Tsunagi Town｜Area Guide｜UNA Laboratories Inc

Tsunagi Town

Citrus and Art in Southern Kumamoto

Information

With a population of around 4,500, Tsunagi Town is located in southern Kumamoto Prefecture. It is a beautiful town on the calm Yatsushiro Sea with abundant citrus groves dotting its hillsides. Tsunagi has been working on “Community Building Through Art”, an art-based initiative to reinvigorate the region in the wake of Minamata disease. Additionally, through a community farm, it aims to promote natural farming that uses as little pesticides and fertilizer as possible.

Prefecture	Kumamoto Prefecture
Local Specialties	By car: About 1 hour and 30 minutes from Kumamoto City, about 3 hours from Fukuoka City By train: Transfer to the Hisatsu Orange Railway at JR Shin-Minamata Station. Tsunagi Station is one station away. * Rental cars and bicycles are available in front of JR Shin-Minamata Station.
Specialties	Citrus fruits (e.g., Shiranui, Amanatsu, Sweet Spring), vegetables (e.g., salad onions), seafood (e.g., cutlass fish, daggertooth pike conger), sake

Recommended Spots

Tsunagi’s “Community Building Through Art” initiative has been around since 1984 and includes several sculptures and outdoor art installations to see throughout the town. You also won’t want to miss the restaurants that make use of the abundant local seafood and mountain produce, as well as the sake brewery and confectionary shop.

Tatzu Butzu

An outdoor installation by contemporary artist, Tatzu Nishi, Tatzu Butsu consists of 33 Buddha sculptures carved directly into the forest’s trees. Nearby, you will find Yukinori Yanagi’s outdoor installation called “Ishidama no Mori (Stone Spirit Forest)”

Nyukon House (Inn of Souls)

A large outdoor installation by contemporary artist, Yukinori Yanagi. Inn of Souls makes use of the renovated swimming pool and other facilities of the now-shuttered Akasaki Elementary School. You can stay overnight here during certain periods of the year.

Tsunagi Art Museum

A town-run museum that opened in April 2001 to serve as a hub for artistic and cultural activities in the Minamata and Ashikita regions of Kumamoto Prefecture. You can purchase monorail tickets at the museum.

Monorail and Maizuru Castle Park Observation Deck

The monorail, whose decorative wrapping was supervised by contemporary artist Yukinori Yanagi, connects Tsunagi Art Museum to the Maizuru Castle Park Observation Deck. A one-way trip takes about five minutes.

Tsunagi Hyakkodo

This shop, which aims to provide safe and delicious products, sells a selection of local specialties made using environmentally friendly farming methods. In winter, you can purchase a variety of local citrus fruits that Tsunagi is famous for.

Shikisai (Tsunagi Onsen)

Shikisai is a hot spring that is accessible by monorail—a rarity in Japan! The view of the ocean from the top of the mountain is spectacular. The on-site restaurant serves excellent local fish dishes.

Kameman Shuzo

A sake brewery that has been in business for over 100 years. It won the Gold Medal in the Fine Sake Awards Japan 2022 and the Platinum Award in the Kura Master Sake Contest 2022(France).

Un Cinq

The only confectionery shop in Tsunagi. Popular items include Amanatsu pie made with the town's specialty citrus fruit of the same name, a gift set of puddings made with sake lees from Kameman Shuzo, and cakes featuring local seasonal fruits.

Tsunagi Fureai Market

Hours: 7:30 - 14:00. A farmer’s market located next to the parking lot of Shikisai hot spring. Here you will find a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, pickles, and prepared foods.

Yorimichi

Hours: 8:00 - 18:00. A farmer’s market located on National Route 3. Shop here for vegetables, fruits, pickles, and prepared foods. It is famous for ikinari dango cakes, which are filled with apple and coated with kinako (soybean flour).

Tsunagi Oyster Bar

A European-style oyster hut on a hill overlooking the sea. Only open on Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays from around January to April. The bar is extremely popular, so advance reservations are a must.

Highlights

Maizuru Castle Park

Chohangan is a unique rock formation in the center of Tsunagi with a Japanese flag planted on top. Due to its strategic location, Maizuru Castle was built here as a natural fortress in the late 14th century and was ruled by various feudal lords including members of the Shimazu Clan and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The castle was abandoned in the 17th century when the Shogunate issued the one castle per province decree, and the site where it stood is now a park where locals come to relax. The mountaintop park is accessible by monorail. When you get off, the first thing you will see is a sculpture by Yuzo Iwano. The park also offers a panoramic view of the Yatsushiro Sea(Shiranui Sea) and the town below.

Art Projects with Local Participation

Tsunagi has been promoting art-based community development initiatives since 1984 as a way to revitalize the town in the wake of Minamata disease. The town opened the Tsunagi Art Museum to serve as a hub for these initiatives in 2001, and since then, various art projects have been carried out in a collaborative effort between leading artists and local residents. There are several permanent installations throughout Tsunagi including the “Inn of Souls” and “Stone Spirit Forest” by Yukinori Yanagi, “Tatzu Butzu” by Tatzu Nishi, and “Tsunagu” by Yuka Ohira. Every year from September 26th of the Lunar calendar, an installation called “Sea Crossing” is exhibited as a revival of a festival that was close to being abandoned.

“Umiwatari(Sea Crossing)” by Yasuaki Igarashi

Protecting local treasures for posterity with organic cultivation methods

The Tsunagi Farm project is carried out to preserve the region’s abundance of natural beauty and make sure the town’s children inherit the right kind of food in the future. It focuses on cultivating agricultural products in an environmentally-friendly way, by employing organic methods and using as little fertilizer and pesticides as possible. Under this project, study sessions led by experts are held along with cooking classes and practical agriculture training programs, and produce including citrus fruits, salad onions, and avocados are grown. In a hands-on agricultural project implemented with Tsunagi Junior High School, students are involved in every step of the farming process, from growing daikon radishes, processing them into kanzuke pickles (a local specialty), designing the packaging, and selling. The farm also runs a market called Tsunagi Hyakkodo(Tsunagi Store), which aims to sell safe and healthy agricultural products and processed foods.