Tonami City

About 10 trial bulbs, now 5.21 million.

Tulip bulbs

Photo by 茄次郎 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Dam

An elevator for sweetfish,and a passage for floating timber.

Komaki Dam (小牧ダム) on the Sho River (庄川) was completed in 1930. At 79 m high and 301 m long, it was called the finest dam in the East. It was built with an elevator-type fish pass on the right bank to carry ayu upstream, and on the left bank a facility to pass timber floated down from Hida and Gokayama. A lumber company that said the dam would block log floating settled with the builders in 1933. In 2002 the dam became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

Completed 1930
79 m high, 301 m long
Registered Tangible Cultural Property, 2002

02 ／ Scattered village

Farmhouses ringed by trees,7,000 of them scattered over the plain.

Across about 220 km² of the Tonami Plain, more than 7,000 houses stand apart from one another, each surrounded by a windbreak grove called kainyo (カイニョ). In 2017, 6,900 tools of daily life and farming from the area were designated an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property. The Horisato House (芳里家住宅) in Horiuchi, a farmhouse from 1881, shows the azumadachi (アズマダチ) style on its front gable and was registered as a cultural property in 2019.

About 7,000 houses
6,900 tools
Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property, 2017

03 ／ Somen noodles

Hand-stretched somen,coiled like a topknot and dried.

大門素麺.JPG — Photo by Ttaakkaco (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Ōkado somen (大門素麺) is said to date from 1848, when a travelling medicine peddler from Ōkado village learned how the Kaga domain's official somen was made and brought the method home. The long, thin noodles are coiled into a round shape called marumage (丸まげ) and made from October to March, when the air is cold and dry. More than 60 households made them in the early Showa era; as of January 2025 there are 9. Each wrapper carries the maker's name.

Since 1848
Made October to March
9 makers

Living here

Nagoya in 3 hours by highway bus.

about 50,000 people

A highway bus runs from Meitetsu Bus Center in Nagoya to Tonami Station in the city in 3 hours. The railway is the JR Johana Line; for Tokyo, change to the Hokuriku Shinkansen at Shin-Takaoka Station. Because homes are spread out across the scattered village, the city runs Choisoko Tonami (チョイソコとなみ), a shared ride service between homes and set stops, across the whole city.

People living here: 48,154people
Area: 127.03km²
Households: 17,147households
Rent (average for rentals): 50,488yen
Healthcare: 6 hospitals ／ 35 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2004-11-01 に合併。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

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.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Tonami City in Japan36.648°N 136.962°E

to NagoyaHighway bus180min

Travel times follow 加越能バス「高速バス名古屋線」の時刻表（令和8年4月1日改正・画像を目で読んだ・Last-Modified 2026-03-31）で、名鉄バスセンター→砺波駅南は6便とも3時間ちょうど（7:50→10:50、11:50→14:50、14:50→17:50、16:50→19:50、17:50→20:50、土日祝のみ18:50→21:50）。市の観光公式「砺波旅」の「アクセス」（市のサイト内・2026-08-18 更新）も『名古屋から所要時間：約3時間名鉄BC⇔砺波駅南口』 (checked 2026-09-25). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 5 municipalities.

Territory of Tonami City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

16.2km

高岡市, 南砺市, 富山市, 小矢部市, 射水市

Tonami City isthis kind of town.

01Tulip bulb growing, which began in 1918 with about 10 trial bulbs, reached 127 varieties and 5.21 million bulbs in fiscal 2023
02Komaki Dam on the Sho River was completed in 1930 with an elevator-type fish pass for ayu and a facility to pass floating timber
03The tools of life in the scattered village, where tree-ringed houses dot the plain, survive, as does Ōkado somen, coiled and dried by hand

See the town as it is now.

X@tonami_city ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Tonami City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗