Article

06211 ／ひがしねし

Higashine City

A zelkova on the reputed castle core.

Higashine Great Zelkova

01 ／ Soga drawings

Drawings of daily life by children, called soga,are kept at Nagatoro Elementary School.

In the early Showa era, Nagatoro Elementary School had children draw subjects from their own lives, called soga. A Yamagata University paper calls it one of the three leading soga schools. The drawings are a city-designated cultural property.

City-designated tangible cultural property (Dec. 25, Heisei 8)
One of the three leading soga schools (Yamagata University paper)
Supported by several teachers, including Kokubun Ichitaro

02 ／ Cliff-face Buddhas

On a hillside rock, the Five Wisdom Buddhas are carved aboveand the Six Jizo below.

These cliff-face Buddhas lie at the southern foot of a hill. The Five Wisdom Buddhas are carved on the upper tier and the Six Jizo on the lower. The city calls them extremely important stonework, since cliff-face Buddhas are few in the prefecture. They were designated in 1987.

Five Wisdom Buddhas above, Six Jizo below
City-designated tangible cultural property (April 1, 1987)
The city notes few cliff-face Buddhas exist in the prefecture

03 ／ Kakuretomiyo

A stream in Higashine is the homeof the Kakuretomiyo fish.

A stretch of a stream about 400 m long is a prefecturally designated natural monument habitat. The ninespine stickleback here was recognized as a separate species in 2021 and named Kakuretomiyo. It became the city's fish in 2022.

Prefectural natural monument (April 1, 1986)
About 400 m between two bridges
Named the city's fish on July 7, 2022

Higashine City from the sky

Now and 1974–78. Tap a photo to zoom in.

Now1974–78

Wide (about 6 km across)

Close (about 1.5 km across)

Now (shot October–November 2007)Shot 1974–78

Source: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) GSI Tiles（全国最新写真（シームレス）／国土画像情報（第一期：1974〜1978年撮影））

Open in GSI Maps (now)Open in GSI Maps (1974–78)

Living here

Tokyo in 2 h 39 min by Shinkansen.

about 50,000 people
Shinkansen stops here

The fastest through train on the Yamagata Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Sakurambo-Higashine Station takes 2 hours 39 minutes with no change.

People living here: 47,682people
Area: 206.94km²
Households: 16,573households
Rent (average for rentals): 48,663yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 34 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —10 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.

Higashine City in Japan38.431°N 140.391°E

to TokyoYamagata Shinkansen159min

Travel times follow JR東日本の駅の時刻表（2026年11月号 timetables.jreast.co.jp/2611/）。さくらんぼ東根駅（駅コード0466・下り・平日と土休日）に載る列車ページを jr_count.py で数え、東京発→さくらんぼ東根着を出した。毎日運転の最速は新幹線つばさ131号（東京09:24発→さくらんぼ東根12:03着・列車番号131M／やまびこ131号131Bと併結）の159分で、平日・土休日の両方に同じ分数で載り、運転日の注意書きが無い。本体が東京駅の山形新幹線の列車ページ（yamagata-prep/jr/trains-1039.json）から数えた159分と一致。次点はやまびこ157号併結便の179分・145号併結便の180分 (checked 2026-10-28). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Higashine City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (Administrative Area Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari.

North to south

15.3km

Yamagata Prefecture: Tendo City, Murayama City, Obanazawa City, Kahoku Town, Yamagata City
Miyagi Prefecture: Sendai City

Higashine City isthis kind of town.

01The Great Zelkova of Higashine, in the grounds of Higashine Elementary School, is a national special natural monument; it is said to stand on the site of the main compound of Odajima Castle, built in 1347, as one of two zelkovas that were left there
02Nagatoro Elementary School keeps early Showa children's drawings called soga, and a hill has cliff-face Buddhas with the Five Wisdom Buddhas above and the Six Jizo below; both are city-designated cultural properties
03A stretch of a stream about 400 m long is the habitat of the Kakuretomiyo, recognized as a separate species in 2021; it is a prefectural natural monument, and the fish became the city's fish in 2022

See the town as it is now.

Facebookhigashine.city ↗

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Higashine City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes