Kitajima Tulip Park 01.jpg
Article

36402 ／ きたじまちょう

Tokushima Prefecture 板野郡

Kitajima Town

A fine red, Kitajima's signature tulip.

Red Queen, a cut-flower variety

Photo by タクドラの金太郎 from Tokushima, Japan (CC BY 2.1 jp)

01 ／ Mizu Shrine (水神社)

Awa horse racing thrived at Mizu Shrine until around 1921;its old sanctuary ceiling had many racing pictures.

Mizu Shrine (水神社) stands in Taihama (鯛浜). The ceiling paintings of its old sanctuary were removed when it was rebuilt in 2001. There were 208 in all, many showing racing scenes such as horses and hoods. From the signature, the painter is thought to be Tada Rankō (多田藍香). The town board of education looks after them.

  • Designated a town tangible cultural property (Feb. 19, 2009; town website)
  • 208 ceiling paintings were removed in all (town website)
  • From the signature, the painter is thought to be Tada Rankō (town website)

02 ／ Kōfuku-ji (光福寺)

Around midnight, an old woman is said to appear under the tree,spinning thread and singing: the legend of Itohiki-baasan (糸引き婆さん).

The ginkgo at Kōfuku-ji (光福寺) in Kitamura (北村) is a prefecturally designated natural monument. At designation its trunk was already 7.75 m around and over 20 m tall, with a crown spreading 18 m east-west and north-south. It is a female tree whose trunk splits in two, said to be over 400 years old.

  • Prefecturally designated natural monument (town website)
  • At designation: trunk 7.75 m around, over 20 m tall (town website)
  • Said to be over 400 years old (town website)

03 ／ Fusuma-lining documents (襖下張り古文書)

A local historian who collected documents from fusuma liningsdonated Edo-to-Shōwa historical materials to the town.

Miki Anpei (三木安平) peeled about 20 old fusuma (sliding doors) in his barn and found early-Meiji passbooks, jōruri texts and late-Edo documents and deeds. He also gathered fusuma and screens thrown out with demolished houses. Nearly 3,000 envelopes of the sorted documents were donated to the town in 2012.

  • About 20 old fusuma yielded early-Meiji passbooks and jōruri texts (Musubu, no. 8)
  • Nearly 3,000 envelopes donated to the town in 2012 (Musubu, no. 8)
  • A catalogue of the documents has been published (Musubu, no. 8)

Living here

A town with no mountains, ringed by the Old Yoshino and Imagire rivers.

  • about 20,000 people
  • Rural district town

The town website says it lies near the middle of the delta plain where the Yoshino River meets the Kii Channel, bordering Naruto to the north, Tokushima to the south, Matsushige to the east and Aizumi to the west. The land is higher in the west and has no mountains; rice, vegetables, fruit, lotus root and flowers are grown. The gateway to the town office is the Tokushima Bus stop Kitajima Yakuba-mae (北島役場前).

People living here
22,745people
19952020

+1.3% since 2015

19,514 → 22,745

Area
8.74km²

8.74km² of it habitable

2024

Households
9,353households

2.4 people per household

2020

Rent (average for rentals)
52,306yen

National average 60,630 yen

2023

Healthcare
2 hospitals ／ 19 clinics

9.2 per 10,000 people

2023

Almost entirely flat.Almost all of it is habitable land (100.0%)
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

Surrounded by 4 municipalities, and almost entirely flat.

Kitajima Town in Japan34.126°N 134.547°E
TokyoKitajima Town
Territory of Kitajima Town
Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

3.9km

徳島市, 鳴門市, 松茂町, 藍住町

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

Kitajima Town isthis kind of town.

  1. 01Red Queen is the tulip variety that represents Kitajima, and the town website says it was once the leading cut-flower variety. It says that it is now hardly grown anywhere else in Japan, and a tulip fair has been held at Kitajima Central Park.
  2. 02The ceiling paintings and racing tools of Mizu Shrine are a designated town cultural property. Kōfuku-ji's ginkgo has the legend of Itohiki-baasan, and the documents that local historian Miki Anpei collected from fusuma linings were donated to the town.
  3. 03The town lies on the delta at the mouth of the Yoshino River, between the Old Yoshino and Imagire rivers, with no mountains. The gateway to the town office is the Tokushima Bus stop Kitajima Yakuba-mae.

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kitajima Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

Similar towns

Next town Tokushima Prefecture Matsushige Town →Part of the bridge rises for ships.