Shimonoseki City

Old post office, with an octagonal dome.

Former Tonoi Post Office

01 ／ Hamaide Festival (浜出祭)

A mountain goddess and a sea godare said to meet every seven years.

The Hamaide Festival is held every seven years, centered on parishioners of Tago Shrine (田耕神社) in the hills and Jingu Kogo Shrine (神功皇后神社) by the sea. The goddess Ichikishimahime and the god Kotoshironushi are said to meet at the festival. Its origin is said to lie in the Mongol invasions, but when it began is not clear. The festival ground is set beside the Doigahama Site, a national historic site.

Held every seven years
Origin said to be the Mongol invasions
Beside the Doigahama Site, a national historic site

02 ／ Suōtei Rite at Iminomiya Shrine (忌宮神社の数方庭行事)

Great bamboo banners, 20 to 30 m long,dance around the Oni Stone.

A summer festival held at Iminomiya Shrine in Chofu from August 7 to 13 every year. Men carrying great banners 20 to 30 m long and women carrying kiriko lanterns process around a stone called the Oni Stone (鬼石). A record from 1683 shows samurai and townspeople competing to take part.

Every year, August 7 to 13
Banners 20 to 30 m long
1683 record of participation

03 ／ Uchihi and Takao Waterworks (内日・高尾の水道施設)

Six facilities built in 1906still deliver water after 100 years or more.

Nine waterworks facilities, including the Uchihi No. 1 Reservoir intake tower, became registered tangible cultural properties in 1998 (Heisei 10). Six date from the 1906 founding and are still in use. Water from the intake tower flows about 12 km to the Takao and Hiyoriyama water purification plants.

9 registered tangible cultural properties
6 date from the 1906 founding
About 12 km to the plants

Living here

The narrowest point of the Kanmon Strait lies in the city.

about 260,000 people
Shinkansen stops here

The sea in front of Mimosusogawa Park is said to be Hayatomo-no-Seto, the narrowest part of the Kanmon Strait, with a view of the Dannoura battlefield. In Katsuyama, the site of Katsuyama Palace, which the lord of the Chofu domain built in haste after the decision to expel foreign ships, is a national historic site.

People living here: 255,051people
Area: 716.28km²
Households: 115,817households
Rent (average for rentals): 43,313yen
Healthcare: 24 hospitals ／ 260 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-02-13 に合併。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —56 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.

Shimonoseki City in Japan33.958°N 130.941°E

to OsakaSanyo Shinkansen126min
to KyotoTokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen145min
to NagoyaTokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen189min

Travel times follow JR西日本公式「JRおでかけネット」の新下関駅の駅時刻表（東海道・山陽・九州新幹線小倉・博多・鹿児島中央方面、2026年9月29日分）と、そこから開いた各列車の列車時刻表（2026年10月号のJRデータ）。さくら767号（新大阪17:47発→新下関19:53着）、ひかり731号（名古屋06:36発・京都07:20発→新下関09:45着）。どちらも「毎日運転」。乗り換えなしで市内の新下関駅に着く (checked 2026-09-29). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities.

Territory of Shimonoseki City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

51.5km

美祢市, 長門市, 山陽小野田市

Shimonoseki City isthis kind of town.

01The Former Tonoi Post Office building in Toyoda, a prefecturally designated tangible cultural property, is a wooden single-story Western-style building with a tower under an octagonal dome, completed in 1923. The prefecture's description says the postmaster, Kawata Hiroshi, went to Tokyo with a carpenter to tour Western buildings before deciding the design.
02Haedomari Market on Hikoshima opened in 1974 as the only market in Japan centered on fugu (called fuku in Shimonoseki). From 3:30 a.m., auctioneers and buyers put their hands into cloth bags and settle the price by fingertip in the fukuro-seri.
03In Hohoku, the Doigahama Site is a Yayoi-period communal cemetery and a national historic site. On Futaoi Island off Yoshimi, the Yamanokami ritual has been held in the Yama-no-Kami forests, a nationally designated property, in dragon and dog years.

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Shimonoseki City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗