Article

06428 ／しょうないまち

Yamagata Prefecture 東田川郡

Shonai Town

Lantern-lit survey, a canal in 4 months.

Kitadate Ozeki

Photo by Indiana jo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Checkpoint

Kawaguchi Guardhouse watched people,Funami Guardhouse watched cargo.

The Shonai domain set up five guardhouses on its borders. At Kiyokawa, the Kawaguchi Guardhouse watched people traveling to and from other domains, and the Funami Guardhouse watched cargo headed inland for smuggling. Both have been restored in Kiyokawa Historical Park.

One of five border guardhouses of the Shonai domain
Kawaguchi for people, Funami for cargo
Restored in Kiyokawa Historical Park

02 ／ Wind

A strong east-southeast wind blowsfrom the Mogami River gorge.

The town says a strong east-southeast wind blows from the Mogami River gorge from spring to autumn and calls it the Kiyokawa Dashi, which it describes as famous. A prefectural document says this wind along the Mogami River is counted among Japan's three great bad winds.

Strong east-southeast wind, spring to autumn
Blows from the Mogami River gorge
Counted among the three great bad winds, per the prefecture

03 ／ Old tree

The Jizo Pine of Haraida isa black pine shaped like an umbrella.

This prefecturally designated natural monument has a trunk girth of 3.9 m and a height of 10.8 m. Its age is estimated at 370 to 400 years. A six-faced Jizo statue is enshrined beneath it, and the tree is called the Jizo Pine and the Crying-at-Night Pine.

Prefectural natural monument, 1958
Girth 3.9 m, height 10.8 m
Estimated age 370 to 400 years

Shonai Town 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 May–June 2023)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

A town where the coast and the inland meet.

about 20,000 people
Rural district town

The town describes itself as a junction linking the Shonai region and the inland region by road and rail, and as a gateway to the Shonai region. The JR Rikuu West Line runs nine trains a day down from Shinjo to Amarume and Sakata, stopping at Karikawa, Kiyokawa and Minamino in the town (JR East timetable, November 2026).

People living here: 20,151people
Area: 249.17km²
Households: 6,650households
Rent (average for rentals): 41,976yen
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 8 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —4 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 6 municipalities.

Shonai Town in Japan38.850°N 139.905°E

Territory of Shonai Town

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

North to south

39.7km

Tsuruoka City, Sakata City, Tozawa Village, Okura Village, Nishikawa Town, Mikawa Town

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

Shonai Town isthis kind of town.

01Kitadate Ozeki is the collective name for the headworks and agricultural canal that draw water from the Tachiyazawa River. The lord of Karikawa Castle, Kitadate Daigaku-no-suke Toshinaga, dug it in 1612, and it was registered as a World Heritage Irrigation Structure in fiscal 2018. It still supports rice farming on the Shonai Plain
02Kiyokawa Checkpoint was one of the guardhouses the Shonai domain set on its borders, and the Kawaguchi and Funami guardhouses have been restored in Kiyokawa Historical Park. The Kiyokawa Checkpoint site is among the component cultural properties of a Japan Heritage story
03The strong east-southeast wind that blows from the Mogami River gorge from spring to autumn is the Kiyokawa Dashi. The Jizo Pine of Haraida is a prefecturally designated natural monument, a black pine shaped like an umbrella. The Rikuu West Line runs through the town, and the town describes itself as a junction between the Shonai region and the inland region

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Shonai Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗

From this town's themes