This town has a rite that has continued for nearly two hundred years. In the depth of January, young men enter the freezing Tsugaru Strait naked and cleanse the sacred objects — an austerity that makes you shiver merely to watch, handed down without a break. And in the twenty-first century, the Shinkansen that bored beneath the seabed and reached Hokkaido for the first time gained, in this town, the station where it first comes to a halt. Without knowing these two "straits" — the old austerity of entering a freezing sea and the new station beyond the strait — this town’s numbers cannot be read. Kikonai-cho’s numbers record a town inscribed with the history of a midwinter sea rite and the first station beyond the strait.
A town in the southern Oshima Peninsula of Hokkaido, facing the Tsugaru Strait. The "Kanchu Misogi," in which men enter the freezing sea naked to cleanse the sacred objects, is known as a rite that has continued for nearly two hundred years, and was in recent years designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of the prefecture. And in 2016 the station where the Shinkansen — which bored beneath the seabed and reached Hokkaido for the first time — first comes to a halt after passing through the strait opened in this town. At the same time, the conventional line that had run through the town was transferred to another railway, and part of it disappeared. The population fell from 6,665 in 2000 to 3,832 in 2020 — by more than four-tenths over twenty years. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "the town with the Shinkansen station," but the causal thread: how the history of an old sea rite and a new station is translated into today’s population.
01 · See the present Kikonai-cho in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about three thousand eight hundred (3,832 in 2020). From 6,665 in 2000 it fell by more than four-tenths over twenty years, and the share aged 65 and over rose from 28.2% in 2000 to 49.8% in 2020 — nearly half the residents became elderly. Even for a town that gained a Shinkansen station, the slope of decline and aging is among the steep ones in the prefecture.
The Official Land Price of residential land is about 8,700 yen per m², and commercial land a little under 20,000 yen. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.20 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue covers only about two-tenths of expenditure. The elementary schools were greatly consolidated from five in the 2000s to one, and have been one since 2011. Why a town that holds the new gateway of a Shinkansen station reached these numbers cannot be read without tracing the history around the strait.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Official Land Price / Prefectural Land Price Survey (MLIT) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC)
02 · The Tsugaru Strait, a midwinter sea rite, the first station beyond the strait — the history behind the numbers
What sets Kikonai down is the landform of the Tsugaru Strait, the nearly two-hundred-year-old rite of entering that freezing sea, and the first station of the Shinkansen that bored beneath the seabed. The starting layer is the strait and faith. In this seaside town facing the main island, in the Edo period a priest, it is handed down, received in a dream the command to cleanse the sacred deity, and in the depth of January broke the ice of the freezing river and purified himself — this is said to be the rite’s beginning. For nearly two hundred years since, young men have entered the freezing Tsugaru Strait naked and cleansed the sacred objects, handed down without a break. In recent years this austerity was designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of the prefecture. Here is a history that turned the very harshness of the strait’s cold into a rite of faith.
In that same strait — this time beneath the sea — a great undertaking of the twenty-first century passed through. The Shinkansen joining the main island and Hokkaido beneath the seabed entered Hokkaido through the strait, and gained in this town the station where it first comes to a halt. The train that bored beneath the seabed first opens its doors, on the soil of Hokkaido, at this town’s station. But at the same time, the conventional line that had run through the town and extended to the neighboring land was transferred to another railway, and the section beyond it disappeared. While gaining the new gateway of the Shinkansen, the old line network thinned. An old austerity that turned the cold into faith, and a new station that bored beneath the sea — this town holds these two, born of the same strait.
Source: Kanchu Misogi Festival, Kikonai (Samegawa Shrine; the rite began in 1831 when a priest, told in a dream to purify the deity, broke the ice of the frozen Samegawa and cleansed himself — a roughly 200-year-old rite; designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Hokkaido in 2023 — overview) / Kikonai Station / Esashi Line (with the 2016 opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, Kikonai Station opened as the first stop where the Shinkansen halts after passing beneath the strait; at the same time the Esashi Line [Goryokaku–Kikonai] was transferred to the Donan Isaribi Railway, and the Kikonai–Esashi section was abolished in 2014 — overview)
03 · Even when the Shinkansen came, the children’s school was consolidated into one
Even when it gained the first station of the Shinkansen beyond the strait, the town’s population decline did not stop. Kikonai Town had five elementary schools at the start of the 2000s, but since 2011 they have been consolidated into one. The number of pupils shrank from 354 in 2000 to 92 in 2023 — to nearly a quarter. The new gateway of a Shinkansen station, and the number of children living in the town, move as separate indicators.
The childcare capacity was 49 in both 2024 and 2025, and applicants — 50 in 2024 and 51 in 2025 — were close to capacity, with a Childcare Waitlist of zero in both years. The crude birth rate was about 2.3 in 2020, among the low ones nationally. Even as the Shinkansen station brings a flow of people passing through the town, the number of households raising children there keeps thinning by a separate logic. The two prides — the sea rite of the strait and the Shinkansen station — and the number of children living in the town now, do not necessarily overlap.
Source: School Basic Survey (MEXT, via e-Stat System of Social and Demographic Statistics) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
04 · A town that turned the strait’s cold into faith and gained a station beneath the strait’s seabed
In Kikonai, the same strait is inscribed twice. One is its character of holding a nearly two-hundred-year-old rite of entering the freezing sea of the Tsugaru Strait, a rite designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of the prefecture. The other is its geography: gaining in this town the station where the Shinkansen — which bored beneath the seabed and reached Hokkaido for the first time — first comes to a halt. The same Tsugaru Strait gives this town both an old layer, the austerity of cold, and a new layer, a station passing beneath the sea.
That said, being the first station beyond the strait also means that this town is a point of passage. Many of the people who pass through the strait by Shinkansen, rather than getting off at this station, aim for the cities beyond. Keeping the old austerity that turned the strait’s cold into faith, this town receives the flow of people on the train that bored beneath the seabed.
Source: Kanchu Misogi Festival, Kikonai (Samegawa Shrine; the rite began in 1831 when a priest, told in a dream to purify the deity, broke the ice of the frozen Samegawa and cleansed himself — a roughly 200-year-old rite; designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Hokkaido in 2023 — overview) / Kikonai Station / Esashi Line (with the 2016 opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, Kikonai Station opened as the first stop where the Shinkansen halts after passing beneath the strait; at the same time the Esashi Line [Goryokaku–Kikonai] was transferred to the Donan Isaribi Railway, and the Kikonai–Esashi section was abolished in 2014 — overview)
05 · Atlas note — a town that turned the same strait into both faith and a transport hub
Lay out Kikonai’s numbers and the harsh indicators of a small seaside town on the Tsugaru Strait line up: a population fall of more than four-tenths, an aging rate of 49.8%, a land price of 8,700 yen, fiscal capacity of 0.20, a consolidation from five schools to one. But, to put it in the habit by which I (Atlas), as an accountant, measure the same account twice, what I want to read first here is that this town "took the same Tsugaru Strait into its own history twice." The first time, it turned the very depth of the strait’s cold into a nearly two-hundred-year-old rite of faith. The second time, it gained the first station of the Shinkansen that bored beneath that strait’s seabed. The austerity of cold and the station beneath the sea — both an old layer and a new layer were born from the same strait. A single harsh landform can be turned into both faith and a transport hub — this town is the instance.
One more thing to weigh is the point that this Shinkansen station is the "first station" beyond the strait, not the "destination." Most of the trains that bore beneath the seabed, though they open their doors at this station, carry people who aim for the cities beyond. That is why the indicators on the side of daily life — this town’s aging rate of 49.8%, the elementary schools consolidated into one — are the measures of whether this town works as a place to live rather than a point of passage. In this town where children once attended five separate schools, only one elementary school now remains. Even after gaining anew the station of a train that bores beneath the seabed, the present shape of this town shows more vividly in the line of children walking to a single school than in the flow of people heading to the station.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Kanchu Misogi Festival, Kikonai (Samegawa Shrine; the rite began in 1831 when a priest, told in a dream to purify the deity, broke the ice of the frozen Samegawa and cleansed himself — a roughly 200-year-old rite; designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Hokkaido in 2023 — overview) / Kikonai Station / Esashi Line (with the 2016 opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, Kikonai Station opened as the first stop where the Shinkansen halts after passing beneath the strait; at the same time the Esashi Line [Goryokaku–Kikonai] was transferred to the Donan Isaribi Railway, and the Kikonai–Esashi section was abolished in 2014 — overview)
Editor’s note: all figures and sources are drawn from official statistics. The prose follows Atlas’s voice, and AI (atlas-handcrafted-reverse-v1 (wave29-east 2026-06-04)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: w29e_87a