One of this city’s hamlets was once called “Japan’s richest village.” The ship-owners of the kitamaebune, who built their fortunes crossing the sea, set up their mansions here. And this land is also the birthplace of the vivid overglaze porcelain that the domain raised. The town of the kitamaebune and Kutani ware, after widening its municipal area through merger, has been losing population. Kaga-shi’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with the history of the ship-owners of the rich village and the birth of overglaze porcelain.
A city in the southwest corner of Ishikawa Prefecture, opening out where it borders Fukui Prefecture. The population, which before the merger was 68,368 in the old Kaga City in 2000 and 74,982 in 2005 after the new merger with Yamanaka town, has fallen to 63,220 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign “a hot-spring town,” but the causal thread: how the history — the kitamaebune, the overglaze porcelain, and the new merger — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · See the present Kaga-shi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about sixty-three thousand (63,220 in 2020). This city’s population has a step from a new merger. In 2005 Kaga City made a new merger with neighboring Yamanaka town to take its present municipal area. From the old Kaga City’s 68,368 in 2000, it rose to 74,982 in 2005, including Yamanaka town. From there, through 71,887 in 2010 and 67,186 in 2015 to 63,220 in 2020, it has fallen at a steep gradient since the merger.
Looking inside the figures, the figure of a regional city holding hot springs and local industry, deepening in age, appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 20.5% in 2000 to 35.9% in 2020, drawing near four in ten. The household-with-children share, at 18.6% in 2020, is low, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.54 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue covers a little over half of expenditure, in the middle range for a small or mid-sized city. The numbers show the town of the kitamaebune and Kutani ware losing population and deepening in age after the merger, while keeping the Childcare Waitlist at zero. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the kitamaebune and the overglaze porcelain.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT)
02 · The castle town of the Daishoji Domain, the rich village of the kitamaebune, the birth of overglaze porcelain — the history behind the numbers
What makes Kaga up is its making as a domain’s castle town, and the two products that the sea and the domain brought. The old layer is the castle town. In the Edo era this land flourished as the castle town of the hundred-thousand-koku Daishoji Domain, and became a center of government and economy.
And this land holds two products that the sea and the domain each raised. The product on the side of the sea is the kitamaebune. The ship-owners who built their fortunes by the sea trade of the Sea of Japan set up their mansions in this land’s hamlet of Hashidate. By the records, this small hamlet held as many as forty-eight ship-owners, and their wealth is said to have supported even the domain’s finances. This hamlet, which made its fortune crossing the sea, was later called “Japan’s richest village,” and the mansions of its ship-owners and captains still remain as a townscape, chosen as a cultural heritage of the nation. The product on the side of the domain is overglaze porcelain. As the domain advanced the development of its mines, in a certain village a stone fit to be the raw material of porcelain was found, and the domain sent a craftsman to a distant porcelain-producing region to learn the technique. That craftsman returned, opened a kiln, and began to fire vividly overglaze-painted porcelain. This is held to be the birth of the overglaze porcelain that bears this land’s name. The rich village that made its fortune by the kitamaebune, and the birth of the overglaze porcelain that the domain raised — the history that the geography of a land facing the Sea of Japan and the workings of the domain took in lies at the foundation of today’s Kaga.
Source: Kaga City, “Hashidate, the home of the kitamaebune certified as Japan Heritage” (Hashidate, “Japan’s richest village,” with 48 ship-owners — overview) / Kaga City, “What is Kutani ware” (the Daishoji Domain; the porcelain stone of Kutani village; Goto Saijiro; the origin of overglaze-painted porcelain — overview)
03 · In the town of the kitamaebune and Kutani ware, the population falls after the new merger
What characterizes Kaga-shi is that, while holding the history of the rich village of the kitamaebune and the birth of overglaze porcelain, it has lost population and deepened in age after widening its municipal area through a new merger. From 74,982 in 2005, including Yamanaka town, to 63,220 in 2020, it lost about twelve thousand over fifteen years. As the age of the kitamaebune recedes and the footing of new industries to replace the sea trade grows thin, a flow of the younger generation moving to cities and metropolitan areas such as Kanazawa can be read as continuing. As a regional city founded on hot springs and local industry, the population has fallen. That the share aged 65 and over reached 35.9% in 2020, drawing near four in ten, is one expression of that population composition.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist has stayed at zero. Against the fallen population, the childcare capacity can be read as held. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.54 is a level whose own tax revenue covers a little over half of expenditure, in the middle range for a small or mid-sized city. Hot-spring tourism and local industries such as overglaze porcelain can be read as giving a certain thickness to the tax source. The population falls, aging draws near four in ten, and yet the stamina of finances stays in the middle range and the waitlist holds at zero — that the memory of a former wealth and a present contraction dwell together in the same town is the figure of Kaga on the Sea of Japan in its numbers. Follow only the decline of population, and the thickness of the tax source that hot springs and kilns sustain does not come into view.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · The town where the rich village of the kitamaebune and the birth of overglaze porcelain overlap
Kaga holds several functions of its own. One is the history of being the castle town of the hundred-thousand-koku Daishoji Domain, holding an old layer that flourished as a center of government and economy. Another is the hamlet of Hashidate, where as many as forty-eight ship-owners who made their fortunes by the sea trade of the Sea of Japan set up their mansions and which was called “Japan’s richest village,” keeping a townscape of ship-owners later chosen as a cultural heritage of the nation. And the character of being the birthplace of the overglaze porcelain that the domain raised, together with hot-spring resorts where many waters well, gives this town its own structure.
Kaga is a town where the rich village of the kitamaebune and the birth of overglaze porcelain overlap. From the domain’s castle town, to the rich village that made its fortune by the sea trade, to the birthplace of the overglaze porcelain that the domain raised — the geography and the working of “facing the Sea of Japan, where the domain opened its mines” called forth the rich village of the kitamaebune and gave birth to the overglaze porcelain. In the southwest corner of Ishikawa Prefecture, on a land facing the Sea of Japan, two memories — the wealth of the sea trade and the domain’s porcelain — lie over each other. That is the town of Kaga.
Source: Kaga City, “Hashidate, the home of the kitamaebune certified as Japan Heritage” (Hashidate, “Japan’s richest village,” with 48 ship-owners — overview) / Kaga City, “What is Kutani ware” (the Daishoji Domain; the porcelain stone of Kutani village; Goto Saijiro; the origin of overglaze-painted porcelain — overview)
05 · Atlas note — what remained in the town of the kitamaebune and Kutani ware
A population falling after the merger, an aging rate of 35.9%, a household-with-children share of 18.6%, fiscal capacity of 0.54. Lay out Kaga’s indicators and the numbers of a regional city facing the Sea of Japan come together. Because as a certified public accountant I am of the disposition to first make sure of the seams of population, what I want to set down is that this step owes to the 2005 new merger with Yamanaka town. The 68,368 of 2000 is the figure of the old Kaga City alone, and it cannot simply be joined to the 74,982 of 2005, which includes Yamanaka town. Reading the gradient of the decline — about twelve thousand lost over the fifteen years after the merger — is the proper course.
On that basis, I (Atlas) want to count what remained — as one makes sure of the closing balance of a ledger. This town’s two strands of history were both “wealth that the sea and the domain brought.” “Japan’s richest village,” where ship-owners who made their fortunes by the sea trade set up their mansions, and the birth of overglaze porcelain born as the domain opened its mines. The age of the kitamaebune has receded, and the footing of the industry that replaced the sea trade has grown thin. Even so, the townscape of the ship-owners of Hashidate remains as a cultural heritage of the nation, the technique of overglaze porcelain is still carried on as kilns, and the waters of the hot-spring resorts well as before. The flourishing wealth itself has gone, but the townscape, the technique and the waters that wealth left behind have stayed, unmoved, on this land. The wealth that left, and the townscape that remained — to read Kaga’s numbers is also to make sure, at the hand of one’s own living, of how this subtraction is to be closed.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Kaga City, “Hashidate, the home of the kitamaebune certified as Japan Heritage” (Hashidate, “Japan’s richest village,” with 48 ship-owners — overview) / Kaga City, “What is Kutani ware” (the Daishoji Domain; the porcelain stone of Kutani village; Goto Saijiro; the origin of overglaze-painted porcelain — 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 (Daiki 2026-06-02)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave14_3