Kuriyama 栗山町

• Kuriyama (栗山): according to the town, the name comes from the Ainu yam-ni-us(i) (ヤム・ニ・ウシ), meaning "a place where chestnut trees grow thickly"⁶⁵. The Hokkaido Government's Ainu place-name list records the form as yam-ni-us-i (ヤムニウシイ) and glosses it word by word as "chestnut – tree – growing in clusters – place", citing the town²⁰. The kanji 栗山 means "chestnut mountain".
• Kakuta (角田): until 1949 the village was called Kakuta (かくた). The name honored the settlers' home domain of Kakuda (角田, かくだ) in the former Sendai domain, now Kakuda City in Miyagi. In 1949 the whole town took the name of its main urban district, Kuriyama⁷⁶. Kakuta survives as a district name in the south of the town²¹.
• Other Ainu-derived names in town, as given in the town history (栗山町史) via Wikipedia⁷:
  • Anoro (阿野呂), from anruru, "the coast beyond the mountains"
  • Uenbetsu (雨煙別), from wen-pet, "bad river"
  • Kinausu (杵臼), from kina-us(i), a marshy place thick with cattails
  • "Taratsu" (タラツ), the old name for Minami-Kakuta, glossed as "a place with many bears"
• Competing view: the same list also records the place-name scholar Yamada Hidezo's explanation, which does not mention an Ainu original. In his view, the place was simply named for its many chestnut trees²⁰.

• Prehistory: an Epi-Jomon (続縄文) deep bowl-shaped pot, 30 cm tall, was excavated at the Hatoyama 2 site (鳩山2遺跡) in 1963. It is now a town-designated cultural property on display at the Kakuta Pioneer Museum²².
• 1858: the explorer Matsuura Takeshiro (松浦武四郎) surveyed the area⁷.
• 1888: Izumi Rintaro (泉麟太郎) was a retainer of the Kakuda branch of the Sendai domain in present-day Miyagi. After first settling in Muroran, he founded the Yubari Kaikon Kigyo Kumiai (夕張開墾起業組合), and 7 households (24 people) settled on the right bank of the Anoro River⁶²². Wikipedia says the left bank⁷.
• 1890–1907: named Kakuta Village in 1890⁶. A Hokkaido Colliery & Railway line between Muroran and Iwamizawa opened through the area in 1892. The Yubari River flooded badly in 1898¹⁷. In 1900 the village office separated from Yuni²², and Kobayashi Sake Brewery relocated from Sapporo¹⁰. The Japan Heritage portal and the town tourism site give 1901 for the move instead; the portal pairs 1901 with Meiji 33, which is 1900¹¹²³. The village became second-class in 1902 and first-class in 1907⁶.
• Large farms: large private farms shaped several districts. They include the Yuchi farm of Yuchi Sadamoto (湯地定基), the Hatoyama farm of politician Hatoyama Kazuo (鳩山和夫, 1895), and a farm opened by navy surgeon Takaki Kanehiro (高木兼寛) in 1893⁷²². Settlers from Toyama formed the Chuetsu Konwakai (中越懇話会). Its 1917 savings society was the forerunner of the local agricultural co-op¹⁷. In 1930 the group started the Kuriyama parent-and-child lion dance²².
• 1900s–1970s, coal and rail: the wood-carved salmon (木彫りの鮭) craft was started here by Honda Kazuma, who settled in 1900²². The first census (1920) counted 15,406 people. The Yubari Railway reached Kuriyama from Yubari in 1926¹⁷. Growth of the Kakuta coal mine (角田炭礦) pushed the population above 20,000 in the early Showa era. The village became Kuriyama Town in 1949, and the town office moved from Kakuta to central Kuriyama in 1963⁶. The Kakuta mine closed in 1970, and the Yubari Railway closed in 1975¹⁷.
• 1976–2000s: the first summer festival was held in 1976. The sister-city pact with Kakuda was signed in 1978. The Great Purple Emperor was found in the town in 1985¹⁷⁵. Kuriyama Dam was completed in 1994¹⁷. From 1996 the Fuji Sports Plaza served as Consadole Sapporo's training base⁷. In 2000 the town began trial circulation of an eco-money local currency, "Kurin" (クリン). In 2002 it hosted the first International Conference on Local Currencies (地域通貨国際会議), and Kuri-no-ki Farm opened¹⁷.
• 2006–2019: Japan's first municipal assembly basic ordinance was adopted in 2006⁵, the year Kobayashi's buildings were registered as cultural properties. They became part of Japan Heritage in 2019, when the town ski area also closed¹⁷.
• 2020s: the first carer-support ordinance by any Japanese municipality came in 2021⁵. The Kurift community hub opened in 2023, and the town held a parade for Hideki Kuriyama's World Baseball Classic win¹⁷. In 2024 community radio FM Kuriyama launched, and Kuriyama made the first "Nature Positive Declaration" by a Hokkaido local government¹⁷⁵.

• Setting: the western part of the town is flat farmland on the Yubari River plain. The east rises into rolling hills that run into the Yubari Mountains. The town line with Iwamizawa follows the Kuttari hills in the north⁵⁷.
• Land use: forest 71.4 km² (35.0%), rice paddies 42.4 km² (20.8%) and upland fields 18.0 km² (8.8%), as of 1 Jan 2025⁵.
• Rivers: the Yubari River (夕張川), a tributary of the Ishikari, crosses the town. Its tributaries here include the Anoro (阿野呂川) and the Uenbetsu (雨煙別川)²⁴²⁵.
• Gorge: at the town's southern tip, the upper Yubari River runs through the Ryusenkyo Gorge (竜仙峡) beside National Route 274²⁶.
• Mountains: the highest peak is Amekiri-yama (雨霧山, 509 m) on the Yubari border, although Wikipedia notes it is not the town's highest point. It has no trail. Odaishi-yama (御大師山, 115 m) rises behind Kuriyama Park⁷.
• Lakes and ponds: Lake Kuriyama (くりやま湖) is the reservoir of Kuriyama Dam. There are also smaller ponds such as Daigaku-ike and Sakurayama-ike⁷.
• Parks and protection: the sources consulted list no national or quasi-national park in the town. Fudo Falls lies within a Hokkaido natural landscape protection area (北海道自然景観保護区)²⁷.
• Ecology: the town sits where cool-temperate and subarctic plant zones meet. Species at their northern limit, such as the chestnut and the Ezo hackberry (エゾエノキ), grow alongside species at their southern limit¹⁵.
• Climate (2025; temperatures from the Naganuma AMeDAS station next door)⁵:
  • Temperature extremes: high 35.7 °C, low −17.8 °C
  • Monthly means: August 23.7 °C, January −4.1 °C
  • Snowfall (town's own measurement): 345 cm in FY2024, and between 345 and 614 cm a year over FY2020–2024

• Agriculture (2020 Census of Agriculture and Forestry)⁵:
  • 332 farm businesses, of which 296 are family-run and 34 incorporated
  • 5,551 ha of cultivated land: 3,727 ha paddy, 1,813 ha upland fields, 11 ha orchards
  • Largest crops by area: wheat and barley (麦類; 1,769 ha, 190 growers), rice (1,645 ha, 196 growers), vegetables (589 ha) and beans (519 ha)
• Seed potatoes (種ばれいしょ): the town has 176.45 ha of seed-potato fields, with a harvest of 3,522 t in 2025. They are sorted at the JA Sorachi-Minami (JAそらち南) potato center⁵. The 2025 edition of the same booklet gave higher tonnages for earlier years, for example 5,089 t for 2024 against 3,778 t in the 2026 edition. The difference is not explained².
• Commerce and industry⁵:
  • Retail and wholesale (2021 Economic Census): 115 shops, 747 employees, annual sales of ¥23.6 billion
  • Manufacturing (2024): 26 establishments, 632 employees, shipments of ¥11.2 billion
• Companies based here: Kobayashi Shuzo, Tanida Seika, and forging firm Hokkaido Uchida Tanko (北海道内田鍛工). Confectioner Chateraise has a Kuriyama factory⁷.
• Tourism: 297,241 visitors in FY2024, down slightly from 301,580 in FY2023. September alone drew 107,850 because of the Autumn Festival⁵.
• Demographics: on 1 Oct 2025, 41.7% of residents were 65 or older and 8.5% were under 15. FY2024 had 32 births against 188 deaths, and the population fell by 247 once migration is included⁵.
• Furusato nozei: donations reached ¥335.5 million in FY2024 (9,511 gifts)²⁸⁵. The program placed (入賞) in the Furusato Choice Awards in 2017 and 2019²⁸. Donations and gifts are handled by Office Kurioco, a local trading company run by former regional-revitalization volunteers²⁸²⁹.
• Revitalization:
  • The "くりエイトするまち" brand campaign⁹
  • Kurift (2023), a brick warehouse turned community hub with a shared kitchen, the Fab Lab Kuriyama maker space and the FM Kuriyama studio³⁰³¹
  • Kuriyama Craft beer, the town's first craft beer, launched in 2025³²

• Performing arts: two town-designated folk arts²²:
  • The Kuriyama parent-and-child lion dance (栗山親子獅子舞), started in 1930 by settlers from Toyama, combines the Etchu and Kaga lion styles
  • The Kakuta lion dance (角田獅子舞), from 1953, is modeled on the Sanuki (Kagawa) two-person lion
• Shrines and temples: Kuriyama Tenmangu (栗山天満宮) hosts the autumn grand festival. The Shingon temple 弘清寺 is No. 11 on the Hokkaido 33 Kannon pilgrimage⁷. On Odaishi-yama, 88 Jizo statues were set up in 1911 over soil brought from Shikoku⁴⁹.
• Museums: see Sights & activities below.
• On screen: the Kobayashi brewery appears in the films Poppoya (1999), Amemasu no Kawa (2004) and Budo no Namida (2014)¹⁰.
• Local legend: the "Crying Tree" (泣く木) was an old elm said to cry out when sawn; it was cut down in 1970, and a second tree now stands on its stump in 桜丘3丁目⁵⁰.

Little Ainu history specific to Kuriyama is documented in the sources consulted. The clearest traces are place names:

• Kuriyama itself (yam-ni-us(i))⁶²⁰
• Anoro (anruru), Uenbetsu (wen-pet), Kinausu (kina-us(i)) and Taratsu⁷
• The Hasanbetsu and Pon-Uenbetsu streams, whose names also look Ainu in form (unverified)

Older habitation is shown by the Epi-Jomon pottery from the Hatoyama 2 site²², and Matsuura Takeshiro passed through in 1858⁷. No Ainu cultural facility or living-tradition program in the town was found. The Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park is in Shiraoi.

• Kakuda, Miyagi Prefecture (宮城県角田市): sister city since 26 August 1978⁷⁸. Kakuda was the home of the town's founding settlers. Since 1979 the two municipalities have held a children's exchange every other year, taking turns to host⁷⁹.
• No international sister cities were found.

• Izumi Rintaro (泉麟太郎): led the town's founding settlement in 1888. His 1898 house and his papers are town cultural properties⁶²².
• Honda Kazuma (本田数馬, art name 千瓢): started the wood-carved salmon craft after settling in Kuriyama in 1900²².
• Tadashi Watanabe (渡辺貞): computer scientist and developer of the K supercomputer, born in Kuriyama. He was the first recipient of the town citizens' honor award, in 2009¹⁷⁷.
• Hideki Kuriyama (栗山英樹): baseball manager and the town's tourism ambassador. He lives at Kuri-no-ki Farm and was the second recipient of the honor award, in 2023⁷¹⁷.
• Barbie (バービー): comedian from the duo Foorin Love, who grew up in Kuriyama. She starred in the town's PR videos⁹.
• Izumi Seiichi (泉靖一): cultural anthropologist and professor at the University of Tokyo, listed by Wikipedia among people from Kuriyama⁷. He was born in Tokyo, but his registered domicile (本籍) was Kakuta Village, the town's former name⁸⁰.