Shirakawa-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about sixty thousand (59,491 in 2020). This city’s population has a step from the merger. Shirakawa City was born in 2005 when the old Shirakawa City and the villages of Omotego, Taishin and Higashi merged anew. Seen in the post-merger figures, it fell by about five thousand over ten years, from 64,704 in 2010 through 61,913 in 2015 to 59,491 in 2020. There is a decline, but its gradient is gentle.

Looking inside the figures, aging is shallow for a Tohoku city. The share aged 65 and over was 29.5% in 2020 — below three in ten. The household-with-children share, at 21.6%, is on the higher side, and the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.61 in fiscal 2023 — high for a small-to-mid Tohoku city, on the side that covers about six-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. A town that was the entrance to Mutsu holds its population relatively well and keeps its fiscal stamina in the middle range. The reason comes into view only by tracing the history of the barrier and the castle town.

Shirakawa’s skeleton is set by the geography of being the entrance to Mutsu. In antiquity the Barrier of Shirakawa was placed here to bar the southward movement of the Emishi. Counted, with Nakoso and Nenju, as one of the Three Barriers of Oshu, this barrier was the national-border gate dividing the Kanto from Mutsu, and made this land “the gateway to Michinoku.” In the terms of historical geography it is a typical case of a border barrier deciding a town’s origin.

In early modern times a castle was built on that land of the entrance. In the Edo era Niwa Nagashige completed Komine Castle in 1632 after four years of work, and thereafter seven houses and twenty-one generations of domain lords entered this castle. The castle fell in the Battle of the Shirakawa Gate of the Boshin War in 1868, but the three-storied turret was restored in 1991 and the castle gate in 1994, based on Edo-era drawings. As a castle town, this town was also a key point of the Oshu Kaido.

To that castle town one more history is added. The domain lord Matsudaira Sadanobu laid out Nanko in 1801. Opened under the ideal of “lord and commoner enjoying together,” regardless of rank, this garden is held to be the first public park in Japan. Beginning with a barrier guarding Mutsu, becoming a castle town, and giving birth to a garden open across ranks — the shape of this town stands upon the history of being the gateway to Oshu.

What characterizes Shirakawa-shi is that the population decline is gentle and the fiscal stamina too is kept in the middle range. It stayed at a decline of about five thousand over the ten years after the merger; the aging rate is 29.5%, below three in ten; and the household-with-children share, at 21.6%, is on the higher side. At the southern edge of Fukushima Prefecture, bordering the prefecture line and with transport access toward the Kanto, this location — backed by industrial parks where manufacturing gathers — can be read as having held young households and industry to a degree.

That stability shows in the fiscal figures too. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.61 is high for a small-to-mid Tohoku city, covering about six-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The advantage of being the entrance to Mutsu can be read as having worked, in the modern era and after, as a tie to the Kanto sphere, lending thickness to the tax source. The Childcare Waitlist too has held at zero in recent years. The town that guarded Mutsu now holds, as a border hub, a gentle population decline and a middle-range fiscal stamina at once. A gentle population decline, shallow aging, middle-range finances — this stability as a hub of the south of the prefecture is not something to be spoken of by pulling out any single number. Only where the three support one another does the town’s outline finally come into view.

In Shirakawa several faces of differing origin overlap. One is the history of being the entrance to Mutsu where the Barrier of Shirakawa, one of the Three Barriers of Oshu, was placed, carrying the memory of the border gate dividing the Kanto from Mutsu. Another is the character of a castle town centered on Komine Castle, built by Niwa Nagashige, which was also a key point of the Oshu Kaido. And Nanko, opened by Matsudaira Sadanobu regardless of rank, gives this town a cultural seat as the first public park in Japan.

Shirakawa is a town that was called the gateway to Michinoku. From the land of a barrier guarding Mutsu, to a castle town and a key point of the Oshu Kaido, to a land that gave birth to a garden open across ranks, and on to a border hub city — the location of a gate dividing the Kanto from Mutsu drew in the barrier, the castle and the garden in turn. The four seasons mirror on the water of Nanko, and the restored three-storied turret looks down on the castle town — the town that has guarded the border barrier still, with such a face, quietly takes its seat at the seam of the Kanto and Tohoku.