Kotoura Town

Over 20,000 graves gather by the sea.

Hanamigata Cemetery

Photo by Hasec (CC0)

01 ／ Sainoo Temple Ruins

From the ditch around a temple,a pot inked "Hachi-dera" came out.

At the Sainoo Temple Ruins (斎尾廃寺跡), founded in the Hakuhō period, a pot of haji ware (土師器) inked with "八寺" (Hachi-dera) was found in the ditch that marked off the temple grounds. Because the district was called Yabase, it is thought to abbreviate "Yabase-dera"; the town says the temple seems to have carried the district's name.

Founded in the Hakuhō period
Hōryū-ji-style temple layout
Special Historic Site (designated 1952)

02 ／ Nariishi Beach

A beach no one used to visit,grown into a draw by local residents.

In February 2011 the San'in Expressway's Tōhaku-Nakayama section opened and traffic on Route 9 fell. Worried residents turned to a beach in Akasaki that locals took for granted and no one visited, and in June that year they launched a project. Waves make its round stones clatter "karakoro", and they have held a Nariishi festival there.

Feb 2011: San'in Expressway Tōhaku-Nakayama section opens
Jun 2011: residents launch the project
Shoreline without seawall works

03 ／ Shiotani Teiko

Born to a shipping-broker family,he kept photographing his homeland with a Bes-tan.

Shiotani Teiko (塩谷定好) was born in 1899 in Akasaki village (now Kotoura) to a shipping-broker family and took up a camera in fifth grade. With the single-lens camera nicknamed the "Bes-tan" (ベス単) he photographed San'in's nature all his life; in 1926 his "Fishing Village" took first place in Asahi Camera's first monthly contest. He won the Photokina Honor Award in 1982, and his residence is now a memorial gallery.

Born 1899 in Akasaki village (now Kotoura)
1926: first place, Asahi Camera's first monthly contest
1982: Photokina Honor Award

Living here

A triangle with the Sea of Japan as its base and the southern mountains as its apex.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

Kotoura faces the Sea of Japan to the north and is ringed by Daisen's foothills and mountains to the south, 15.2km east–west and 18.5km north–south, 139.97km² in all. Plains open along two rivers (加勢蛇川 and 勝田川). In coastal Akasaki lies Kiku Harbor (菊港); specialties include nijisseiki pears, kamaboko and dairy products.

People living here: 16,365people
Area: 139.97km²
Households: 5,769households
Rent (average for rentals): 29,044yen
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 12 clinics

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

Borders 4 municipalities.

Kotoura Town in Japan35.495°N 133.693°E

Territory of Kotoura Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

18.5km

大山町, 倉吉市, 北栄町, 江府町

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

Kotoura Town isthis kind of town.

01Kotoura is a Sea of Japan town with Hanamigata Cemetery (花見潟墓地) in Akasaki, where over 20,000 graves have gathered along the shore on their own. Lanterns are lit there at Obon.
02The Sainoo Temple Ruins, founded in the Hakuhō period, are introduced by the town as the only nationally designated Special Historic Site in San'in. A pot inked "八寺" suggests the temple carried the district's name.
03The town also has Nariishi Beach (鳴り石の浜), grown by residents; the memorial gallery of art photographer Shiotani Teiko; Kanzaki Shrine (神崎神社), with a dragon carved in its worship hall ceiling; and Mt. Senjō (船上山), with the ruins of Emperor Go-Daigo's temporary palace.

See the town as it is now.

Facebookkotouracyou ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Kotoura Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗