Iwakuni City

White snakes, on record in a rice barn.

Iwakuni White Snake

Photo by Totti (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Iwakuni English Language School

The lord paid from his own stipendto hire an English teacher.

The domain school of Iwakuni opened in 1871 with no foreign-language teacher. The lord, Kikkawa Tsunetake, paid from his own private stipend to hire an Englishman, Stevens. Classes were in English, and among the 17 pupils at his departure was Fujioka Ichisuke, a founder of Toshiba.

Domain school (Iwakuni Gakko) opened in 1871
Taught in English, including physics, geography, astronomy and history
17 pupils at the teacher's departure
Fujioka Ichisuke lit an arc lamp on 25 March 1878 (later Electricity Memorial Day)

02 ／ Kintai Bridge

Swept away, then built again,the wooden bridge has been kept up.

The Nishiki River is about 200 m wide. The bridge of 1673 was soon lost to a flood; the improved bridge rebuilt the next year lasted 276 years, kept up by repeated rebuilding, until a typhoon washed it away in 1950. It was rebuilt in wood in 1953, and its timber parts were replaced in 2001–04.

River width of about 200 m
276 years from the 1674 rebuilding to the 1950 loss
Heisei rebuilding project, fiscal 2001–04

03 ／ Former Mekata Residence

No upstairs window faces the street,and the roof uses Iwakuni tiles.

A middle-ranking samurai house thought to date from the 18th century, and a national Important Cultural Property. Its roof is laid in the nibiraburi style with ryo-sode tiles, said to be local to the Iwakuni area. The upper floor has no window on the street side, a design meant not to look down on passing high-ranking samurai. It is closed for works until the end of December 2026 (planned).

National Important Cultural Property (designated 1974)
Nibiraburi roofing survives only in the Iwakuni area (city)
Closed December 2025 to end of December 2026 (planned)

Living here

873.72 km², from mountain valleys to offshore islands.

about 130,000 people
Shinkansen stops here

A wide city formed from the old Iwakuni and seven towns and villages, it reaches from the upper Nishiki River valleys to the Hashirajima islands offshore. Iwakuni lotus root (岩国れんこん), first grown under the domain, is said to have nine holes; in Soo, Shuto-cho, the Suo Soo Hashira-matsu fire festival, a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, has been held. The birthplace of the writer Uno Chiyo is a nationally registered tangible cultural property, open to visitors through a nonprofit.

People living here: 129,125people
Area: 873.67km²
Households: 57,911households
Rent (average for rentals): 46,345yen
Healthcare: 17 hospitals ／ 116 clinics

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

Population from 2010 onward (municipal boundary changed).2006-03-20 に新設合併（由宇町・玖珂町・本郷村・周東町・錦町・美川町・美和町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —28 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.

Iwakuni City in Japan34.167°N 132.219°E

to OsakaSanyo Shinkansen127min

Travel times follow JRおでかけネット「列車時刻表」（JR時刻表2026年10月号に基づく・運転日2026-09-29）。新大阪駅の時刻表（timetable.jr-odekake.net/station-timetable/2815002001）から出る105本の新幹線を1本ずつ列車ページ（/train-timetable/{番号}?date=20260929）で開き、新岩国駅に『着』の時刻がある（通過『レ』でない）列車を数えた。ひかり681号（列車番号681A・毎日運転）：新大阪 06:06発 → 新神戸 06:18着/06:19発 → … → 広島 07:54着/08:00発 → 新岩国 08:13着/08:14発 → 徳山 08:25着。 (checked 2026-09-29). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 9 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Territory of Iwakuni City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

54.3km

Yamaguchi Prefecture: 周南市, 柳井市, 和木町, 光市, 田布施町
Hiroshima Prefecture: 廿日市市, 大竹市
Shimane Prefecture: 吉賀町, 益田市

Iwakuni City isthis kind of town.

01Iwakuni sits along the Nishiki River, where the "Iwakuni White Snake" (岩国のシロヘビ), a white variant of the Japanese rat snake, is a national natural monument.
02At the domain school an English teacher taught in English, the Kintai Bridge has been rebuilt after each loss, and the Former Mekata Residence, an Important Cultural Property, is closed for works.
03Iwakuni lotus root, the Suo Soo Hashira-matsu of Shuto-cho, and Uno Chiyo's birthplace are among the things handed down in daily life.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Iwakuni City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗