Nayoro 名寄市

• Nayoro. The name is generally traced to the Ainu nay-or-putu (ナイオㇿプトゥ), "river – its place – mouth". It probably referred to the point where the Nayoro River (名寄川) joins the Teshio River (天塩川)⁸. The city's English site gives a shorter form, Nai-oro, "place by the (Nayoro) river". It adds that the name was written down in the Teshio River diary of the explorer Matsuura Takeshirō (松浦武四郎) in the late Edo period¹⁹.
• Former spellings. The municipality was called Kami-Nayoro (上名寄, "Upper Nayoro") until it became Nayoro Town in 1915. Present-day Bifuka was then Shimo-Nayoro (下名寄, "Lower Nayoro")⁶.
• Furen. The city's English pages derive the name of the former Furen Town from the Ainu Furen-betsu, "red river"¹⁹. The Fūrebetsu River (フーレベツ川) still flows east of the Furen district²⁰.
• Nearby Ainu names. Teshio comes from Teshi-o-pet, "river with beams", after rock ledges that cross the riverbed like weirs²¹. The local mountain Kudosan (九度山, read くどさん) is Kut-un-nupuri (クトゥンヌㇷ゚リ), "mountain with a cliff"²².

• Prehistory. People are thought to have first reached the area 40,000–20,000 years ago. The oldest of the city's roughly nine known archaeological sites are about 14,000 years old. Before Japanese settlement, the area belonged to the Teshio River Ainu cultural sphere¹⁹.
• 1798 and 1857. Three shogunate officials travelled the Teshio in 1798. In 1857 Matsuura Takeshirō, hired by the Hakodate magistracy, went up the river to survey the Kamikawa and Nakagawa districts of Teshio Province⁶.
• 1869–1872. The Teshio upper basin was administered by the Mito domain before passing to the Hokkaido Development Commission (開拓使) in 1871⁶. In 1872 an official of the commission's Sōya branch, Satō Masakatsu (佐藤正克), surveyed the area⁶. He is remembered as the first Wajin (ethnic Japanese) to spend a winter in Nayoro²³.
• 1897–1900, settlement. The name Kami-Nayoro Village was adopted in 1897, and the first settler arrived in 1898⁶. In 1900 the colonial lots were opened to organised groups from Yamagata, Kumamoto, Etchū (Toyama), Niigata, Sōma (Fukushima), Gifu and Matsushima (Miyagi)⁶. The city dates its founding to the Yamagata group, which came from Tōei Village in Higashitagawa District (now part of Tsuruoka) and settled the Akebono (曙) area²⁴.
• 1898–1899, Furen. Three men said to be from Yamanashi began clearing land beside the Teshio in 1898. Furen dates its own founding to 1899, when the surveyor Shimizu Chōjirō (清水長次郎) stayed on to run a ferry²⁵.
• 1902–1903. Groups from Gifu and Sōma made the first experimental rice plantings in 1902⁶. The railway from Shibetsu, now the JR Sōya Main Line, reached Kami-Nayoro Station (today's Nayoro Station) in 1903⁶. Boats on the Teshio had carried people and goods to and from Nayoro since around 1900. From 1909 a small steamboat worked the upstream route between mid-April and the end of November, until the railway ended river transport²¹.
• 1909–1941, a rail junction. The village gained its own administration in 1909 and became Nayoro Town in 1915. The Nayoro Line to Shimokawa opened in 1919 (it later became the Nayoro Main Line to the Okhotsk coast). The Shinmei Line (深名線) to Fukagawa opened in 1941⁶.
• 1953–1956. A National Safety Force unit was stationed in the town in 1953; it is now Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Camp Nayoro. Nayoro merged with Chiebun Village in 1954 and became a city in 1956⁶.
• 1970, mochi rice. National rice-reduction policy (減反) pushed farmers to switch to glutinous rice, which stands up better to cold summers. The Nayoro Mochi Producers' Union was founded on 8 April 1970, and in the first year 7 farms planted 15 ha. Furen farmers formed their own union in 1981²⁶.
• 1973–1997, winter sports and rail closures. The national Piyashiri Ski Area opened in December 1973⁶. The Nayoro Main Line closed in 1989 and the Shinmei Line in 1995, both replaced by buses. The Kitakuni Museum opened in 1996, and the Nayoro Onsen Sun Pillar hot-spring facility in December 1997⁶.
• 2001–2004. Nayoro hosted FIS Nordic Combined World Cup events in March 2001 and January 2004, and the 58th National Winter Sports Festival (なよろサンピラー国体) in February 2003⁶.
• 2006, merger. In a 2005 referendum, Furen voters backed the merger by 2,187 votes to 1,180 on a 77.5% turnout. Furen Town, then 107 years old, and Nayoro City merged on 27 March 2006⁶²⁵. Nayoro City University opened the same spring, and the Hokkaido-run Sun Pillar Park opened that November⁶.
• 2008–2013. The Michi-no-Eki opened in April 2008⁶. The Kitasubaru observatory opened in April 2010²⁷. The film Hoshi Mamoru Inu (星守る犬, "Star Watching Dog") was shot in the city in 2010 and released in 2011²⁸. The Nayoro-Bifuka Road and the station-front Yorona plaza (駅前交流プラザ「よろーな」) opened in 2013⁶.
• 2018–2022. Nayoro was certified as the "Nayoro Wine Special Zone" on 30 March 2018, aiming to create Japan's northernmost winery²⁹. Oji Materia's Nayoro mill stopped production on 1 December 2021, after production was consolidated at other plants. That year the city also declared itself a Zero Carbon City. Higashi-Furen Station was moved and reopened as Nayoro Kōkō Station in March 2022⁶.

• Setting. The city lies in the Nayoro Basin, between the Kitami Mountains to the east and the Teshio Mountains to the west²⁰¹⁹. The city gives its position as about 44°21′N, 142°28′E³², almost the same latitude as its Canadian sister city, Lindsay (44.4°N)³³.

• Rivers. The Teshio River is 256 km long, the fourth-longest in Japan²¹, and was listed as a Hokkaido Heritage (北海道遺産) in 2004⁶. The Nayoro River joins the Teshio within the city⁸.

• Mountains and forests. Piyashiri (ピヤシリ山, 986.8 m) stands on the boundary with Shimokawa and Omu⁹ and gives its name to the ski area, which lies on the south slope of neighbouring Kudosan³⁴⁹. The Piyashiri range was designated a natural recreation forest in 1974⁶. Kudosan (九度山, 673.6 m) is a nationally designated scenic place (see Ainu heritage)²². The trail to its summit is about 2.5 km long¹⁴. Nayoro Park has a mizunara oak forest of about 1,200 trees over 10 ha, which is a city-designated cultural property³⁵.

• Waterfalls and lakes. The twin falls Hiyoku-no-taki (比翼の滝) and Shinkō-no-taki (晨光の滝) are in Chitō (智東), and the stepped Naiorop Falls (ナイオロップの滝) is in Nisshin¹⁴. Furen Bokodai Nature Park overlooks Chūreppu Lake (忠烈布湖)¹⁴.

• Parks. Hokkaido-run Sun Pillar Park and the neighbouring Nayoro Health Forest (なよろ健康の森, 219 ha) hold the sunflower field, a 36-hole park-golf course, an auto campground and cross-country ski trails³⁴.

• Climate (1991–2020 normals, Nayoro AMeDAS station).

  Measure	Value
  Annual mean temperature	5.8 °C
  January mean / mean daily minimum	−8.6 °C / −14.7 °C
  August mean / mean daily maximum	19.9 °C / 25.7 °C
  Annual precipitation	1,006.8 mm
  Annual snowfall (total)	829 cm
  Mean maximum snow depth	109 cm

  Source: JMA³⁰. The record low is −35.7 °C (2 Feb 1982), the record high 36.4 °C (28 Jul 2021), and the record snow depth 151 cm (12 Mar 2013)³¹. The city says summer highs above 30 °C and winter lows below −20 °C give a range of about 60 degrees¹⁹.

• Farming. Agriculture is the main industry¹⁹. Farm households fell from 842 in 2010 to 580 in 2020 (a preliminary figure). Cultivated land was 10,555 ha in 2020: 5,428 ha of paddy and 5,118 ha of upland fields³⁶. In FY2021 the city grew 3,590 ha of rice, harvesting 23,700 t. It also had 701 ha of soybeans, 621 ha of wheat, 145 ha of potatoes and 91 ha of sugar beet³⁶. There were 3,293 dairy cattle in 2020³⁶.
• Mochi rice. Farmers grow mochi rice in dedicated zones (もち米生産団地) with no ordinary rice nearby, because pollen from ordinary rice lowers glutinous-rice quality¹³⁹. About half the crop is Hakuchō-mochi (はくちょうもち), the variety favoured by confectioners such as Akafuku. About 40% is Kazenoko-mochi (風の子もち), a large-grained variety that suits okowa³⁹. Snow-cooled silos keep the grain "as if just harvested" all year¹⁷. In 2017 the city declared "mochi-rice products made from Japan's No. 1 mochi rice" its official regional brand under the ふるさと名物応援宣言 scheme³⁷. The 10th of every month is "Nayoro Mochi-rice Day" (名寄もち米の日)⁴⁰.
• Vegetables and new crops. In 2015 the city described its green asparagus acreage as the largest of any Japanese municipality, and its potato and pumpkin acreage as among the largest. Nayoro potatoes are often used in Calbee potato chips¹⁷. Pressed sunflower seeds become Kita no Kagayaki (北の耀き) sunflower oil, and the pressed cake feeds the local Himawari-batake Pork (ひまわり畑ポーク) pigs²³. Under the 2018 wine special zone, the city recruits rural-revitalisation volunteers to grow grapes and make local wine²⁹.
• Industry and public-sector employers. Oji Materia announced in October 2019 that it would consolidate the Nayoro mill's production elsewhere, and the mill stopped on 1 December 2021⁶. Sumitomo Rubber opened a tyre test course here in 1991⁶. Other large employers include JGSDF Camp Nayoro (since 1953), the municipal general hospital (a regional emergency and critical-care centre since 2015) and Nayoro City University⁶. The city describes itself as the only place in northern Hokkaido with a public university⁴¹.
• Tourism. Visitor numbers were 446,200 in FY2017 and 383,400 in FY2019. They fell to 249,000 in FY2020 during the pandemic and were 277,200 in FY2021. Overnight guest-nights in FY2021 totalled 86,200³⁸. The Michi-no-Eki is by far the busiest single facility, with 327,893 visitors in FY2021³⁸.
• Population. The combined area peaked at 48,180 in the 1960 census. It had fallen to 27,282 by 2020, and the 2020 figure was 6.1% below 2015³. By August 2026 the register showed 23,906 residents⁴. Revitalisation efforts include the Yorona station plaza (2013), which houses the tourist office, café and bus waiting room⁴²⁴³, and the Yoroca (ヨロカ) electronic local currency, which is accepted at the museum and observatory⁴⁴⁴⁵. Furusato-nozei donors can even fund Nayoro City University tuition coupons⁴⁶.

Performing arts. Furen Shishi-mai (風連獅子舞) is a lion dance brought by settlers from Toyama. It was first dedicated at Shimo-Tayoro Shrine (下多寄神社) in 1908 and is Nayoro Cultural Property No. 1. Its 6 kg lion head is worked by 10 dancers inside the cloth body, with more than 30 performers in all³⁵. Furen Goryō Daiko (風連御料太鼓) is a taiko group founded in 1976 by young farmers who had drummed on old pickle and soy-sauce barrels⁴⁷. The Furen Fūburen (風舞連) Awa-odori group was formed in 1991 after Suginami's dancers visited, and it now performs at Kōenji's Awa-odori in Tokyo⁴⁷.

Shrines, churches and heritage. Nayoro Shrine (名寄神社) was founded in 1902⁶. Yamagata Shrine (山形神社, 1903) in Akebono has a settlement-memorial elm said to be more than 500 years old²⁴. The Nayoro Church hall (日本基督教団名寄教会会堂, 1909) is the oldest surviving Western-style wooden building in the city³⁵. The city even has its own song, "Sun Pillar", sung by Namerikawa Masami with the Nayoro Piyashiri children's choir⁵⁵.

Museums and venues. The Kitakuni Museum (名寄市北国博物館, 1996) takes the "northern country" (北国) as its theme. Exhibits cover winter nature and how local homes and heating changed over time, and a Foucault pendulum designed to evoke a sun pillar greets visitors⁴⁴. The Furen History and Folk Museum (風連歴史民俗資料館) opened in 1990 and is now a branch of the Kitakuni Museum²⁵³⁸. The Kitasubaru observatory (see below) and the EN-RAY Hall civic culture centre (市民文化センター EN-RAYホール, 2015) round out the cultural facilities⁶.

• Before settlement, the Teshio basin was part of the Teshio Ainu cultural zone. River travel by dugout canoe was the main way through the area's primeval forests¹⁹²⁵²¹.
• Kudosan, Kut-un-nupuri (クトゥンヌㇷ゚リ, "mountain with a cliff"). In 2009 it was designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty as one of the Pirika Noka (ピㇼカノカ, "beautiful shapes"), a group of landscapes chosen for their importance in Ainu culture. It was designated together with Mt. Kogane in Ishikari²²⁶.
• Matsuura Takeshirō campsite (松浦武四郎宿営の地). This marks the spot thought to have held the Ainu house where Matsuura stayed on his first night in Nayoro in 1857²³. The city and ten other Teshio-basin municipalities hand out free "Tesshi Takeshirō Cards" at their tourist offices. A free smartphone audio guide, "A journey along the Teshio with Matsuura Takeshirō", has been available since August 2019. A committee of basin municipalities and national and Hokkaido government offices also produced a picture book about the river and Ainu life in the late Edo period⁵⁶.
• Symbolism. In front of the Kitakuni Museum, five columns face north, carved with the Blakiston's fish owl (シマフクロウ), which the Ainu revered as a village guardian⁴⁴.
• No dedicated Ainu cultural centre or museum in the city turned up during research, so the sites above are the main places to see this heritage.

• Lindsay (now part of the City of Kawartha Lakes), Ontario, Canada. Sister city since 1 Aug 1969. The link was brokered by the missionaries Floyd and Doreen Howlett, who came to Nayoro in 1953. The two cities have exchanged students since 1973³³⁶. The Nayoro–Lindsay friendship committee received the Minister for Internal Affairs Award for local international exchange in 2021⁶.
• Dolinsk, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. Friendship city since 25 Mar 1991⁸³.
• Fujishima district, Tsuruoka, Yamagata. Sister-city pact signed on 1 Aug 1996 with the former Fujishima Town, the "mother village" of Nayoro's first settlers. The city calls a sister pact with settlers' home village a distinctly Hokkaido kind of tie, and one rare anywhere else in Japan²⁴.
• Suginami Ward, Tokyo. Friendship-exchange municipality. Former Furen Town signed the agreement on 13 Jul 1989, and the new city signed a fresh agreement on 6 Jun 2006⁵³⁶. Japanese Wikipedia calls Suginami a sister city, but the city itself uses the term "exchange municipality" (交流自治体)⁸⁵³.
• Other ties. In 2020 the city signed an international-exchange memorandum with National Sun Yat-sen University's Si Wan College in Taiwan⁶. Kitasubaru has exchange agreements with the NAOJ Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory (2014) and the Taipei Astronomical Museum (2015)²⁷.

• Nayoroiwa Shizuo (名寄岩静男, 1914–1971). Sumo ōzeki who took his ring name from the town. He was born in the former Takashima District, now part of Otaru, and raised in Nayoro⁸⁴. He was promoted to ōzeki in 1943⁶, and a statue honouring him was unveiled in the city on 29 May 1981⁶⁸⁴.
• Kihara Hideo (木原秀雄, 1911–1993). A Nayoro high-school teacher who observed the 1943 total solar eclipse from Nayoro. He opened a private observatory in 1973 and donated it to the city in 1992. Asteroid Kihara is named after him²⁷.
• Sano Yasuo (佐野康男). Observatory technician who discovered supernova 1997ef, the first found by anyone in Hokkaido. Asteroid Sano is named after him²⁷. He found another supernova in 2005⁶.
• Satō Aiko (佐藤愛子). Judoka listed in the city's official chronology. She won bronze at the 2007 World Judo Championships and the women's 57 kg gold in 2011⁶.