Tsuwano, Shimane Prefecture, Chūgoku Region, Japan

🇯🇵 Tsuwano (津和野町, Tsuwano-chō) is a town located in Kanoashi District, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. The total area of the town is 307.03 square km (118.54 sq mi). Popularly called the "Little Kyoto of San'in", Tsuwano is known for its picturesque main street, "Tono-machi", which is an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Building lined with Edo period buildings and Koi ponds. Its annual Yabusame festival on the second Sunday of April is a large tourist draw for the San'in region.

Geography Tsuwano is located in south-west Shimane Prefecture. The townscape that spreads out in a small basin between the mountains on a narrow flat land along the Tsuwano River.

Neighboring municipalities Shimane Prefecture • Masuda • Yoshika; Yamaguchi Prefecture • Yamaguchi • Hagi.

History The area of Tsuwano was part of ancient Iwami Province. During the Edo Period, the town developed as the jōkamachi of Tsuwano Domain, which was ruled by the Kamei clan for most of its history. In 1868, it was the site of particular gruesome persecutions of Kakure Kirishitan, who had been exiled to this location after their discovery and arrest in the Urakami Yoban Kuzure. After the Meiji restoration, the town of Tsuwano was established on within Kanoashi District, Shimane on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system.

On September 25, 2005 the town of Nichihara was merged into Tsuwano.

Government Tsuwano has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 12 members. Tsuwano, collectively with the town of Yoshika, contributes one member to the Shimane Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the Shimane 2nd district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy Tsuwano is a very rural area, with an economy based on agriculture and forestry. Tourism also plays a very important factor in the local economy. As it is close to Yamaguchi Prefecture, many tourists who come to Tsuwano also visit Hagi on the Sea of Japan and Yamaguchi at the same time, and Tsuwano is often mistaken as being in Yamaguchi prefecture.

Education Tsuwano has four public elementary school and two public junior high schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Shimane Prefectural Board of Education.

Transport: Rail JR West (JR West) - Yamaguchi Line • Tsuwano - Aonoyama - Nichihara - Aohara - Higashi-Aohara

Transport: Road • National Route 9 • National Route 187.

Local attractions • Tsuwano Castle ruins, a National Historic Site • Taikodani Inari Jinja, with its "1000 vermilion torii • Otometoge Maria Seido, dedicated in 1951 and is part of a memorial for 37 Japanese Christians persecuted and tortured in Tsuwano by the government during the Edo and Meiji periods.

Yamaguchi-gō steam locomotive A popular tourist destination, Tsuwano is served by the steam locomotive Yamaguchi-gō, which runs once daily on weekends, national holidays, and certain other days between March and November (daily in August) on the Yamaguchi Line between Shin-Yamaguchi Station to Tsuwano. It stops for about three hours in Tsuwano before returning to Shin-Yamaguchi station. The train is usually pulled by a C57 locomotive, but a C56 does the job on several weekdays between July and September, and both engines are linked in a double-header configuration on weekends in August. Carriages are decorated in the styles of three Japanese eras—Meiji, Taisho, and Showa—as well as in European style, and the rearmost carriage has an outdoor observation deck. A scene in director Masahiro Shinoda’s Spy Sorge, a 2003 movie about Soviet spy Richard Sorge, was shot on the train for period effect.