Nanto City

A World Heritage village of 5 households.

Suganuma gassho village

Photo by Soica2001 (Public domain)

01 ／ Exile hut

Meals came inthrough a lidded hole in a post.

Cut off by the cliffs of the Shō River (庄川), Gokayama (五箇山) was where the Kaga domain sent many exiles. The exile hut at Tamukai (田向) has a six-mat board floor and a toilet, and beside the toilet a post with a lidded hole for passing food in and out. Because no other exile hut survives anywhere in Japan, it was rebuilt to its original size in 1965 after heavy snow brought it down. Ōtsuki Denzō (大槻伝蔵) of the Kaga Disturbance was also exiled here, to Soyama (祖山), in 1748.

Six-mat board floor
Rebuilt full-size in 1965
Ōtsuki Denzō, 1748

02 ／ Inami woodcarving

From four temple carpentersapprenticed to a Kyoto carver, to 250 craftsmen.

井波瑞泉寺手挟.jpg — Photo by Nux-vomica 1007 (CC BY 4.0)

To rebuild Zuisen-ji (瑞泉寺) after a great fire in 1762, Maekawa Sanshirō (前川三四郎), official carver to Higashi Hongan-ji, came from Kyoto. Inami woodcarving (井波彫刻) began with the four local temple carpenters who became his apprentices; today there are 250 carvers and 200 workshops. The sound of mallets along Yōkamachi-dōri (八日町通り), the street leading to the temple, was chosen as one of the Ministry of the Environment's 100 Soundscapes of Japan.

The great fire of 1762
Four temple carpenters
250 carvers, 200 workshops

03 ／ Horse chestnut

Its two limbs flowered in alternate years;if both bloomed, misfortune would follow.

Wakidani no Tochinoki (脇谷のトチノキ), a Japanese horse chestnut at Kuritō (栗当) in Toga (利賀), is a giant 11.89 m around and said to be 800 years old; it became a national natural monument in 1926. More than 6 m above the ground it splits into two limbs, which flowered in alternate years, so it was said that misfortune would follow if both bloomed at once. One of the limbs split in the heavy snow of 1981.

11.89 m around
Natural monument, 1926
Said to be 800 years old

Living here

80% forest, with five areas of especially heavy snow.

about 50,000 people

Nanto was formed in 2004 by the merger of eight towns and villages: Jōhana, Taira, Kamitaira, Toga, Inami, Inokuchi, Fukuno and Fukumitsu. About 80% of its area is forest. Five areas, Jōhana, Taira, Kamitaira, Toga and Fukumitsu, are designated as areas of especially heavy snowfall, and snow in the mountains can be more than 3 m deep. On the plain lie scattered farmsteads (散居村) sheltered by kainyo (カイニョ) windbreak groves. The city's gateway is Fukumitsu Station on the JR Jōhana Line.

People living here: 47,937people
Area: 668.64km²
Households: 16,483households
Rent (average for rentals): 32,309yen
Healthcare: 4 hospitals ／ 31 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —14 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 2 prefectures.

Nanto City in Japan36.557°N 136.875°E

Territory of Nanto City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

39.2km

Toyama Prefecture: 富山市, 小矢部市, 砺波市
Gifu Prefecture: 白川村, 飛騨市
Ishikawa Prefecture: 金沢市, 白山市

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

Nanto City isthis kind of town.

01In the World Heritage gassho-style villages of Ainokura and Suganuma live 16 households (51 people) and 5 households (29 people) as of April 2024, and the history of making the Kaga domain's saltpetre under house floors remains
02At Tamukai in Gokayama, where the Kaga domain sent exiles, an exile hut, of which no other example survives in Japan, has been rebuilt full-size, and in Inami the woodcarving workshops that began with the rebuilding of Zuisen-ji line the street
03On the plain spread scattered farmsteads (散居村) sheltered by kainyo (カイニョ) windbreak groves; the Jōhana Hikiyama and Fukuno Yotaka festivals are held in May, and the Kokiriko Festival at Kaminashi (上梨) in Gokayama in September

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Nanto City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗