Yame — A Merchant Town That Makes More Lanterns Than Anywhere Else in Japan

Why visit

Yame lanterns have the largest production volume in Japan (C003). They began around 1816 and are a nationally designated traditional craft. So are Yame Fukushima butsudan — Buddhist altars — which date from 1821 (C002).

The place those crafts came from is still standing. Yame-Fukushima is a nationally designated Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, classed as a merchant town (C008). It began as the merchants' quarter of an early-Edo castle town and grew into the largest rural merchant town in the Kurume domain (C009). Along its streets, nurigome-style townhouses and other buildings from the Edo period through the modern era stand in continuous rows (C010).

Not many places let you see a craft alongside the town that produced it.

Who it is for

• Travellers who want to meet a craft at its source rather than in a shop.
• Anyone extending a trip from Fukuoka: Yame is in the south of the prefecture, south-east of Kurume (C001).

What to do

Nationally designated traditional crafts (C002, C003)

• Yame Fukushima butsudan (from 1821)
• Yame lanterns (from around 1816; largest production in Japan)

Prefecturally designated speciality crafts (C004, C005, C006)

• Yame hand-made washi paper
• Yame stone lanterns
• Yame spinning tops, Yame arrows, bamboo work

Contemporary makers and kilns include Hoshino Mingei, Genta-gama, Joko-gama and Jikkago-gama (C007).

The townscape. The Yame-Fukushima preservation district, whose street plan still carries the layout of the castle town it was (C010).

Experiences

Craft workshops in Yame include silverwork with a decorative-metalwork artisan and making your own kitchen knife with a blacksmith (C014). There is also a course pairing Japanese sweets with Yame tea (C015), and a day-long loop bus tour, the Tabisuru Chanokuni bus (C016).

Yame presents its tourism under the banner of a "land of tea", with Yame tea at the centre (C018).

Events

The Yame-Fukushima lantern puppet performance (C011), the Hoshi Festival — a Kyushu taiko drum festival (C012) — and an event called the Yame Festival (C013).

Languages

The official tourism site, run by the Yame Chanokuni tourist information office, offers traditional-Chinese and English versions (C017).

How to get there — the last leg is a bus

Every rail route the city sets out ends with a change to a bus at the nearest station (C021). There is no train that carries you into the centre of town.

• From Hakata: JR Kagoshima Main Line to Hainuzuka, then Horikawa Bus into Yame (C019)
• By Nishitetsu: from Fukuoka to Kurume, then Nishitetsu Bus into Yame (C020)

Driving is more direct: about 10 minutes from Yame IC via Route 442, or about 15 minutes from Hirokawa IC via Route 3 (C022). There is park-and-ride parking near Yame IC (C024).

From Fukuoka Airport, Yame IC is served by Nishitetsu buses towards Omuta and Arao, or by the Kyushu Sanko Hinokuni-go towards Kumamoto (C023).

The town also has a reservation-based shared taxi, which requires prior registration (C024).

Limitations and cautions

• Section-by-section journey times, fares and service frequency are not given on the city's page and were not obtained. Check the operators' timetables for actual connections.
• The city does not state that there is no station in the town centre. What is recorded here is only that every route it publishes involves a change to a bus.
• The designation date and area of the preservation district are not stated on the cultural-affairs or preservation-council pages consulted, and were not obtained.
• No primary source was found for Yame tea or Yame dento hongyokuro — its method, output or awards — so nothing is claimed about them. For a town that calls itself a land of tea, the tea itself is thin here; that is a real weakness of this guide.
• The Iwatoyama burial mound and the Iwai rebellion are not researched.
• Prices, durations and booking for the craft experiences, the loop bus's operating days and fares, and the dates of the festivals were not obtained.
• Information on the Yame Traditional Craft Museum could not be retrieved — the city page returns a 404.
• Accommodation, shops and produce sales, and seasonal timing (new tea, the tea fields) are not researched.