Yanai City

A late-Edo goldfish glow, so it is said

Yanai Kingyo Chochin

01 ／ Atsuki Shinmei Festival

Men who married the year beforeare carried into the sea, in celebration.

A fire festival of Atsuki district, held at the little New Year. In the morning, tall decorated poles called shinmei (シンメイ) are raised on the east and west beaches; at night they are set alight and toppled seaward. A young man who married the year before, leaving his youth group, is carried into the sea. It is now held on February 11.

Nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (designated March 11, 2009)
Said to have been brought with Ura Nobumasa's transfer to Atsuki in 1644
Held on February 11, 2026

02 ／ Chausuyama Kofun and the Mirror

From a burial mound found by two boys,a mirror 44.8 centimeters across.

A keyhole-shaped mound about 90 meters long, from the end of the early Kofun period. In 1892 two local boys came upon it by chance, and a mirror 44.8 centimeters across (tantō sōdō kaijūkyō, 単頭双胴怪獣鏡) was unearthed. The original is held by the Tokyo National Museum; the mound's museum has a replica.

National Historic Site (designated January 14, 1948)
Mirror: 44.8 cm across, 8.950 kg
Original held by the Tokyo National Museum

03 ／ The Kunimori House and its Buchō

Flipped up by day, shut at night:three wooden boards on a merchant house.

A merchant house on the Furuichi-Kanaya street of Yanaizu. Built, it seems, in the late 18th century as a two-story earthen-walled house, its front buchō (ぶちょう) has an upper board flipped up inside by day, and two lower boards removed to open the front fully. At night all are closed, and an earthen door set in front guards against fire.

Important Cultural Property (designated February 5, 1974)
Dismantled, repaired and its front restored in fiscal 1983-84
Currently viewable from outside only

Living here

Mild winters, rare snow, and a merchant port called the domain's storeroom.

about 30,000 people

Yanai lies on the Seto Inland Sea in southeastern Yamaguchi. Winters are mild and snow is rare. In the domain era Yanaizu was called the "Onando" (storeroom) of its lord, the Kikkawa family. The Yota Garyubai plum is a national Natural Monument. The Amatsu Bridge is a stone bridge of the Yanaihama salt field, moved by the city. At Myoenji in Tozaki stands the Seikyo Sodo, modeled on the hut of the school Gessho opened.

People living here: 30,799people
Area: 140.03km²
Households: 13,932households
Rent (average for rentals): 39,380yen
Healthcare: 4 hospitals ／ 33 clinics

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

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-02-21 に合併。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

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.

Shape

Borders 5 municipalities.

Yanai City in Japan33.964°N 132.102°E

Territory of Yanai City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

32.0km

岩国市, 平生町, 田布施町, 上関町, 光市

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

Yanai City isthis kind of town.

01Yanai Kingyo Chochin (goldfish lanterns) are a folk craft that represents Yanai. They are said to have been devised in the late Edo period by Kumagai Rinzaburo of Furuichi, and by one account he took a hint from the goldfish neputa of Hirosaki, Aomori. At the Goldfish Lantern Festival on August 13 each year, they are hung around the white-walled townscape and elsewhere.
02The Atsuki Shinmei Festival is a fire festival, a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, with a rite in which a man who married the year before is carried into the sea in celebration. Chausuyama Kofun is a National Historic Site, where a mirror 44.8 centimeters across was unearthed.
03The Kunimori House is an Important Cultural Property, and the Furuichi-Kanaya streetscape is an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. The Yota Garyubai is a national Natural Monument; its original tree has died, but rooted branches have become separate plants that still bloom.

See the town as it is now.

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

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Yanai City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗