Matsushige Town

Part of the bridge rises for ships.

Kagasuno Bridge, lift bridge

Photo by Shizuha (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Lion dance

Three dancers stand on each other's shouldersand raise the lion's head 3.5 m above the ground.

At the autumn festival of Hiroshima Kasuga Shrine, the lion dance of the Higashi-Fuku group is performed by three people; at the end the three stand on one another's shoulders and lift the lion's head 3.5 m above the ground, the town's site says. It is held once every two years. Its origin is uncertain, but a record of the festival's host house shows it was already performed in the late Edo period.

Lion's head raised 3.5 m above the ground (town website)
Held every two years at the autumn festival of Hiroshima Kasuga Shrine (same)
Already performed in the late Edo period, per the host house's record (same)
Town-designated Intangible Folk Cultural Property (1986)
Preservation society founded in July 2025 (town's PR site)

02 ／ Puppet theater

With the museum's founding,local volunteers formed a puppet troupe.

The museum says Matsushige was known as a home of joruri (gidayu-bushi) chanting. The town's puppet troupe Fureai-za was formed by local volunteers with the founding of the museum in October 1993 (Heisei 5), and gives regular performances at the museum on the second Sunday of every month. The Awa Ningyo Joruri Promotion Association, which includes Fureai-za, is the preservation body for a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Museum opened on 7 October 1993 (museum website)
Fureai-za formed that October; about 20 members began rehearsing (same)
Regular performances on the second Sunday of each month (town website)
Awa Ningyo Joruri designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1999 (museum website)

03 ／ Reclaimed land

A town on reclaimed marshland.Toyohisa took its name from two investors.

Most of Matsushige, the town's site says, was reclaimed as new rice fields from marshland along the Old Yoshino River. Toyohisa Shinden began construction in 1817 (Bunka 14) and was completed in 1820 (Bunsei 3). "Toyohisa" comes from the names of Abe Toyokichi, who put up the funds, and his uncle Abe Kyuzaemon. Its founding monument now stands at Toyohisa Izumo Shrine.

Toyohisa Shinden: begun 1817, completed 1820 (town website)
Toyonaka Shinden: settlers arrived 1801, completed 1829 (same)
Toyooka Shinden: built in about seven months of intensive work from March 1801 (same)
Toyohisa founding monument moved to Toyohisa Izumo Shrine in 2013 (same)
The Toyooka, Toyonaka and Toyohisa monuments are all town-designated Tangible Cultural Properties (1978)

Living here

95 minutes to Sannomiya, 135 to Osaka, by highway bus.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

The town's access guide lists no railway; highway buses to Osaka and Kobe leave from Tokushima Tokutoku Terminal (stop "Matsushige"). Tokushima Awaodori Airport is also in the town, and the town's site calls it a transport hub of Tokushima Prefecture. Most of the town is a river delta at the mouth of the Yoshino River, and at Nagahara a ferry crosses the Imagire River.

People living here: 14,583people
Area: 14.34km²
Households: 5,847households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 10 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —3 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.

Matsushige Town in Japan34.134°N 134.581°E

to OsakaHighway bus135min
to SannomiyaHighway bus95min

Travel times follow 徳島バス公式『大阪線（徳島―大阪線梅田・なんば・USJ）』と『神戸線（徳島―神戸線三宮・新神戸）』の時刻表の下り（大阪・神戸→徳島）。停留所『松茂』（徳島とくとくターミナル）の着時刻から、大阪の乗り場（阪急三番街）・神戸の乗り場（阪神神戸三宮）の発時刻を引いた (checked 2026-09-30). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities.

Territory of Matsushige Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

6.0km

鳴門市, 徳島市, 北島町

Matsushige Town isthis kind of town.

01Kagasuno Bridge crosses the Imagire River between Tokushima City and Matsushige Town in Itano District, carrying Prefectural Route Kawauchi-Daishiro. To secure a channel for ships, it was newly opened in August 2014 (Heisei 26) as a vertical-lift movable bridge, whose deck rises and falls while staying level. The girders and towers are painted a deep indigo, evoking Awa indigo.
02Most of the town is reclaimed delta land at the mouth of the Yoshino River. It has a town-designated three-person shoulder-stacking lion dance at Hiroshima Kasuga Shrine and the monuments of the Toyooka, Toyonaka and Toyohisa land reclamations, while the Matsushige Historical Folk Museum and Joruri Puppet Museum conveys the town's history and puppet theater. At Nagahara a ferry links both banks of the Imagire River, which the town's site says runs every day of the year, apart from cancellations in bad weather.
03Tokushima Awaodori Airport and the Tokushima Tokutoku Terminal for highway buses (stop "Matsushige") make the town a transport hub of Tokushima Prefecture. According to the town's site, it is in Itano District, surrounded by Tokushima City, Naruto City and the rest of Itano District.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Matsushige Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗