Imari City

Hedges of arrow bamboo, legend says.

Satokuji Yadake Hedge Street

Photo by Peka (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Umankashira waterworks

The channel runs beneath the Matsuura River's bed,lifting water by the siphon principle, with no power.

Water drawn from a weir upstream on the Matsuura River is led under the riverbed in a siphon channel. Naridomi Hyogo Shigeyasu, called a god of water management, is said to have devised it and completed it in 1611 (Keicho 16). The pipe's shape resembles a horse's head, so it is thought to be named "Umankashira" (馬ノ頭).

Said to have been completed in 1611 (city site)
The conduit pipe changed from wooden tubs to concrete pipes (same source)
Selected as a Civil Engineering Heritage site in fiscal 2012 (the Japan Society of Civil Engineers writes "馬の頭")

02 ／ Aohata Shrine camphor

The roots rise above ground, 27.7 m around,and a rain-praying dainenbutsu was offered at this shrine.

The camphor tree in the grounds of Aohata Shrine (青幡神社) in Sato has long been regarded as a sacred tree. It is about 27.7 m around at the roots and about 16 m tall, and its great limbs branch three ways from about 5 m up. In the old Yamashiro district, in a severe drought, the dainenbutsu (大念仏) was offered here as a last resort to pray for rain.

Designated a prefectural Natural Monument in 1965 (city site)
About 11.4 m around the trunk at eye level; branches spread about 19.3 m east-west
Earliest record: a 1684 entry on rain-praying fees in the Ogi Domain diary

03 ／ Isunoki at Hayari

The ash from burning isunoki bark, yusubai,was widely used in the Edo period as a porcelain glaze.

The isunoki (Distylium racemosum) at Hayari in Seto is about 13 m tall and about 200 years old, among the largest in the prefecture. Its bark grows "saruho" galls that whistle "hyon" when blown, hence the name "Hyon no ki". Bark burned to ash, yusubai (柞灰), was a glaze material, and the hard wood was used for potter's wheel cores.

Designated a prefectural Natural Monument in 2006 (city site)
About 2.5 m around the trunk at eye level
Yusubai was widely used as a porcelain glaze material in the Edo period

Living here

A 255.24 km² city holding a fine natural harbor, Imari Bay.

about 50,000 people

In the west of northern Kyushu, the city was long a shipping port for "Ko-Imari" (古伊万里) porcelain. Imari Bay is a ria coast with an intricate shoreline, best seen along the coasts of Kurokawa and Hatatsu. In 1954 two towns and seven villages merged to form the city.

People living here: 52,629people
Area: 255.24km²
Households: 19,984households
Rent (average for rentals): 39,178yen
Healthcare: 8 hospitals ／ 40 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —24 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.

Imari City in Japan33.265°N 129.881°E

Territory of Imari City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

21.0km

Saga Prefecture: 唐津市, 武雄市, 有田町
Nagasaki Prefecture: 佐世保市, 松浦市

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

Imari City isthis kind of town.

01Satokuji in Sato, Higashiyamashiro, is a street where retainers laid out residences on a hillside and planted arrow bamboo along the boundaries as hedges. The prefecture's heritage database records that it is said to have been planted for arrow shafts. It was certified a "New Saga Hundred Views" site in 1998 and a Saga Prefectural Heritage site in 2019, and the owners of the lots have kept the hedges up over generations.
02Okawachiyama in Okawachi is where the Saga domain opened a kiln village in the 1660s, chiefly to make ware for presentation to the shogun. The kiln site, waste heaps, saggar sheds and workshop site survive as the national historic site Okawachi Nabeshima Kiln Site (大川内鍋島窯跡). The main hall of Tashima Shrine (田嶋神社) in Hatatsu is a national Important Cultural Property, which the city calls the oldest shrine building in the prefecture; it is viewed through the lattice of its cover house.
03At Kaminohara Hachimangu (神原八幡宮) in Niri, on the night before the first day of the rabbit in December, 833 rice balls in a basket are fought over amid torch sparks in the Tori-ou Festival, selected in 2009 as an intangible folk cultural property requiring record-making measures. At Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社) in Otsubo stand eight gyakushu itabi (逆修板碑), memorial tablets that Keisen Soun-koji raised between 1609 and 1614.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Imari City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗