Aoki-mura

In the latest Population Census the population is about four thousand one hundred (4,121 in 2020). From 4,937 in 2000, through 4,774 in 2005, 4,609 in 2010 and 4,343 in 2015, to 4,121 in 2020, it fell by more than eight hundred over twenty years.

Looking inside the figures, the figure of a mountain village at the western edge of the Ueda Basin appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 28.5% in 2000 to 39.4% in 2020 — about eleven points over twenty years, drawing near four in ten. The household-with-children share is high for a village at 20.7% in 2020. The employment rate is 54.3% in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.22 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue can cover only a little over two-tenths of expenditure, with a large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The figure of a mountain village holding the most uprisings in Japan and a national-treasure pagoda, losing population while raising the town’s age, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the righteous commoners and the national-treasure pagoda.

A temperament of the righteous commoners’ mettle. Uprisings reaching five times. And a fourteenth-century national-treasure pagoda. The shape of Aoki-mura is supported by these three. The opening layer is the temperament. In this village an old saying is handed down: "the evening shower and the uprising both come from Aoki." As the evening shower comes from the direction of this village, so too does the uprising rise from this village — that is its meaning. In fact, from the Edo era into the Meiji era, in this small mountain village five peasant uprisings occurred, making it, as a single locality, the village with the most frequent uprisings in Japan. To resist heavy land taxes and corvee labor, to stand up for the common people at the risk of one’s life — such mettle is this village’s old foundation. The village still calls those who stood up "righteous commoners" and holds them in pride, beating the drum and handing down their spirit.

That village of mettle holds one more treasure, of utterly differing nature. It is a three-tiered pagoda, built in the mid-fourteenth century. Designated a national treasure for the excellence of its Japanese-style form and its harmony with the surrounding scenery, this pagoda is so beautiful that visitors look back, reluctant to leave, and so it is also called the "Pagoda of the Backward Glance." A village of mettle that stood up five times against heavy land taxes has, at the same time, guarded and handed down for nearly seven hundred years a pagoda so beautiful one cannot help but look back. The village’s name, it is told, derives from a single tree that served as a signpost of the Tosando. A mettle that resisted heavy land taxes five times, and a pagoda so beautiful one looks back — two histories of differing nature, upon which this village’s present stands.

What characterizes Aoki-mura is that, while holding the history of the most uprisings in Japan and a national-treasure pagoda, it has lost more than eight hundred of its population over twenty years. From 4,937 in 2000 to 4,121 in 2020, the fall is about fifteen percent. The position in the mountains at the western edge of the Ueda Basin is far from the places to work and to learn of the larger cities, and the younger generation finds it easy to leave the village. Neither the history of mettle that resisted heavy land taxes five times nor the presence of a pagoda so beautiful one looks back stays that flow of population at once. A population fall by the very character of a mountain village has continued, as it can be read. That the share aged 65 and over drew near four in ten at 39.4% in 2020 is an expression of this.

On the other hand, the household-with-children share is high for a village at 20.7% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. This can be read as an expression of how, while losing population, households raising children go on living in this village at a certain share. The employment rate is 54.3% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.22 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover only a little over two-tenths of expenditure, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The farming of the mountains, the hot springs, and the trades that receive those who visit the national-treasure pagoda support the village’s living to some degree, but as an own tax source they are thin. A population fall of about fifteen percent, an aging drawing near four in ten, a household-with-children share high for a village. These are separate indicators, yet all stem from the single history that "in the mountains somewhat far from the power of the capital, a resisting mettle and a stillness that guards and hands down have dwelt together." Gaze at any one number pulled out alone, and the image of this village does not come together.

Aoki holds several histories of its own. One is the starting point of being a village of righteous-commoner mettle — said to be the place where "the evening shower and the uprising both come from Aoki," with the most frequent uprisings in Japan as a single locality from the Edo era into the Meiji era. Another is the character that this same village has guarded and handed down for nearly seven hundred years a national-treasure pagoda, built in the mid-fourteenth century, so beautiful one looks back. A mettle that resists heavy land taxes, and a beauty that makes one look back despite oneself — two histories that seem, at first glance, irreconcilable dwell together in this single mountain village. The position in the mountains at the western edge of the Ueda Basin, somewhat far from the power of the capital, fostered a resisting mettle, and also let a pagoda — a flower of the capital’s culture — be guarded and handed down unseen.

Aoki is a village where a resisting mettle and a beautiful pagoda dwell together in one mountain village. From "the evening shower and the uprising both come from Aoki," through the five uprisings and the national-treasure pagoda, to the population fall — the geography of "the mountains at the western edge of the Ueda Basin" gave this village both a mettle that resists heavy land taxes and a stillness that guards and hands down a flower of the capital’s culture. The memory of the rough uprisings and the pagoda, still enough to hold one’s breath, stand side by side, seven hundred years apart, within the same single village. That very irreconcilability is at the root of this village.