Tsurugashima City

Every 4 years, a dragon enters this pond.

Suneori Amagoi

Photo by 京浜にけ at Japanese Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Rain prayer

A 36-metre dragonwades into a pond to call the rain.

The Suneori Amagoi (脚折雨乞) is a rain-prayer rite handed down since the Edo period, and a nationally selected Intangible Folk Cultural Property. A dragon-serpent, the ryūda (龍蛇), 36 m long and weighing about 3 tonnes, is built from wheat straw and bamboo. About 300 people carry it some 2 km from Shirahige Shrine (白鬚神社) to Kandachigaike Pond (雷電池), then enter the water to pray for rain. It lapsed in 1964, was revived by local people in 1976, and is now held once every four years.

36 m long, about 3 t
About 300 bearers
Nationally selected folk property

02 ／ Model trains

Real rails run all the wayaround a model-train factory.

Kato Precision Railroad Models (関水金属), known for its KATO brand, was established in 1957 and has two factories in the city. In 2019 it signed a partnership agreement with the city, and its new Tsurugaoka factory and the children's park next door were laid out as a single garden. A heritage railway on 762 mm and 610 mm gauge track, looping around the outside of the factory, opened in June 2024.

Established 1957
City partnership, 2019
762 mm and 610 mm gauges

03 ／ Great zelkova

A zelkova over 900 years oldstands at the rain-prayer shrine.

In the grounds of Shirahige Shrine in Suneori, where the dragon-serpent is built, stands a great zelkova more than 900 years old. When it became a prefectural Natural Monument in 1932 it was about 36 m tall. In 1972 a large bough broke off under wind, rain and its own weight; today it is about 17 m tall with a trunk girth of about 7 m. The city continues work to restore its vigour, such as repairing its supports.

Over 900 years old
Girth about 7 m
Prefectural Natural Monument, 1932

Living here

Tsurugashima Station, 39 minutes from Ikebukuro by express.

about 70,000 people

Tsurugashima Station on the Tobu Tojo Line is about 39 minutes from Ikebukuro by express. City Hall is about a 25-minute walk, or about 8 minutes on the Tsuru Bus, from neighbouring Wakaba Station (which is actually in Sakado). The Tsuru Bus and Tsuru Wagon community buses run across the city. The city describes itself as the only city in the prefecture with no Class A river flowing through it.

People living here: 70,117people
Area: 17.65km²
Households: 30,537households
Rent (average for rentals): 57,096yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 43 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —12 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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Tsurugashima City in Japan35.934°N 139.393°E

to IkebukuroTobu Tojo Line express39min

Travel times follow 市公式「市役所への交通アクセス」の「東武東上線・池袋駅からの所要時間（急行の場合の目安）」に載っている値 (checked 2026-09-24). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities.

Territory of Tsurugashima City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

4.9km

川越市, 坂戸市, 日高市

Tsurugashima City isthis kind of town.

01Once every four years, about 300 people carry a 36 m dragon-serpent into Kandachigaike Pond to pray for rain at the Suneori Amagoi
02The model-train maker KATO (Kato Precision Railroad Models) has two factories in the city, and a heritage railway loops around its new one
03Shirahige Shrine, where the dragon-serpent is built, is home to the Suneori Zelkova, a prefectural Natural Monument over 900 years old

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Tsurugashima City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗