Ena-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about forty-eight thousand (47,774 in 2020). In 2004 this city was established by binding anew the town of the Nakasendo post town and five surrounding towns and villages into one, so the step in population for the municipal area appears between 2000 and 2005, when the merger is mirrored in the Population Census. The population seen for the post-town part alone was 35,677 in 2000, and for the post-merger municipal area it was 55,761 in 2005, 53,718 in 2010, 51,073 in 2015 and 47,774 in 2020 — it has fallen.

Looking inside the figures, the figure of a highland post-town city appears. The share aged 65 and over rose about fifteen points over twenty years, from 20.7% in 2000 for the post-town part alone to 35.3% in 2020 for the post-merger municipal area, well past three in ten. The household-with-children share is 20.6% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.44 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue does not reach half of expenditure, with a large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The figure of a city that was a post town of the Nakasendo, losing population after the merger while its aging advances, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the highway, the mountain castle and the merger.

This city’s skeleton is set by the landform of the eastern highland of Mino, the Nakasendo post town crossing that highland, the castle town of a Kamakura mountain castle in a town it bound together, and the merger of five towns and villages. The opening layer is the highway post town. In this place of the eastern highland of Mino, in the Edo era, a post town of the Nakasendo opened. As a highway post town, people and goods came and went here, and the post town became this city’s old center. The highway crossing the highland was the foundation of this place.

To this post town, the castle town of a Kamakura mountain castle was bound. In one of the towns it bound together is a mountain castle built in the Kamakura era, and, with a legend that a female castellan governed it, a domain was placed there in the Edo era, and the townscape of its castle town still remains. The path by which it became a city also mirrors this city. In 2004 the town of the Nakasendo post town was bound anew into one with five surrounding towns and villages, and the present city was established. A gorge where the Kiso River was dammed holds the scenery of deep ravines. The eastern highland of Mino, the Nakasendo post town, the castle town of a Kamakura mountain castle, and the merger of five towns and villages — this city’s shape stands upon the history of the highway post town and the mountain castle that the eastern highland of Mino held.

What characterizes Ena City is that, while holding the history of a highland post town and a mountain castle, it loses population after the merger and advances its aging. The 35,677 of 2000 for the post-town part alone became 55,761 in 2005 for the post-merger municipal area, then fell to 47,774 in 2020 — by some eight thousand over fifteen years. Even in this highland place known as a post town of the Nakasendo and as the castle town of a mountain castle, a part of the younger generation moved toward the larger cities or Nagoya, and, combined with the aging of the surrounding towns and villages added by the merger, the age of the whole city has risen, as it can be read. That the share aged 65 and over passed well over three in ten at 35.3% in 2020 is an expression of this.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 20.6% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.44 is a level whose own tax revenue does not reach half of expenditure, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax seen in common across the hilly and mountainous land broadly scattered over the highland. The city that was a post town of the Nakasendo now loses population after the merger while advancing its aging. The population fell after the merger, the aging reaches the mid-thirty-percent range, and the fiscal stamina is not thick on tax revenue alone. These are a single make-up — hilly and mountainous land broadly scattered over the highland — branching off into separate numbers.

Ena holds several functions of its own. One is the history of a highway post town, opened as a post town of the Nakasendo crossing the eastern highland of Mino, where people and goods came and went. Another is the character of holding, in one of the towns it bound together, the castle town of a mountain castle built in the Kamakura era and conveying the legend of a female castellan, and of embracing the scenery of the deep ravines of a gorge where the Kiso River was dammed. And the landform of the eastern highland of Mino made this city embrace both the highway post town and the castle town of the mountain castle.

Ena is a city where the eastern highland of Mino held a Nakasendo post town and the castle town of a mountain castle. From the highway post town crossing the highland, through the castle town of a Kamakura mountain castle, to the merger of five towns and villages — the geography of "the eastern highland of Mino" set the highway post town and made a town it bound together embrace the castle town of a mountain castle. Before the pass where the Nakasendo crosses the highland, the lights of the post town where people and freight spent a night still remain as the history of the city’s center. The deep ravines of a gorge where the Kiso River was dammed wait behind it.