Azumino-shi

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 94,000 (94,222 in 2020). What must be noted first is that this city’s population statistics begin in 2005. Azumino City was born in 2005 from the new merger of five towns and villages, and no figures exist for it as a single city before then. Its starting point is 2005 because the city itself was created in that year.

Looking into the makeup after the merger, the population fell only by some two thousand over fifteen years, from 96,266 in 2005 to 94,222 in 2020 — roughly close to level. On the other hand, those under 15 fell by some two thousand five hundred, from 13,832 in 2005 to 11,364 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 23.1% in 2005 to 31.8% in 2020. Households with children were 22.7%, high, and the childcare waitlist has been zero in recent years; the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.50 in FY2023. The numbers show an alluvial-fan town born of merger, holding its total while quietly growing older. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back to the history of the spring water and the village.

Azumino’s skeleton is set by the water that wells up at the foot of the Northern Alps. The snow and rain that fall on the mountains flow over a long time through the underground of the alluvial fan and appear at the surface here and there at the foot as clear spring water. This abundant spring water has supported wasabi cultivation and rainbow-trout farming here. That products requiring cold, clear water are inseparable from the terrain of this alluvial fan — that is one of the foundations of this town.

What carries the life of that village into the present is the dosojin standing here and there on the paddy ridges and at the crossroads. Azumino is also called a treasury of dosojin, and the stone Buddhas placed at village entrances and forks in the road, guarding the village boundaries and praying for the harvest of the five grains and the prosperity of descendants, convey just as it was the form of life of the village people. Together with the spring water, these stone Buddhas of prayer have shaped the landscape of the alluvial-fan village.

And in the place name itself an old history is inscribed. The name “Azumi” is said to derive from the “Azumi clan,” who are said to have made their living from the sea in ancient times, and the wonder that the name of a people of the sea remains on this inland alluvial fan far from the sea tells of the old stratum of this land. What decided the shape of the present city was the Heisei-era merger. In 2005, the five municipalities of Toyoshina Town, Hotaka Town, Misato Village, Horigane Village and Akashina Town newly merged, and Azumino City, binding the whole alluvial fan together, was born. Beginning with the wasabi village of spring water, a countryside dotted with dosojin, and the union of five towns and villages — this town’s shape stands upon a history of spring water and the village.

What characterizes Azumino is that, while its total population after the merger has held roughly level, the children are falling and aging is advancing. That the total has barely fallen can be read as a sign that, within the Chunan region of the prefecture, with countryside life and a measure of industry behind it, it has largely held back the outflow of population. But behind that, those under 15 fell by some two thousand five hundred over fifteen years, and the aging rate passed three in ten. Even as the town’s headcount is held, its makeup is steadily growing older.

The figures for living infrastructure also mirror this stability. The elementary schools have moved steadily at ten since the merger. After the five municipalities became one, the school network rooted in each district has been held without much increase or decrease. Even as the children gently fall, the network of ten schools dispersed across the alluvial fan is maintained. The childcare waitlist has moved at zero in recent years. The town known as a wasabi village of spring water and a countryside dotted with dosojin now holds its total on an alluvial fan bound together by merger, while quietly growing older. The total population is level, the children are falling, and aging passes three in ten. On an alluvial fan where the snow of the Northern Alps wells up after a long passage of time, the wasabi paddies and the dosojin crossroads remain unchanged, and only the households beneath them quietly grow old.

The functions Azumino holds are not one. There is the character of a village of water that raises wasabi and farms fish with the spring water of the Northern Alps, where products requiring clear, cold water are tied to the terrain of this alluvial fan. There is the landscape that has kept, just as it was, the form of village life and prayer in the dosojin dotted along the paddy ridges. And the place name said to derive from the “Azumi clan,” a people of the sea, inscribes an old stratum of history on this inland alluvial fan.

Azumino is a town where spring water and prayer overlap on an alluvial fan. From the spring-water village of the Northern Alps, to a countryside dotted with dosojin, to a city where five towns and villages became one — the geography in which the mountains’ snow wells up at the foot after a long time drew the wasabi village and the life of the village. On an inland far from the sea, the name of a people who made their living from the sea and the wasabi paddies of clear spring water live together. The richness of the land that the mountains’ snow brings, and the fiscal reality in which its own tax revenue covers only half of expenditure, stand side by side on this alluvial fan.