average for rentals): 41,015yen
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 19 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（西有田町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —8 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 across 1 prefectures.

Arita Town in Japan33.211°N 129.849°E

Territory of Arita Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

9.5km

Saga Prefecture: 伊万里市, 武雄市
Nagasaki Prefecture: 佐世保市, 波佐見町

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

Arita Town isthis kind of town.

01The Former Tashiro Family Western-style House (旧田代家西洋館) in Kohei, Arita, is a pseudo-Western-style building put up in 1876 by the son of a leading trader of the Tashiro family, to receive and lodge foreign visitors. It was designated a national Important Cultural Property in 2018. The rooms are tatami-floored, and washi paper is pasted on the walls and ceilings.
02Arita is a home of Arita ware, and the Izumiyama porcelain-stone quarry is a national Historic Site. According to local tradition, the Korean potter Kanagae Sanbei (金ケ江三兵衛, known as Ri Sampei) found the stone in the first decades of the 17th century. The Uchiyama district (内山), where kilns and wholesalers gathered, was selected in 1991 as a national Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, and the Tashiro house opens during the pottery fair (陶器市), April 29 to May 5.
03A town in 西松浦郡, formed in 2006 by the merger of Arita and Nishi-Arita. About 70% of its land is forest or mountains, and the Arita River divides the town and flows to Imari Bay. The JR Sasebo Line and the Matsuura Railway run through it, and small kiln remains survive, such as the great ginkgo at Izumiyama, the tonbai walls and the coal-fired kiln at Ōbō.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Arita Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗