Moroyama Town

Where boys are the yabusame archers.

Yabusame, Izumo Iwai Shrine

Photo by Vitalie Ciubotaru (CC BY 3.0)

01 ／ Yabusame

The archers are boys of about fifteen,riding the shrine's track twice a year.

The yabusame (流鏑馬, horseback archery) of Izumo Iwai Shrine (出雲伊波比神社) is said to have begun in 1063, when Minamoto no Yoshiie offered it in thanks for victory. On November 3 the archers, called norikko (乗り子), are three boys of about fifteen; in March a boy under seven takes the role. It is held twice a year on the shrine's own track, and in 2005 it became a Saitama Prefecture Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Said to date from 1063
Archers are boys of about 15
Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property

02 ／ Atarashiki-mura

Mushanokōji Saneatsu's "New Village"came here after a dam flooded its fields.

Atarashiki-mura (新しき村, "New Village"), the community the writer Mushanokōji Saneatsu founded in 1918 in Kijō Village, Miyazaki Prefecture, lost farmland to the reservoir of a prefectural power plant and moved in 1939 to what is now Tsuzuranuki (葛貫), Moroyama. Starting by clearing woodland, it became self-supporting in 1958. It still grows rice and tea, and runs a museum of Saneatsu's works.

Founded in Miyazaki, 1918
Moved to Moroyama, 1939
Self-supporting from 1958

03 ／ Katsuragi yuzu

Foreseeing an age of eating for aroma,a farmer swapped silkworms for yuzu.

Yuzu from Takinoiri (滝ノ入) is already listed as a local product in the Shinpen Musashi Fudokikō (新編武蔵風土記稿), a gazetteer of the late Edo period. In the early Shōwa era Kushida Ichitarō, convinced that "the age of eating for aroma, like yuzu, will surely come", turned from silkworms to growing yuzu, and the name Katsuragi yuzu (桂木ゆず) spread nationwide. In the Shōwa 30s (1955–64) the area became one of Japan's leading producers.

Listed in the Shinpen Musashi Fudokikō
Shipped to Tokyo as Katsuragi yuzu, early Shōwa
A leading producer by the Shōwa 30s (1955–64)

Living here

About 60 minutes from Ikebukuro, with one change.

about 40,000 people
Rural district town

The JR Hachikō Line and the Tobu Ogose Line run through the middle of town, with four stations to use. From Ikebukuro Station to Higashi-Moro Station takes about 60 minutes: the Tobu Tōjō Line to Sakado, then a change to the Ogose Line. By car, the town office is about 25 minutes from Ken-Ō Tsurugashima IC. Saitama Medical University Hospital is in town.

People living here: 35,366people
Area: 34.07km²
Households: 15,764households
Rent (average for rentals): 47,263yen
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 16 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —7 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.

Moroyama Town in Japan35.941°N 139.316°E

Territory of Moroyama Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

7.6km

坂戸市, 越生町, 日高市, 飯能市, 鳩山町

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

Moroyama Town isthis kind of town.

01On the track of Izumo Iwai Shrine, yabusame with boys as archers is offered twice a year
02Mushanokōji Saneatsu's Atarashiki-mura moved here from Miyazaki in 1939 and still runs a museum
03A yuzu-growing area recorded in an Edo-period gazetteer, known as Katsuragi yuzu since the early Shōwa era

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Moroyama Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗