Kishiwada-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 191,000 (190,658 in 2020). From 200,104 in 2000, about ten thousand fell over twenty years, and a gentle decline continues.

What I want to see here is that the loss of children stands out. Those under 15 fell by nearly nine thousand over twenty years, from 32,579 in 2000 to 23,665 in 2020. In the same period, the share aged 65 and over rose from 15.5% to 28.1%, up to nearly three in ten. The household-with-children share is 21.1% (2020). The primary schools have stayed at twenty-four for more than twenty years, and the school network is kept even against the loss of children. The Childcare Waitlist has been a few persons in recent years, a nearly held-down level. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.61 in fiscal 2023. Its own tax revenue can cover only about six-tenths of expenditure, and a structure leaning on the local allocation tax is visible. The figure of a Senshu city that gently sheds population and children and mounts its years appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the castle town and spinning.

Kishiwada’s skeleton is set upon the old layer of a castle town. In the Edo era, Okabe Nobukatsu entered Kishiwada Castle in 1640 as overseer toward the Kishu domain, and thereafter the Okabe house governed this land for thirteen generations, until the abolition of the domains in the Meiji era. With the castle at its center, the townsmen’s quarters spread, and a castle town with a lively coming-and-going of people, goods, and money grew. The starting point of a castle town facing Osaka Bay produced the character of being the center of Senshu.

This castle town raised a single festival that has continued for nearly three hundred years. It is the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival. There are several accounts of its beginning: one traces it to the Inari festival begun in 1703 when the lord of the time invited Fushimi Inari into the castle, and another to the time, in 1745, when permission was sought of the lord to raise votive lanterns at the festival. In any case, begun as the festival of the castle town, this festival, in which danjiri floats of several tons are hauled and race through the streets of the castle town, has gone on being the symbol of the town. The castle town raised the festival — this history has become one of the town’s faces.

Entering the modern era, a new layer was added to the town’s character. Kishiwada became the center of Senshu’s economy and culture, flourishing by spinning, represented by the Terada zaibatsu. Upon the economy of the castle town, the modern textile industry overlapped, and the town developed as the keystone of the Senshu region. Beginning as a castle town, raising a festival, and flourishing by spinning — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the castle town, the festival, and spinning.

What characterizes Kishiwada is that, while it gently sheds population and children steadily thin, the school network is kept. Those under 15 fell by nearly nine thousand over twenty years, but the city’s primary schools have not moved from twenty-four for more than twenty years. That the number of schools does not change even as children decrease means that the number of children per school is thinning.

The other numbers of living infrastructure mirror this gentle shrinkage too. The Childcare Waitlist has been a few persons in recent years, a nearly held-down level. But this is, rather than the result of demand fully met, strong in the aspect that supply and demand balance amid a falling absolute number of children. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.61 shows that its own tax revenue can cover only about six-tenths of expenditure, leaning on the local allocation tax. The central city of Senshu, which flourished by spinning in the modern era, while one corner of the Osaka metropolitan sphere, after once stretching its population in the postwar period, has now entered a phase of gentle decline and aging. The population toward decline, children thinning, aging nearing three in ten — this gentle shrinkage cannot be seen by taking out the number of schools or the number on the waitlist alone, and only forms its outline when the population and the number of children are laid one over the other.

Kishiwada holds several functions of its own. One is the history of the castle town of Kishiwada Castle, which the Okabe house governed for thirteen generations, supporting the character of being the center of Senshu facing Osaka Bay. Another is the danjiri festival continuing for nearly three hundred years, in which the floats race through the streets of the castle town, going on being the symbol of the town. And the history of being the center of Senshu’s economy and culture, which flourished by spinning in the modern era, overlaps on the town’s foundation.

Kishiwada is a town where the castle town raised a festival and flourished by spinning in the modern era. From the castle town, to the festival continuing for three hundred years, and then to the center of spinning Senshu — the condition that "a castle town opened on the flat land facing Osaka Bay" produced the character of being the center of Senshu, and raised the festival and spinning. The castle town opening on the flat land facing Osaka Bay produced the character of being the center of Senshu, raised for nearly three hundred years a festival in which floats of several tons race, and in the modern era made the town flourish by spinning. More than the bounty of the landform, the centrality itself of being a castle town has shaped this town’s character in order.