Kofu Town

A dance for a lord, kept up 500 years.

Ebi Jushichiya, Kodaiji Dance

Photo by Shinmaebashi (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Sagarikaya Hamlet (下蚊屋)

In the late Taisho era, young villagerslearned a kagura brought from Mimasaka.

Sagarikaya sits 600m up, on the Okayama border. Its Kojin Kagura (荒神神楽) is a prefecture-designated intangible folk cultural property, performed at irregular times. The Myojin cherry, an Edo-higan, is also prefecture-designated and blooms around April 25. Along the Yokote route to Mt. Daisen, the village prospered as a lodging place for cattle and horse traders.

Myojin cherry: Edo-higan, about 300 years old (estimated)
Kojin Kagura: prefecture-designated intangible folk cultural property
Yokote route lodgings: a Japan Heritage component

02 ／ Gold-Leaf Tiles at Ebi Castle Ruins

A branch castle's shachi tilewas once covered in gold leaf.

In a 1997 dig, roof tiles from the castle were found to have been gilded. They are a shachi (roof-ridge ornament) tile and a demon tile, and on the shachi only the teeth still hold gold leaf. The town says it was the first gilded tile found at a castle in the San'in region, and that many mysteries remain about why a branch castle used them.

1997: gold-leaf tiles unearthed in a dig
A shachi tile and a demon tile, from the main enclosure
On display at the Kofu Town History and Folklore Museum

03 ／ Kitanizawa Gorge

Look at wildflowers in summer,walk on snowshoes in winter.

A few minutes' walk down a path in the forest, across the prefectural road, brings the sound of a stream. The route is about 1km. Local guides who have completed training lead the walks, with wildflower watching in summer and snowshoeing and other seasonal programs in winter.

Inside Daisen-Oki National Park
About 1km on the guided walk
Led by local guides who have completed training

Living here

Where rivers join, a center forms.The town's name comes from that.

about 3,000 people
Rural district town

Kofu is a mountain town in western Tottori, on the border with Okayama. Its name, drawn from the Hino, Matano, Funatani and Oebi rivers, was meant to say that rivers meet and form a center (fu). The town covers 124.52 km². National Route 181 and the JR Hakubi Line run north to south through the town's center.

People living here: 2,672people
Area: 124.52km²
Households: 953households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 3 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —1 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 across 1 prefectures.

Kofu Town in Japan35.276°N 133.479°E

Territory of Kofu Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

14.9km

Tottori Prefecture: 伯耆町, 日野町, 大山町, 倉吉市, 琴浦町
Okayama Prefecture: 真庭市, 新庄村

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

Kofu Town isthis kind of town.

01Ebi Jushichiya is an Obon festival held each August 17 in the town center of Ebi, and its core, the Ebi Kodaiji Dance, is a prefecture-designated intangible folk cultural property. The town says the lord of Ebi Castle once opened his castle on the night of the 17th for dancing, and that after the castle fell, residents kept dancing at the ruins.
02In Sagarikaya, on the Okayama border, stand a prefecture-designated Myojin cherry and a Kojin Kagura tradition, along with a townscape of lodgings for cattle and horse traders on the Daisen route. Gold-leaf tiles unearthed at Ebi Castle are on display at the town's history and folklore museum.
03Kitanizawa Gorge, in a national-park forest, has guided walks led by locals. The town's name comes from rivers meeting to form a center, and National Route 181 and the JR Hakubi Line run north to south through the town's center.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kofu Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗