On this town’s hill, stone Buddhas of some thousand years ago are carved. Those Buddhas, hewn from the wall of rock, were designated, as Buddhas carved in stone, the first National Treasure of their kind in the country. In this land facing the sea, one daimyo built a castle in the Warring-States age, and later another family entered from Mino and made it the castle town of fifteen generations until the Meiji era. Along the narrow streets of the castle town, storehouses of miso and soy sauce still stand, and their scent drifts. This town holding the National Treasure stone Buddhas and the castle town of brewing bound one town together, and has quietly lost population. Usuki’s numbers are the record of a town in which the Inaba castle town and miso and soy sauce are inscribed.
A city that opens facing Usuki Bay, in the central part of Oita Prefecture. Because in 2005 the castle town city was newly made one with a neighboring town and established, the step in the population for the city area appears between 2000 and 2005, when the merger is reflected in the Census. Seen as the castle town city alone, the population was 35,786 in 2000; for the city area after the merger it was 43,352 in 2005, and from there it has fallen to the 36,158 of 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a city of the center of the prefecture," but the causal thread: how the past of the Inaba castle town and miso and soy sauce is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Usuki in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about 36,000 (36,158 in 2020). Because in 2005 the castle town city was newly made one with a neighboring town and established, the step in the population for the city area appears between 2000 and 2005, when the merger is reflected in the Census. Seen as the castle town city alone, the population was 35,786 in 2000; for the city area after the merger it was 43,352 in 2005, 41,469 in 2010, 38,748 in 2015, and 36,158 in 2020 — falling.
Looking inside, the figure of a castle town city facing the sea appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 37.7% in 2015 to 41.0% in 2020, passing four in ten. The household-with-children share is 17.2% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.37 in fiscal 2023 — a level not reaching four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, with a large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The figure of a town holding the National Treasure stone Buddhas and the castle town of brewing, advancing its aging to four in ten while losing population after the merger, shows in the numbers. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of the castle town, the stone Buddhas and brewing.
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 · A castle town facing the sea, the National Treasure stone Buddhas, the brewing of miso and soy sauce, the merger of one town — the history behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set by a castle town facing the sea, the National Treasure stone Buddhas carved on the mountain, the brewing of miso and soy sauce, and the merger with one town. The starting layer is the castle town. This land is where one daimyo built a castle in the Warring-States age, and after the Battle of Sekigahara another family entered from Mino with 50,000 koku and made it the castle town of fifteen generations until the Meiji era. That castle town facing the sea leaves to this day a townscape of narrow streets and temples lined up.
This castle-town land held older stone Buddhas. On the rock wall of the town’s mountain remain stone Buddhas carved from the late Heian to the Kamakura era, designated, as Buddhas carved in stone, the first National Treasure of their kind in the country. Before the castle town opened, this land held a faith of carving Buddhas. And in the castle town, the scent of brewing took root. Storehouses of miso and soy sauce, said to begin with the purveyors of the family that entered from Mino, line the castle town, and their scent still drifts. The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this town. In 2005 the castle town city was newly made one with a neighboring town and established. A castle town facing the sea, the National Treasure stone Buddhas, the brewing of miso and soy sauce, and the merger of one town — this town’s form stands upon the past of the stone Buddhas and brewing that a castle town facing the sea carved.
Source: Usuki City / Usuki Castle and the Inaba family (in 1600 Inaba Sadamichi entered Usuki Castle, built by Otomo Sorin, with 50,000 koku from Mino, and it became the castle town of fifteen generations of the Inaba family — overview) / Usuki City / the Usuki stone Buddhas (cliff-carved Buddhas hewn from the late Heian to the Kamakura era; in 1995 designated, as cliff-carved Buddhas, the first National Treasure of their kind in the country — overview) / Usuki City / the town of brewing (a town of miso and soy-sauce brewing said to begin with the purveyors who entered with the Inaba family; brewing storehouses remain in the castle town — overview) / Usuki City (established on 2005-1-1 by the new merger of the former Usuki City and Notsu Town of Ono County; facing Usuki Bay in the central part of Oita Prefecture — overview)
03 · In a castle town of the National Treasure stone Buddhas and brewing, losing population after the merger
What characterizes Usuki is that, while it holds the past of the Inaba castle town and miso and soy sauce, it is losing population after the merger. The 35,786 of 2000, seen as the castle town city alone, became 43,352 in 2005 in the city area combining the neighboring town, and from there it has fallen to the 36,158 of 2020 — some seven thousand over fifteen years. Even in this land where a castle town of fifteen generations continued and storehouses of miso and soy sauce stood, one can read that some of the younger generation moved toward the larger cities or Oita, and the town’s age as a whole rose. That the share aged 65 and over passed four in ten at 41.0% in 2020 is an expression of that.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 17.2% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.37 is a level not reaching four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax seen in common across mid-sized lands based on a castle town. The town holding the National Treasure stone Buddhas and the castle town of brewing now, after the merger, advances its aging to four in ten while losing population. A thousand years counting from the late Heian when the stone Buddhas were carved, four hundred years counting from the Warring States when the castle was built, three hundred years counting from the Edo period when the brewing storehouses stood — upon the thickness of that long time, the population returned to about the scale of the castle town, and the age alone passed four in ten. That is the present standing of Usuki.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A castle town facing the sea held the National Treasure stone Buddhas and brewing, this past
The functions Usuki holds are not one. It holds a castle town facing the sea, where a Warring-States daimyo built a castle and the family that entered from Mino continued for fifteen generations. It holds stone Buddhas carved on the mountain’s rock wall before the castle town opened, designated, as Buddhas carved in stone, the first National Treasure of their kind in the country. And in the castle town, storehouses of miso and soy sauce stand, and their scent still drifts.
From a castle town facing the sea, to the National Treasure stone Buddhas, the brewing of miso and soy sauce, and the merger of one town — the geography of "a land facing Usuki Bay in the central part of Oita Prefecture" set the castle town and held the stone Buddhas of faith and the storehouses of brewing. The castle town facing the sea, the stone Buddhas and brewing are folded together in the same single place of the central part of Oita Prefecture, and set the present form of Usuki.
Source: Usuki City / Usuki Castle and the Inaba family (in 1600 Inaba Sadamichi entered Usuki Castle, built by Otomo Sorin, with 50,000 koku from Mino, and it became the castle town of fifteen generations of the Inaba family — overview) / Usuki City / the Usuki stone Buddhas (cliff-carved Buddhas hewn from the late Heian to the Kamakura era; in 1995 designated, as cliff-carved Buddhas, the first National Treasure of their kind in the country — overview) / Usuki City / the town of brewing (a town of miso and soy-sauce brewing said to begin with the purveyors who entered with the Inaba family; brewing storehouses remain in the castle town — overview) / Usuki City (established on 2005-1-1 by the new merger of the former Usuki City and Notsu Town of Ono County; facing Usuki Bay in the central part of Oita Prefecture — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — in a castle town of the National Treasure stone Buddhas and brewing, reading the castle town, the stone Buddhas and brewing together
Lay out Usuki’s numbers and the indicators of a castle town city facing the sea line up: a population falling after the merger, an aging rate of 41.0%, a household-with-children share of 17.2%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.37. What I want to read here is the oldness of the past — that this town "held, before the castle town opened, a faith of carving stone Buddhas on the mountain’s rock wall, and left those stone Buddhas as the first National Treasure of Buddhas carved in stone in the country." Before a Warring-States daimyo built a castle, from the late Heian to the Kamakura era, the people of this land carved Buddhas into the rock. A layer of faith older even than the history of the castle town lies at the bottom of this town.
Another thing I want to consider is that this town "has left the scent of the brewing of miso and soy sauce in the townscape of the castle town." The brewing storehouses, said to begin with the purveyors of the family that entered from Mino, line the narrow streets of the castle town, and their scent still drifts. Though the administrative function of the castle town departed in the Meiji era, the handcraft of brewing remained within the townscape of the castle town. The three layers of the castle town, the stone Buddhas and brewing overlap in the same single town.
The bay that the people of the Heian who carved Buddhas into rock saw, and the bay that the people of today who walk the miso-scented townscape see, are the same Usuki Bay. What I (Atlas), who read numbers with the eye of accounting, can lay out is both — what remains unchanged across that gap of a thousand years, and what has changed: an age that has passed four in ten.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Usuki City / Usuki Castle and the Inaba family (in 1600 Inaba Sadamichi entered Usuki Castle, built by Otomo Sorin, with 50,000 koku from Mino, and it became the castle town of fifteen generations of the Inaba family — overview) / Usuki City / the Usuki stone Buddhas (cliff-carved Buddhas hewn from the late Heian to the Kamakura era; in 1995 designated, as cliff-carved Buddhas, the first National Treasure of their kind in the country — overview) / Usuki City / the town of brewing (a town of miso and soy-sauce brewing said to begin with the purveyors who entered with the Inaba family; brewing storehouses remain in the castle town — overview) / Usuki City (established on 2005-1-1 by the new merger of the former Usuki City and Notsu Town of Ono County; facing Usuki Bay in the central part of Oita Prefecture — 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 (wave31-west 2026-06-04)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave31w_