In this city, swords have been forged for some eight hundred years. The craft that gathered swordsmiths from many places and gave birth to swords that do not break, do not bend and cut well was, in modern times, passed on to the blades of daily life — kitchen knives, scissors and the like. And this city, having widened its municipal area through the Heisei mergers, now holds within that area the population centroid of Japan. Seki’s numbers are the record of a city inscribed with the craft passed from sword to blade and the merger that widened the municipal area.
A city in the Chuno region of Gifu Prefecture, opening where the Nagara River meets its tributaries. The population, with the municipal area widened by the 2005 merger, moved from 92,597 in 2005 to 85,283 in 2020. Note that the 2000 population of the former Seki City before the merger was 74,438, and the step in the numbers of this article mirrors that merger. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "the town of blades," but the causal thread: how the history of the craft passed from sword to blade and the merger that widened the municipal area is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · See the present Seki City in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about eighty-five thousand (85,283 in 2020). To read this city’s population, one must take the merger into account. In 2005 Seki City incorporated five surrounding towns and villages and greatly widened its municipal area. The 2000 population of the former Seki City before the merger was 74,438, and after the merger, in 2005, it was 92,597. From there it fell gently after the merger, to 91,418 in 2010, 89,153 in 2015 and 85,283 in 2020. The step in the population of this article mirrors this expansion of the municipal area by the merger.
Looking inside the figures, the figure befitting a core city of Chuno that holds industry appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 15.6% in 2000 to 30.5% in 2020, past three in ten. The household-with-children share is on the higher side at 22.0% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.59 in fiscal 2023 — a middling level for a small-to-medium city, whose own tax revenue can cover about six-tenths of expenditure. The figure of the town of blades that passed the craft of the sword on to the kitchen knife, gently losing population in the post-merger municipal area while deepening its aging, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the Seki smiths and the merger.
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 Seki smiths since Kamakura, from sword to kitchen knife, the merger that widened the municipal area — the history behind the numbers
This city’s skeleton is set by the swordmaking that began some eight hundred years ago, the craft that passed it on to the modern blade, and the merger that widened the municipal area. The old layer is the sword. In the Kamakura period of the 13th century, swordmaking is said to have begun in this place. As a crossroads connecting the capital and the eastern provinces, this place was blessed with the fine clay, the pine charcoal and the river water indispensable to swordmaking, so many swordsmiths gathered from many places. In the Northern and Southern Courts period, the swordmaking craft of this place was established as a single school, counted as one of the famous schools of the sword of Japan. Esteemed as not breaking, not bending and cutting well, the swords of this place were sought by many warriors. Among them, the name of a master smith is still told as a byword for the sword representative of this place.
And in modern times, this city passed the craft of the sword on to the blade of daily life. After the age of warriors ended and the demand for swords was lost, the craft of the swordsmiths of this place was passed on to the making of the blades of daily life — kitchen knives, scissors, razors, nail clippers — and the city became a town that, as a great production center of blades, sends its products even abroad. Meanwhile, in 2005 Seki City incorporated five surrounding towns and villages and greatly widened its municipal area. With this merger the city took on a distinctive shape, embracing a certain town, and came to hold within its municipal area the population centroid of Japan. Passing the swordmaking craft since Kamakura on to the kitchen knife, and widening the municipal area through the merger — this city’s shape stands upon the history of swordmaking and the merger that the geography of a crossroads of river and traffic held.
Source: The blades of Seki, "Seki, the city of blades" (Seki smiths from 13th-century Kamakura / the Mino tradition in the Northern and Southern Courts era / Seki no Magoroku — overview) / Seki City (city status in 1950 / the incorporation of five towns and villages of Mugi County in 2005 forming a V-shaped municipal area = the population centroid of Japan / blades — overview)
03 · In the town of blades, gently losing the population of the post-merger municipal area
What characterizes Seki City is that, while holding the history of the craft passed from sword to blade, it is gently losing the population of the municipal area widened by the merger. From 92,597 after the merger in 2005 to 85,283 in 2020, it fell by some seven thousand over fifteen years. The blade-making industry that inherited the craft of the sword still supports the places to work of this city, yet even so the population of the municipal area, including the mountain towns and villages embraced by the merger, has fallen gently. Especially in the incorporated mountain area, the flow of the younger generation moving to the urban areas has advanced the fall in population, as it can be read. That the share aged 65 and over passed three in ten at 30.5% in 2020 is an expression of that population composition.
On the other hand, the household-with-children share is on the higher side at 22.0% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist, too, was zero in both 2024 and 2025. It can be read that industries such as blade making support to a degree the life of the working child-rearing generation. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.59 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover about six-tenths of expenditure, middling for a small-to-medium city. It can be read that the establishments of the blade industry and the income of the residents support the tax source at the middling level. The town of blades now gently loses population in the post-merger municipal area while deepening its aging. The population fell gently after the merger, the aging passed three in ten, and the fiscal stamina is middling. That the finances are kept middling amid a falling population is none other than because the blade making inherited from the sword still supports the places to work of the municipal area.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A city that passed the craft of the sword on to the kitchen knife and holds the population centroid within its municipal area
Seki holds several functions of its own. One is the history of swordmaking, forged in this place since Kamakura and established as a single school, holding the old stratum esteemed as not breaking, not bending and cutting well. Another is the character that, after the age of warriors ended, it passed the craft of the sword on to the blades of daily life such as kitchen knives and scissors, retaining the structure of a production center of blades that sends its products even abroad. And the municipal area widened by the 2005 merger gives this city the rare position of holding the population centroid of Japan.
Seki is a city that passed the craft of the sword on to the kitchen knife and holds the population centroid within its municipal area. From swordmaking since Kamakura, through its inheritance into the blades of daily life, to the merger that widened the municipal area — the geography of "being blessed as a crossroads of river and traffic" summoned swordsmiths from many places, rooted swordmaking, and set the city’s skeleton. When the age of warriors ended and the demand for swords vanished, the craft of this place, not breaking and not bending, survived by changing the object it bore to kitchen knives and scissors. What continued for eight hundred years was not the sword itself, but the hand that forges steel.
Source: The blades of Seki, "Seki, the city of blades" (Seki smiths from 13th-century Kamakura / the Mino tradition in the Northern and Southern Courts era / Seki no Magoroku — overview) / Seki City (city status in 1950 / the incorporation of five towns and villages of Mugi County in 2005 forming a V-shaped municipal area = the population centroid of Japan / blades — overview)
05 · Atlas note — what continued for eight hundred years is not the sword but the hand that faces the steel
Lay out Seki’s numbers and the indicators of a core city of Chuno that holds industry line up: a population falling gently after the merger, an aging rate of 30.5%, a household-with-children share of 22.0%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.59. But what I (Atlas), with the accountant’s eye, want first to note is that the step in this city’s population is owing to the 2005 merger. The 2000 population of the former Seki City before the merger was 74,438, and the number 92,597 of 2005 is the result of incorporating five towns and villages and widening the municipal area. In reading population numbers in time series, overlooking such a merger step misreads the city’s figure. That is why one must read after noting the value of the former city alone.
Upon that, what I want to read is the point that the craft of the sword was passed on to the blade of daily life. When the age of warriors ended and the demand for swords was lost, the craft of the swordsmiths of this place did not vanish but changed its form to the making of the blades of daily life such as kitchen knives and scissors. A single craft, changing the object it bears to meet the demand of the age, has been passed on over eight hundred years — the thread can be read that this power of inheritance still supports the places to work of this city and keeps the household-with-children share on the higher side. The hand that forged the steel a warrior wore at his waist now forges the kitchen knife that stands in the kitchen. Had the smiths, at that moment when the demand for the sword vanished, let go of the steel itself, the places to work of this city would long since have grown thin. What continued for eight hundred years was not the sword but the hand that faces the steel — so what will that hand forge next? Only the craftsmen who now face the steel in this city, and the children who grow up watching their backs, can ask that.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / The blades of Seki, "Seki, the city of blades" (Seki smiths from 13th-century Kamakura / the Mino tradition in the Northern and Southern Courts era / Seki no Magoroku — overview) / Seki City (city status in 1950 / the incorporation of five towns and villages of Mugi County in 2005 forming a V-shaped municipal area = the population centroid of Japan / blades — 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: wave15_8