This town prospered as the eastern gateway of Shikoku, a port town linking Shikoku with the Kansai region across the sea. The bustle of a port, where boats came and went and people and cargo were loaded and unloaded, supported the town. In this land a tale of a single tanuki that helped a person, handed down from the close of the Edo era, has put down roots, and tanuki statues still stand here and there about the town. A pilgrimage temple of the sacred circuit is also in this city. As the port land of eastern Shikoku, this town did not join the Heisei mergers but walked on its own, and has lost population. Komatsushima’s numbers are the record of a town carved by the history of a port town and a tanuki legend.
A city that opens upon a land facing the Kii Channel in the eastern part of Tokushima Prefecture. The population fell from 43,078 in 2000 to 36,149 in 2020. This city did not go through the Heisei mergers but walked on its own, so its recent population course has no merger-derived step. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a city in the prefecture’s east," but the causal thread: how the history — a port town and a tanuki legend — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Komatsushima in its numbers
In the 2020 Population Census this city’s population is 36,149, in the middle of the thirty-thousands. This city did not go through the Heisei mergers but walked on its own, so its recent population course has no merger-derived step. From 43,078 in 2000, through 42,115 in 2005, 40,614 in 2010, 38,755 in 2015, to 36,149 in 2020, some seven thousand fell over twenty years.
Looking inside, the figure of an eastern-Shikoku port town gently raising its age appears. The share aged 65 and over was 34.7% in 2020, passing three in ten. The household-with-children share was 17.8% in 2020, and the crude birth rate was 5.4 per thousand in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.55 in fiscal 2023 — a middling level for a regional city, able to cover a little over half of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of the port land of eastern Shikoku, losing population just so on its own without a merger, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of a port town, a tanuki legend and the pilgrimage temples.
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 eastern-Shikoku port, the Kansai-linking route, the tanuki tale and pilgrimage temples, the solitary course — the history behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set by the history of an eastern-Shikoku port, the route linking it with Kansai, the tanuki tale and pilgrimage temples, and its solitary course. The starting layer is the port. This town prospered as the eastern gateway of Shikoku, a port town linking Shikoku with the Kansai region across the sea. The bustle of a port, where boats came and went and people and cargo were loaded and unloaded, supported the town. The port that was the eastern gateway of Shikoku was this town’s foundation.
In this port town, legend and faith put down roots. A tale of a single tanuki that helped a person, handed down from the close of the Edo era, took root in this land, and tanuki statues still stand here and there about the town. A pilgrimage temple of the sacred circuit is also in this city. The road by which it became a city mirrors this town, too. In the middle of the Showa era it became one with the surrounding towns and villages and took city status, but did not join the Heisei mergers and walked on its own. The eastern-Shikoku port, the Kansai-linking route, the tanuki tale and the pilgrimage temples, and the solitary course — this town’s shape stands upon the history of a port town and legend, carved by the port that was the eastern gateway of Shikoku.
Source: Komatsushima City / Komatsushima Port (it prospered as the eastern gateway of Shikoku, a port town linking Shikoku and the Kansai region — overview) / Komatsushima City / the tanuki legend and the pilgrimage temples (the land tied to Kincho, the tanuki of the late-Edo "Awa Tanuki War" tale; tanuki statues stand here and there about the town; Onzanji and Tatsueji of the Shikoku eighty-eight temples are here — overview) / Komatsushima City (in eastern Tokushima, facing the Kii Channel; took city status in 1951 by merging Komatsushima Town and others; it did not take part in the Heisei mergers and continued on its own — overview)
03 · In the port land of eastern Shikoku, losing population just so on its own
What characterizes Komatsushima is that, while holding the history of a port town and legend, it loses population on its own without a merger. From 43,078 in 2000 to 36,149 in 2020, some seven thousand fell over twenty years. Even in this port town that prospered as the eastern gateway of Shikoku, one can read that, with the changing role of the port, a part of the young generation has moved toward larger cities, and the age of the whole town has risen. That the share aged 65 and over reached 34.7% in 2020, past three in ten, is one expression of this.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, the household-with-children share was 17.8% in 2020, and the crude birth rate was 5.4 per thousand in 2020. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.55 is a middling level for a regional city, able to cover a little over half of expenditure with its own tax revenue. It once prospered as the eastern gateway linking Kansai and Shikoku. The role of the port that was the eastern gateway of Shikoku shifts with the building of bridges and other routes. As its role as a passage thinned, a part of the young generation slipped out to large cities, and the age of the town rose. The fate of a gateway, easily swayed by the rearrangement of the transport network, is mirrored just so in the population of this port town that walked on its own.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A port town thinning on its own as the gateway’s role moves on
In Komatsushima, the tale of a tanuki that helped a person and the pilgrimage temples gathered around the port that was the eastern gateway of Shikoku. One thing it holds is the history of being the eastern gateway port of Shikoku, linking Shikoku with the Kansai region across the sea. Another is the character of a land of legend, where a tale of a tanuki that helped a person, handed down from the close of the Edo era, put down roots and tanuki statues stand here and there about the town. And it has the face of a land of faith, holding a pilgrimage temple of the sacred circuit. Around the eastern gateway port linking Kansai and Shikoku across the sea, the tale of a tanuki that helped a person and the pilgrimage temples of the sacred road have put down roots.
At a port where people and cargo come and go, the land’s telling and the pilgrim’s feet gather too. The function of the port and the stories pooled there are not placed separately; they are best seen as one continuous thing, drawn in for the same reason by this land that was a gateway.
Source: Komatsushima City / Komatsushima Port (it prospered as the eastern gateway of Shikoku, a port town linking Shikoku and the Kansai region — overview) / Komatsushima City / the tanuki legend and the pilgrimage temples (the land tied to Kincho, the tanuki of the late-Edo "Awa Tanuki War" tale; tanuki statues stand here and there about the town; Onzanji and Tatsueji of the Shikoku eighty-eight temples are here — overview) / Komatsushima City (in eastern Tokushima, facing the Kii Channel; took city status in 1951 by merging Komatsushima Town and others; it did not take part in the Heisei mergers and continued on its own — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — reading the port’s role and the stories pooled there as one continuous thing
Lay out Komatsushima’s numbers and the indicators of a port town gently raising its age line up: a population falling just so on its own, an aging rate of 34.7%, a household-with-children share of 17.8%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.55. But what I want to turn my eye to, before the indicators, is rather the history of this town as a node — that it long carried the role of the gateway linking Shikoku and Kansai. The role of a port that hands people and cargo across the sea can shift with the building of bridges and other routes. The chain — that a gateway’s role is easily swayed by the rearrangement of the transport network — explains this town’s numbers well.
The other thing I want to consider is that this town "still keeps the tale of a tanuki that helped a person as statues about the town." To keep placing an old tale, as statues, within the scenery of daily life is a choice not to let go of that land’s story. A story rooted in the land is woven into the scenery of life — this does not appear in the figures of fiscal capacity or population. The gateway’s role is easily swayed by the rearrangement of the transport network, and that shifting appears in this port town’s population; on the other hand, the choice not to let go of the tale of a tanuki that helped a person, keeping it as statues about the town, appears neither in fiscal capacity nor in population. The fragility of the role, and the choice to keep the story — at the place where both are set side by side, my hand stops.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Komatsushima City / Komatsushima Port (it prospered as the eastern gateway of Shikoku, a port town linking Shikoku and the Kansai region — overview) / Komatsushima City / the tanuki legend and the pilgrimage temples (the land tied to Kincho, the tanuki of the late-Edo "Awa Tanuki War" tale; tanuki statues stand here and there about the town; Onzanji and Tatsueji of the Shikoku eighty-eight temples are here — overview) / Komatsushima City (in eastern Tokushima, facing the Kii Channel; took city status in 1951 by merging Komatsushima Town and others; it did not take part in the Heisei mergers and continued on its own — 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 (wave-cs1 2026-06-05)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wavecs1_