Ueda-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about one hundred and fifty-four thousand (154,055 in 2020). What I want to note first is that the sharp rise of thirty-six thousand, from 123,680 in 2005 to 159,597 in 2010, is not the result of people naturally increasing. It is owing to the city area widening through the merger of 2006, and the step in the numbers mirrors that merger. That the number of schools jumped from 16 in 2005 to 25 in 2006 is also due to the same merger.

Reading the contents after the merger on that basis, it has fallen gently, from 159,597 in 2010 to 154,055 in 2020. Those under 15 thinned surely, from 21,916 in 2010, after the merger, to 18,338 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 19.4% in 2000 to 30.6% in 2020, passing three in ten. The household-with-children share is 20.7% (2020). The Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.58 in fiscal 2023. The figure of a city area widened by the merger quietly piling on years appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the castle and the thread.

Ueda’s skeleton is set down by a single castle. In 1583 (Tensho 11) Sanada Masayuki built Ueda Castle near the center of the Ueda Basin. A sturdy castle ringed with moat and earthwork, with stone walls set at its gateways, it became known across the land for having twice turned back the great armies of the Tokugawa, in the First and Second Battles of Ueda. A warring-states castle was this town’s starting point.

In the Edo era, Ueda flourished not only as a castle town but also as a post station on the Hokkoku Kaido. As a key point of the highway where people and goods passed to and fro, a town grew at the center of the basin. And entering the Meiji era, the town came to hold one more face. The whole Ueda region was a land that had flourished from of old in the making of silkworm eggs — the seed of the silkworm — and on that base, sericulture, silk reeling and weaving developed together, raising an age called “the silkworm capital (santo) Ueda.” A town that grew as a castle town and a post station became known across the country, in the modern era, as a town of thread — this overlap decided the town’s character.

What decided the shape of the present city area was the Heisei merger. In March 2006 (Heisei 18) the former Ueda-shi newly merged with Maruko town, Sanada town and Takeshi village, and the city centered on the castle town widened into a broad city of eastern Shinshu, joining the surrounding towns and villages. The number of schools jumped from 16 to 25 because the school networks of several former towns and villages were bound into one city through this merger. It began with a warring-states castle, flourished as a post station of the highway, became the silkworm capital in the modern era, and widened by the merger — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the castle and the thread.

What characterizes Ueda-shi is that, after the city area widened by the merger, the population falls gently and aging has passed three in ten. From 2010, after the merger, to 2020, the total population fell by more than five thousand, and those under 15 thinned surely. Without large inflow or outflow, the generations already living grow old just as they are — a shape common to matured regional central cities.

The numbers of living infrastructure mirror both the merger and the maturing. Primary schools jumped at once from 16 to 25 in the merger of 2006, the school networks of the former towns and villages bound as they were. Since then they have moved at around 25, and even as the children fall gently, the school network spread across a wide city area is on the whole kept. The Childcare Waitlist has moved at zero in recent years. But this is, rather than the result of demand being fully met, more strongly a side in which supply and demand balance while the number of children thins gently. The total population falls gently, the children thin, and aging advances. The central city of eastern Shinshu — which began as a castle town that twice turned back the Tokugawa, flourished as a silkworm capital, and widened by the merger — has now entered a phase in which, without large comings and goings, the resident generations grow old together. The numbers mirror not good or bad, but the structure of that maturing.

Ueda is a castle town centered on Ueda Castle, which twice turned back the great armies of the Tokugawa. A warring-states castle and an Edo-era post station of the Hokkoku Kaido set the town down at the center of the basin. Upon them, in the modern era, one more face is laid. The whole Ueda region flourished from of old in making the silkworm egg — the seed of the silkworm — and on that base sericulture, silk reeling and weaving developed together, raising an age called “the silkworm capital Ueda.” Modern buildings tied to sericulture still remain in the town. And the merger of 2006 bound the castle town and the surrounding former towns and villages into one wide city area.

From the warring-states Ueda Castle, to the post station of the highway, to the modern silkworm capital, and to the wide city widened by the merger — at the center of the basin through which the Chikuma River flows, a castle that turned back the Tokugawa was built, and in the modern era it flourished by the thread of the silkworm. The sturdy castle Sanada Masayuki built made the town’s starting point, and the thread of the silkworm brought modern prosperity to that town. The sturdy castle of the warring states, and the modern thread — these two strands of history, fallen upon the basin across time, wove the town of Ueda into one.