Higashikagura 東神楽町

• "Higashi" (東, "east"): The village took this name when it split from Kagura Village in 1943, because it lay on the east side of the parent village⁶¹.
• "Kagura" (神楽): The town explains the name as a free translation of the Ainu place name hetce-us-i (ヘッチェウシ), meaning "place where people chant" (囃し・つけている・所)¹. Hetce means shouting "hey! hey!" to accompany song and dance. People are said to have sung and danced here regularly, so the name was rendered as 神楽, Shinto sacred music and dance. Another translation of the Ainu name is "place where the gods play"¹³.
• Competing theory: Another explanation holds that the name comes from settlers from Kozurido Village in Toyama Prefecture (富山県下新川郡小摺戸村, now Nyūzen), who offered their home region's lion dance (獅子舞) here¹³.
• How "Higashikagura" became a place name: According to the town, the imperial land here was called the "Eastern Imperial Estate" (東御料地). When it was sold or given to the farmers in 1924, the government renamed it Higashikagura, because it was no longer imperial property¹⁴¹⁵.

• Ainu era: The upper Ishikari basin was Ainu land, as names such as Kagura (hetce-us-i) and the Chūbetsu River (忠別川) show¹¹⁶. The sources consulted do not document any archaeological sites inside the town.
• Imperial-land era (1880s–1890s): In the 1880s Iwamura Michitoshi (岩村通俊), who later became the first governor of Hokkaido, proposed building a northern capital, "Hokkyō" (北京), in the area stretching from today's Asahikawa to Higashikagura. His successor Nagayama Takeshirō (永山武四郎) won approval in 1889 for an imperial detached palace (上川離宮) here instead. After opposition from Sapporo interests, Governor Kitagaki Kunimichi (北垣国道) argued against the plan in 1892 and it faded away, but the land remained imperial property (御料地)¹⁴⁵.
• 1892: Kagura Village (神楽村) was created after Kamui, Asahikawa and Nagayama, the first villages in Kamikawa, were set up in 1890⁵.
• 1894: Leasing of the Eastern Imperial Estate (東御料地) began in July. Settlers from Shikoku, Hiroshima and Toyama cleared the primeval forest and first grew wheat and soybeans⁵.
• 1896: Mitsui Matasaburō (三井又三郎) grew rice on a trial paddy of about 2 tan (≈0.2 ha) and harvested 2 koku 4 to. It showed that rice could grow in Kamikawa, where many had said it could not⁵.
• 1897–1909: A general store opened at "No. 13" and became the start of the town centre (1897). Settlement then spread to Kamichūbetsu (now Chūei, 1899), Inari (1901) and Shibinai (1909)¹.
• 1908–1912: The Eastern Imperial Estate Land Improvement Association (東御料地土功組合) built an irrigation system for ¥65,000, completed in 1912. After this, farmers switched rapidly from upland crops to paddy rice⁵.
• 1919–1926: Farmers renting the estate land fought a long dispute over their land rights. It was settled in 1923, and the estate land was then sold off⁵¹⁴.
• 1930–1937: The Seidai Land Improvement Association (聖台土功組合) built a reservoir and a main canal. By 1937 they had turned over 1,000 chō (about 1,000 ha) of heavy-clay upland into paddy fields⁵.
• 1 April 1943: Higashikagura Village split from Kagura Village with 1,023 households and 6,139 people¹.
• 1947: Yasui Yoshinori (安井吉典) became the first elected village head. That year heavy rain caused the Chūbetsu River to burst its banks across the village¹⁵.
• 1 January 1966: Higashikagura became a town. Asahikawa Airport opened with a ceremony on 30 June, and the first flight left on 1 July⁵.
• 1968: The parent town, Kagura, merged into Asahikawa¹³.
• 1977–1982: An industrial park was built (1977), and jet aircraft began flying into Asahikawa Airport (1982)¹.
• 1989 onward: The Hijirino housing estate opened with 930 residential lots. Population rose from about 5,700 in 1990 to more than 10,000 in 2013¹¹⁵.
• 2000–2001: The Morinoyu Hanakagura onsen opened and the town won the national flower-town prize. In 2001 it represented Japan at Communities in Bloom in Canada and was rated four stars out of five⁷.
• 2004: Higashikagura formed the Daisetsu Regional Federation (大雪地区広域連合) with Higashikawa and Biei¹.
• 2022: Hokkaido issued the first brown-bear advisory (ヒグマ注意報) for the town, from 8 August to 7 September⁶. The town also declared itself a "zero-carbon city"¹.
• 2023: A land-based salmon farm, "Mori no Salmon Plant Higashikagura" (杜のサーモンプラント・東神楽), opened in Shibinai on 30 May¹.
• 2024: The Hananowa complex (はなのわ), which houses the town hall and other facilities, opened as an office on 11 March and fully on 30 August¹.

• Location and shape: The town lies in the Kamikawa Basin on gently rolling land in the upper Ishikari River system. It measures about 21.7 km east–west and 6.2 km north–south. The town hall stands at 175 m above sea level, about 11 km from central Asahikawa¹⁹.
• Land use (FY2026 survey): Farmland makes up 52.5% of the town (paddy 37.8%, upland fields 14.7%), forest 20.5% and residential land 4.8%¹.
• Rivers and hills: The main river is the Chūbetsu (忠別川), with the Pon, Inari, Yachiyo and Shibinai rivers. The highest point is Mt. Bōshi (坊子山, 419 m)⁶. The name Chūbetsu is usually traced to Ainu ciw-pet ("rippling river"). Other theories are cup-pet ("sun river"), which one theory links to the name Asahikawa, and cuk-pet ("autumn river")¹⁶.
• Chūbetsu Dam: The town's easternmost point is Chūbetsu Dam (忠別ダム)¹. The dam itself stands on the Biei–Higashikawa boundary and was completed in 2007. At 86 m it is Japan's second-tallest combined concrete-and-rockfill dam¹⁷.
• Scenery: The Daisetsuzan and Tokachi ranges rise to the east. The town is on the Daisetsu–Furano Scenic Byway route (シーニックバイウェイ「大雪・富良野ルート」)⁶.
• Climate: The climate is continental, with large temperature swings, and the town is a designated heavy-snowfall area⁶. The 2025 figures below come from the Asahikawa Local Meteorological Observatory (旭川地方気象台) in neighbouring Asahikawa, as reported by the town:
  • Annual mean temperature 7.9 °C
  • Highest 34.3 °C (July), lowest −18.3 °C (January)
  • Precipitation 940.5 mm
  • Deepest snow 60 cm (February)
  • First snow on average 19 October and last snow 1 May (1991–2020 normals)¹

• Agriculture: Main crops in 2024, by area and harvest¹:
  • Rice: 1,290 ha, 8,070 t
  • Wheat: 601 ha, 2,111 t
  • Buckwheat: 167 ha
  • Corn: 115 ha, 1,088 t
  • Sugar beet: 3,341 t
  • Asparagus: 26 ha
  • Leafy greens and tomatoes (mizuna, komatsuna, spinach, mitsuba, mini tomatoes)
• Livestock and farms: Farms kept 1,120 dairy cattle and 347 beef cattle in 2025. Farm households fell from 243 in 2020 to 164 in 2025¹.
• Seeds and breeding: Sakata Seed's Hokkaido research farm moved to the town in 1990⁷. The strawberry breeder HOB (ホーブ) is based here¹⁸.
• Manufacturing: In 2023, 17 establishments shipped ¥4.07 billion of goods¹. The town's own page, dated 2017, lists 10 furniture makers producing about ¥5 billion of furniture and crafts a year¹¹. The industrial park near the airport, laid out from 1977, also has food processing, woodworking and cleaning businesses¹.
• Jobs (2020 census): Primary industry employs 11.8% of workers, compared with 7.7% for Hokkaido. Secondary industry employs 15.1% and tertiary 59.7%¹.
• Tourism: The town recorded 217,393 visitors in FY2024, of whom 34,460 came from outside Hokkaido and 35,029 stayed overnight. The pre-COVID peak was 273,021 in FY2017¹.
• Demographics: The population peaked at 10,233 in the 2015 census. It is now falling slowly because deaths far outnumber births: 38 births and 125 deaths in 2025¹.
  • About 30.3% of residents are 65 or older (April 2026).
  • Hijirino, the suburban district next to Asahikawa, has 5,537 residents, more than half the town¹.
• Revitalization: In 2016 the town created the brand "Higashikagura Seeds & Fruits Select" (東神楽の種と実セレクト), which certifies top local products¹¹⁰. In 2019 it added a furusato nozei scheme for donating musical instruments¹. In 2025 it began a trial of on-demand public transport¹.

• Flower movement: The movement is run by residents and volunteer groups such as the Himawari-kai (founded 1968) and "Hana no Machi Hana Club" (花のまち花くらぶ). Hana Club won an Excellence Prize at the 35th National Flower Town Contest in 2025⁷¹. The town-run nursery grows about 130,000 bedding plants a year for public flowerbeds³⁴.
• Performing arts: Yoshitsune Sakura Taiko (義経桜太鼓), a taiko drum group, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. The town also has a YOSAKOI Sōran team, 東神酔華の舞¹²⁵.
• Local history: The Tsutsuji-kan community centre (交流プラザつつじ館) has a local history exhibition room (郷土資料展示室)¹.
• Hananowa (はなのわ): The civic complex's basic design is by architect Sou Fujimoto (藤本壮介). It contains the town hall and a cultural hall nicknamed "花音"³⁵. It won a Hokkaido Red Brick Architecture Encouragement Prize (北海道赤レンガ建築奨励賞) for FY2025¹.
• The sources consulted do not document notable shrines or temples.

Little Ainu history has been documented within the town. Its heritage survives mainly in place names:

• Kagura (神楽): A translation of Ainu hetce-us-i¹.
• Chūbetsu River (忠別川): From Ainu ciw-pet or related forms¹⁶.
• Upas no Mori: The winter snow park is named for upas, the Ainu word for "snow"²⁹.

None of the sources consulted list an Ainu cultural facility in the town. The nearest major one is the Kawamura Kaneto Ainu Memorial Museum (川村カ子トアイヌ記念館) in Asahikawa's former Chikabumi kotan. The Kamikawa Ainu leader Kawamura Itakishiroma founded it in 1916, which makes it Japan's oldest Ainu museum. It reopened in a new building on 15 July 2023³⁶.

None found. The CLAIR sister-city database lists no international affiliation for Higashikagura⁴⁷, and the town's own statistics and profile pages mention no domestic partner. The town does share regional services with neighbouring Higashikawa and Biei through the Daisetsu Regional Federation (2004) and joint fire, waste and crematorium unions¹.

• Yasui Yoshinori (安井吉典): Politician. He was the first elected head of Higashikagura Village (1947–1958) and later Vice-Speaker of the House of Representatives¹.
• Takekuma Shōta (武隈祥太): Professional baseball player, listed as a native of the town⁶.