Sakura City

A big statue, cast in parts and joined.

Bronze Fudō Myōō, Kōmyō-ji

Photo by Suikotei (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Storehouse parlour

On top of a storehouse,a Western-style lookout tower.

This is the kura-zashiki, or storehouse parlour, of the Takizawa family house beside the old Ōshū Kaidō. The earthen storehouse carries an ink inscription dated 1887 (Meiji 20), and a Western-style lookout tower sits on its roof, ringed by an iron railing with arabesque patterns. The prefecture estimates that the tower was added in 1892, and records that many similar buildings were built in the prefecture but this is the only one that survives.

Built 1887
Tower thought to be added in 1892
Prefectural designation, 1998

02 ／ Former bank

Octagonal pilasters and round-arched windowsadorn this former bank.

A single-storey reinforced-concrete building facing west onto the Ōshū Kaidō. It was newly built in 1929 (Shōwa 4) as the Kitsuregawa branch of the Shimotsuke Chūō Bank, and is finished in artificial stone and tiles, with quatrefoil windows as well. It became Sakura's first nationally registered tangible cultural property in 2026. It is now owned by the city and used as the tourist association's office and information centre.

Built 1929
Nationally registered, 2026
Sakura's first registered building

03 ／ Goyōbori

So that water could be used anywhere in town,the Kitsuregawa clan dug a canal.

The Kitsuregawa clan had two channels, drawing water from the Arakawa and Uchikawa rivers, dug so that water for daily use would be available anywhere in town. The Arakawa-side channel was partly restored in the Heisei 11 era and stocked with carp, and is now a walking path. Hedges of bamboo grass (bekkō-gaki), which enclosed the houses of the domain's samurai, also convey the feel of the castle town.

Two channels, from the Arakawa and Uchikawa
Partly restored in Heisei 11
Bamboo-grass hedges (bekkō-gaki)

Living here

Ujiie Station to Utsunomiya Station: 16 to 19 minutes on the Utsunomiya Line.

about 40,000 people

The city's two JR stations, Ujiie and Kamasusaka, are on the Utsunomiya Line, and a route bus (the Batō Line) runs from Ujiie Station through Kitsuregawa to Batō. The city was formed in March 2005 by the merger of the former towns of Ujiie and Kitsuregawa, and its chronology records the opening of a human-powered railway between Kitsuregawa and Ujiie in 1902.

People living here: 44,513people
Area: 125.63km²
Households: 16,370households
Rent (average for rentals): 44,555yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 30 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —6 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 7 municipalities.

Sakura City in Japan36.685°N 139.966°E

Territory of Sakura City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

18.0km

矢板市, 高根沢町, 那須烏山市, 宇都宮市, 大田原市, 那珂川町, 塩谷町

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

Sakura City isthis kind of town.

01The bronze Fudō Myōō statue of Kōmyō-ji, a prefecturally designated cultural property cast in 1759 by the Utsunomiya founder Tomuro Uhei, was cast in parts and assembled; a wooden statue thought to be its mould, also prefecturally designated, is owned by the city
02The kura-zashiki of the Takizawa family house carries a Western-style lookout tower, and the former Shimotsuke Chūō Bank Kitsuregawa branch became a nationally registered cultural property in 2026
03In the castle town of former Kitsuregawa, the Goyōbori canal, drawing water from the Arakawa and Uchikawa rivers, and the bamboo-grass hedges that enclosed the houses of the domain's samurai convey the look of the town

See the town as it is now.

Instagram@sakurasogoseisaku ↗

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Sakura City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗