Kurayoshi-shi

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 46,000 (46,485 in 2020). This city’s population carries a step from an annexation merger. In 2005 Kurayoshi City annexed neighboring Sekigane Town to form its present limits. Counting only the former Kurayoshi City, the population was 49,711 in 2000; with Sekigane Town added it rose to 52,592 in 2005, and from there it has fallen at a steep slope after the annexation — to 50,720 in 2010, 49,044 in 2015, and 46,485 in 2020.

Looking inside the figures, the shape of a small-to-mid San’in city deepening in age appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 23.4% in 2000 to 34.5% in 2020, passing three in ten. Households with children make up 21.0% (2020), and the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.43 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue covers only about four-tenths of expenditure, with a large dependence on the local allocation tax. The figure shows the white-walled commercial capital losing population and deepening in age after the annexation, while holding the waitlist at zero. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without tracing the history of the ancient provincial seat and the storehouse district.

Kurayoshi’s skeleton is set by its standing as the center of Hoki since antiquity, and by its history of prospering as a town of commerce. The oldest layer is the ancient seat. In the era of the ritsuryo codes, the provincial government office of Hoki, along with the provincial monastery and nunnery, were placed across this district. A linchpin of San’in transport, this land remained the center of Hoki from early times.

Then, from the Edo era, this land prospered as a town of commerce. Along the Tama River that runs through the town, storehouses faced with white walls and black scorched boards lined up and, together with townhouses roofed with Sekishu tiles, formed the townscape of a commercial capital. In this district, industries such as weaving figured patterns with separately dyed threads, and making tools that strip grain from the ears of rice, prospered and supported commerce. With about a hundred buildings remaining, from the late Edo period to the early Showa era, this townscape was later chosen as a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. Meanwhile this land carries another history. In the early Edo period a man who had been the lord of the distant province of Awa was, nominally at a large rice stipend but in fact on a meager allowance, moved here as if in de facto exile. He closed his life in this land, and the graves of the retainers who followed him in death still remain at a temple in this town. The ancient provincial seat, the white-walled storehouse district, and a transplanted lord — this town’s form stands on the history held by a geography that was the center of Hoki.

What characterizes Kurayoshi-shi is that, while carrying the history of the ancient seat of Hoki and the white-walled storehouse district, it has lost population and deepened in age after annexing Sekigane Town. From the 52,592 of 2005, with Sekigane Town added, to the 46,485 of 2020, it lost some six thousand over fifteen years. In this town in central San’in, one can read a continuing flow of younger generations moving to the larger cities at the prefecture’s eastern and western ends, and to metropolitan areas. As a central city of San’in built on commerce and, in a later era, manufacturing, its population has fallen. That the share aged 65 and over reached 34.5% in 2020, passing three in ten, is the sign of that population structure.

Meanwhile the childcare waitlist has held at zero. Against a falling population, the childcare supply reads as being maintained. A fiscal capacity of 0.43 is a level whose own tax revenue covers only about four-tenths of expenditure, with a large dependence on the allocation tax. As a central city of San’in built on commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture, it mirrors the limits of its own tax base. The white-walled commercial capital now loses population and deepens in age after the annexation, while holding the waitlist at zero and supporting its finances with the allocation tax. Population falling, aging past three in ten, fiscal strength on the weaker side. Even so, line up the aging rate alone, setting aside the history of a commercial capital where about a hundred white-walled storehouses remain, and how this town came to contract does not come into view. The numbers are best read together with the memory of commerce.

Kurayoshi has histories of differing eras folded into one town. One is the history of a land where, in the ritsuryo era, the provincial seat of Hoki and its provincial monastery were placed — an old layer of being the center of Hoki. Another is the commercial townscape where about a hundred white-walled storehouses line the Tama River, later chosen as a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, leaving the history of prospering in commerce. And it carries the unexpected history of a land where a lord moved from the distant province of Awa closed his life.

Onto the old layer of a land where the provincial seat of Hoki was placed in the ritsuryo era, the commercial townscape of white-walled storehouses lining the Tama River was laid, and the unexpected memory of a land where a lord moved from distant Awa closed his life was added. That the basin of the Tenjin River was a linchpin of San’in transport has gathered these into this district. The ancient seat and the white-walled storehouse district, folded over the position that was the center of Hoki — to read Kurayoshi, it is best to enter from this folding.