Inuyama-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 73,000 (73,090 in 2020). Its course is a shape of holding around seventy thousand and then turning to decline. From 72,583 in 2000 it rose, through 74,294 in 2005 and 75,198 in 2010, to hold around seventy thousand, then turned to decline toward 74,308 in 2015 and 73,090 in 2020.

Looking inside the figures, the form of a city of a castle town facing a river appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 16.0% in 2000 to 30.2% in 2020, passing three in ten. The household-with-children share is 20.0% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.85 in fiscal 2023, an above-median level whose own tax revenue can cover a little over eight-tenths of expenditure. The figure of a city of a castle town of the oldest keep, facing a river, that held its population around seventy thousand and then turned to decline as it ages, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the river, the castle and the cormorant fishing.

This town’s skeleton is set by the landform of a height on the left bank of a great river, by the castle of the oldest keep standing on that height, and by the castle town and the cormorant fishing. The starting layer is the castle. This town lies on a height on the left bank of a great river, and on that height stands a castle said to have been built in the Warring States period. The castle’s keep is of the oldest surviving form, one of the keeps raised to a treasure of the nation, of which there are but a handful in this country. The opposite bank of the river belongs to the neighboring prefecture. A castle of the oldest keep standing on a height facing a river — this is the history of this town’s center.

The castle’s lords were a family who, through the Edo era, served as senior retainers of the great Owari domain. In the castle town, a structure enclosing the whole town was laid out, and the Edo-era town layout survives just as it is even now. The cormorant fishing, said to have begun when the lords’ family invited cormorant masters from Mikawa, has been kept up for over three hundred years, with the castle at its back, as an old fishery that, on summer nights, lights bonfires and has cormorants catch fish. A height on the left bank of a great river, a castle of the oldest keep, the castle town of a great domain’s senior retainers, and three hundred years of cormorant fishing — this town’s shape stands upon the history of a castle town of the oldest keep that a height on the left bank of a great river held.

What characterizes Inuyama is that, while holding the history of a castle town of the oldest keep, facing a river, it held its population around seventy thousand and then turned to decline, and is aging. It held around seventy thousand from 74,294 in 2005 through 75,198 in 2010, then declined toward 73,090 in 2020. In this city, too, which holds the castle town of the oldest keep, it can be read that a portion of the young generation moved to the larger nearby cities and that the age of the whole town rose. That the share aged 65 and over passed three in ten, at 30.2% in 2020, is the expression of that.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 20.0% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.85 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover a little over eight-tenths of expenditure, above the median. It can be read that the income of households living in a castle-town city near the metropolitan sphere, and the manufacturing livelihoods located here, support the tax source above the median. The city of a castle town of the oldest keep, facing a river, now holds its population and then turns to decline, even as it ages. The population held and then turned to decline, the aging passed three in ten, and the fiscal stamina is above the median. The above-median finances are the expression that the households living in a castle town near the metropolitan sphere, and the manufacturing livelihoods located here, support the tax source.

Inuyama holds several functions of its own. One is its history of holding, on a height on the left bank of a great river, a castle crowned with a keep of the oldest surviving form, raised to a treasure of the nation. Another is its character of succeeding, as the castle town of a family who served as senior retainers of the great Owari domain, to the Edo-era town layout just as it is, and to over three hundred years of cormorant fishing. And the landform of a height on the left bank of a great river raised both the castle looking down on the river and the cormorant fishing that makes use of the river in this land.

Inuyama is a city where a height on the left bank of a great river held a castle town of the oldest keep. From the castle of the oldest keep, to the castle town of a great domain’s senior retainers, the Edo-era town layout, and three hundred years of cormorant fishing — the geography of "a height on the left bank of a great river" set the castle looking down on the river, and had it succeed to cormorant fishing, three hundred years running, on that river’s surface. This keep standing on a height on the left bank of a great river is said to convey the oldest surviving form even among the handful of keeps raised to a treasure of the nation. That height called a castle in the Warring States period, set the castle town of a great domain’s senior retainers in the Edo era, and left three-hundred-year cormorant fishing on the river’s surface.

Lay out Inuyama’s numbers and the indicators of a city of a castle town facing a river line up: a population that held around seventy thousand and then declined, an aging rate of 30.2%, a household-with-children share of 20.0%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.85. But when I (Atlas) read this town with the accountant’s eye, what I want to read is the weight of the history — that this town’s castle is crowned with "a keep of the oldest surviving form." The keep of this castle, standing on a height on the left bank of a great river, is one of the keeps raised to a treasure of the nation, of which there are but a handful in this country, and is said to convey the oldest surviving form among them. The chain — that the advantage of a height looking down on the river called a castle in the Warring States period, set the castle town of a great domain’s senior retainers in the Edo era, and that castle town left the Edo-era town layout to this day — explains this town’s map well.

Lay out Inuyama’s numbers and the indicators of a city of a castle town facing a river line up: a population that held around seventy thousand and then declined, an aging rate of 30.2%, a household-with-children share of 20.0%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.85. What I (Atlas) want to read is the single point that this town "has kept up, for over three hundred years, a cormorant fishing that makes use of the river." This old fishery, said to have begun when the castle lords’ family invited cormorant masters from Mikawa, lights bonfires on summer nights and has cormorants catch fish, and is still kept up with the castle at its back.

Stand on a height on the left bank of the Kiso River and the scene appears in one continuous view. On the height stands a keep of the oldest surviving form, raised to a treasure of the nation; at its foot the Edo-era town layout survives just as it is; and on the river’s surface below, three-hundred-year bonfires waver. The opposite bank is already the neighboring prefecture. Even as the population strikes a ceiling around seventy thousand and the aging passes three in ten, the layers of time piled on this height and this river’s surface neither decline nor increase — the weight of the town called Inuyama dwells not in the number of its population, but in this unchanging scene.