is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of roughly 780,000 and has a geographic area of . Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasaki Prefect ...

on the island of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Its name, formed from the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

word roots 唐 ''kara'' (China, or continental East Asia in general), and 津 ''tsu'' (port), signifies its historical importance as an ancient trading port between Japan with China and Korea. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 114,695 in 51375 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 200 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The city has the same Hanja name (唐津市) as

Dangjin Dangjin (; ) is a city in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. It stands on the south shore of the Bay of Asan. Dangjin borders Incheon, Pyeongtaek, and Hwaseong by sea, and Seosan, Yesan, and Asan by land. Its name means " Tang ferry," a ...

in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea.

History

The area of Karatsu was part of ancient

Hizen Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of the Saga Prefecture, Saga and Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen Province, Ch ...

. In 1591, on the coast of the northern part of the city (formerly the town of Chinzei),

Nagoya Castle is a Japanese castle located in Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya Castle was constructed by the Owari Domain in 1612 during the Edo period on the site of an earlier castle of the Oda clan in the Sengoku period. Nagoya Castle was the heart of one of the ...

was constructed. The following year, it became the location from which the

Imjin War The Imjin War () was a series of two Japanese invasions of Korea: an initial invasion in 1592 also individually called the "Imjin War", a brief truce in 1596, and a second invasion in 1597 called the Chŏngyu War (). The conflict ended in 159 ...

was launched by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

. In the middle of 1593,

Terazawa Hirotaka (1563 – May 18, 1633) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. He was a retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and was the builder of Karatsu Castle. Life Hirotaka became lord of Karatsu in 1595. In 1598, he abandoned his original cast ...

created

Karatsu Domain , located in Hizen Province, was a Japanese Han (Japan), domain of the Edo period. It was centered on Karatsu Castle, in what is now the urban center of the city of Karatsu, Saga, Karatsu, Saga Prefecture. It was ruled by a number of Fudai daim ...

. In 1602, replacing Nagoya Castle,

Karatsu Castle is a Japanese castle located in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Japan. It is a ''hirayamajiro'', a castle built on a plain rather than a hill or mountain. At the end of the Edo period, Karatsu castle was home to the Ogasawara clan, ''daimyō'' of K ...

was constructed in what is now the heart of Karatsu. Following the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, the town of Karatsu and the villages of Hamasaki, Irino, Kagami, Karatsu, Kirigo, Kitahata, Kuri, Kyūragi, Minato, Mitsushima, Nagoya, Nanayama, Ōchi, Ōmura, Onizuka, Sashi, Uchiage and Yobuko were established with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Ōmura was renamed Tamashima in July 28, 1896. Hamasaki was elevated to town status on July 1, 1922. Karatsu annexed Mitsushima on January 1, 1924. Yobuko was elevated to town status on August 1, 1928. Karatsu Village was incorporated into Karatsu Town on January 1, 1932, and on September 1, 1935 both Sashi and Ōchi were elevated to town status. Sashi was subsequently annexed by Karatsu on November 11, 1941. Kyūragi was elevated to town status on May 3, 1952. On November 1, 1954 Karatsu annexed Kagami, Kuri, Minato and Onizuka. Hamasaki and Tamashima were merged to create the town of Hamasaki-Tamashima; and Nagoya and Uchiage were merge to create the town of Chinzei on September 30, 1956. On November 1, 1958 Kirigo was split and its parts were incorporated into Karatsu and Irino (respectively), and Irino was elevated to town status and was renamed Hizen. On November 1, 1966 Hamasaki-Tamashima was renamed Hamatama. On January 1, 2005, the towns of

Chinzei The branch, also called the Chinzei Doctrine (鎮西義), is one of the two largest branches of Jōdo-shū Buddhism (the second being Seizan). The tradition traces itself to Benchō (a.k.a. Shōkō Shōnin), a disciple of Hōnen, but it was f ...

, Hamatama,

Hizen was an old province of Japan in the area of the Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo. The province was included in Saikaidō. It did not includ ...

, Kyūragi, Ōchi, Yobuko and the village of Kitahata (all from

Higashimatsuura District is a district located in Saga Prefecture, Japan. At the present it has only one town. As of April 1, 2021, the district has an estimated population of 5,211 and a density of 145 persons per square kilometre. The total area is . Municipalities * ...

) were merged into Karatsu. On January 1, 2006, the village of Nanayama (from

) was merged into Karatsu.

Geography

Karatsu is located in northern Saga Prefecture. The city area consists of the plains (Karatsu Plain) created by the Matsuura River and Tamashima River, and a hilly basalt plateau called Uwaba. It faces the Sefuri Mountains to the east, Imari Bay to the west, the Kishima Mountains to the south, and the

Genkai Sea The is a body of water that comprises the southwestern tip of the Sea of Japan and borders the northern coasts of Fukuoka and Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. T ...

(Karatsu Bay) to the north, into which the Matsuura River flows. The northwest is a

ria A ria (; , feminine noun derived from ''río'', river) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendriti ...

coast with many inlets and outlets, and due to its geographical features, this area has been a base for maritime traffic to the continent since ancient times. The city also includes a number of populated offshore islands *

Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

s: Mt. Sakurei (887.1 m), Mt. Hachiman (763.6 m), Mt. Tonbo (535 m) * Natural Parks: Hachimandake Prefectural Natural Park, Sefuri-Kitayama Prefectural Natural Park, Tenzan Prefectural Natural Park

Adjoining municipalities

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

* Itoshima

* Genkai * Imari *

Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

* Takeo * Taku

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Karatsu is as shown below.

Climate

Karatsu has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Karatsu is 15.6°C. The average annual rainfall is 1760 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.3°C, and lowest in January, at around 5.5°C.

Government

Karatsu has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 28 members. Karatsu contributes six members to the Saga Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the

Saga 2nd district Saga 2nd district (佐賀県第2区, ''Saga-ken dai-niku'' or simply 佐賀2区, ''Saga-niku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan located in Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan ...

of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Local attractions and culture

* Kagami Jinja. *

Karatsu ware is a style of Japanese pottery produced traditionally in and around Karatsu, Saga Prefecture. History Karatsu has been a hub of foreign commerce and trade since ancient times, and a center of pottery production since the Azuchi-Momoyama period ...

pottery * Kawamura Art Museum * Matsurokan *

Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum opened in 1993 in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Japan, on the site of Nagoya Castle, built in 1591 as the base for Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea. It displays artefacts excavated from the castle site and other materials relating to three main theme ...

Festivals

Karatsu Kunchi

Karatsu is famous for its

Karatsu Kunchi Karatsu Kunchi (唐津くんち; the suffix "kunchi" simply meaning festival) is a matsuri, Japanese matsuri that takes place annually in November in the city of Karatsu, Saga, Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, on Japan's island of Kyūshū. About ...

festival (

matsuri Japanese festivals, or , are traditional festive occasions often celebrated with dance and music in Japan. The origin of the word ''matsuri'' is related to the ; there are theories that the word ''matsuri'' is derived from meaning "to wait (for ...

), which runs annually from November 2 to November 4 and is visited by approximately 500,000 visitors from all over Japan. The festival consists of 14 hikiyama (floats made of many layers of

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

) being carried around the city's narrow streets to calls of "Enya!". Some hikiyama members say "Yoisa!". This accompaniment is one of the

100 Soundscapes of Japan The are a number of noises selected by the Ministry of the Environment (Japan), Ministry of the Environment as particularly representative of the country. They were chosen in 1996, as part of government efforts to combat noise pollution and to prot ...

. During Karatsu Kunchi, people in this town open their homes to friends and strangers to eat and drink; the primary focus is enjoying food, beer, and shochu, and having lively conversation. In 2016 the festival was registered as a

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, science ...

Karatsu International Film Festival

The Karatsu International Film Festival (KIFF) has been held in the historic Theater Enya each year since 2022, with the 4th edition running from 8 t0 13 July, 2025. The festival awards a number of prizes in eligible categories of films, including

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length film ...

s, narrative

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

s, and documentary feature films. The Grand Prix, or Pandre Award, is worth 200,000 yen as of 2025.

Karatsu Rising Sun International Film Festival

The Karatsu Rising Sun International Film Festival is part of the Rising Sun International Film Festival, which is held each November in

Kitakyushu is a Cities of Japan, city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, Kitakyushu has an estimated population of 940,978, making it the second-largest city in both Fukuoka Prefecture and the island of Kyushu after the city of Fuk ...

. Films are screened in the Theater Enya, and a number of film awards are given by the festival.

Film location

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and ...

's award-winning 1951 film Fireworks over the Sea was both filmed and set in Yobuko.

Nobuhiko Obayashi was a Japanese film director, director, screenwriter and film editing, editor of films and television advertisements. He began his filmmaking career as a pioneer of Japanese experimental films before transitioning to directing more mainstream m ...

's 2017 film ''

Hanagatami is a 2017 Japanese war film directed by Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, based on a 1937 novel by Kazuo Dan. The film tells a story of the purity of youth beset by the chaos of war, inspired by Obayashi's own childhood. It revolves around Toshihiko, a sixte ...

'', made in collaboration with Theater Enya, was set in Karatsu. It won the Grand Prix at the 72nd

Mainichi Film Awards The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by '' Mainichi Shimbun'' (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of ...

, and screened at international film festivals in over 20 countries.

Economy

Karatsu has a diverse economy. The main agricultural products are fruit trees, rice, vegetables, and beef cattle. In the plains of Kagami and Kuri, there are vast rice paddies developed as an ancillary project of the river improvement project in the Edo period. Rice is still the main crop, but due to the rice production reduction policy, there has been a shift to the production of soybeans and other beans, and barley, wheat, and other grains. Large-scale orchards are spread out in the Hamatama area, and greenhouse mandarin oranges are a specialty. The main industrial clusters are the Karatsu Ironworks Complex (Nakahara area), the Karatsu Ishishi Industrial Complex (Ishishi area), and the Kishiyama Industrial Complex (Kitahata Kishiyama area).

Education

Karatsu has 30 public elementary schools and 18 public junior high schools operated by the city government, and one public junior high schools operated by the Saga Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates a six public high schools and one special education school for the handicapped. There is also one private high school. There is one vocational training school, the Karatsu Maritime Polytechnical School.

Transport

Railway

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan. It formerly operated the Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait be ...

Karatsu Line The is a regional railway line in Saga Prefecture, Japan, owned and operated by Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). It connects in Saga, Saga, Saga City to in Karatsu, Saga, Karatsu City, both in Saga Prefecture, Japan. The line was originally ...

* - - - - - - -

Chikuhi Line The is a railway line in Kyushu, Japan, connecting Meinohama Station in Fukuoka, Fukuoka (and via a subway through service, Fukuoka itself) to Karatsu Station in Karatsu, Saga, and from Yamamoto Station in Karatsu to Imari Station in Imari, ...

* - - - -

(West) * - - -

Highways

Nishi-Kyūshū Expressway The is one of the expressways of Japan which goes from Fukuoka to Takeo, running through the prefecture of Saga and the northern half of the Nagasaki Prefecture. The total length is 150 km. Part of the road is specified as Route 497. This ro ...

* * * * * *

Sister cities

* Reihoku, Kumamoto, Japan *

Seogwipo Seogwipo (; ) is the second-largest Administrative divisions of South Korea, city on Jeju Island, settled on a rocky volcanic coastline in the southern part of Jeju Province, South Korea. In July 2006, Seogwipo's boundaries were expanded to inclu ...

, South Korea *

Yangzhou Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou, Jiangsu, ...

, China *

Yeosu Yeosu, formerly romanized as Yosu, is a coastal city located on the southern shore of South Korea. With a population of 268,823, Yeosu is the second largest city in South Jeolla Province. In 1998, the Old Yeosu City, Yeocheon City and Yeocheon C ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Notable people from Imari

Ken Hisatomi Ken Hisatomi (久富賢, born September 29, 1990) is a Japanese football player who plays as a midfielder for Vonds Ichihara. Career On 5 December 2013, Hisatomi was selected as Fujieda MYFC's player of the 2013 season by a fan blog. Club sta ...

(

Footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

) *

Takeshi Kamura is a Japanese badminton player. He was selected to join the national team in 2013 and retired in 2021. Kamura was part of the national team that won the 2014 Thomas Cup. He captured his first Superseries title at the 2016 Hong Kong Open, and r ...

(

Badminton player Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

) * Toshiro Miyazaki (Baseball Player)

In popular culture

* Karatsu is the setting for two manga and anime series, ''

Yuri on Ice is a Japanese sports anime television series about figure skating. The series was produced by MAPPA, directed and written by Sayo Yamamoto with original scripts by Mitsurō Kubo under the chief episode direction of Jun Shishido. Characte ...

'' and '' Zombieland Saga''.

References

External links

Karatsu City official website

* {{Authority control Cities in Saga Prefecture Port settlements in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan