Karatsu

The same Chinese characters are used in the name of the city (唐津市) as for the city of Dangjin in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea.

• Name — Karatsu • Native Name — 唐津市 • Settlement Type — City 2nd left: Oteguchi Bus Terminal, 2nd right:Karatsu Castle 3rd: Nijinomatsubara pine forest area Bottom: Karatsu Kunchi in November. • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — Japan • Subdivision Type1 — Region • Subdivision Name1 — Kyushu • Subdivision Type2 — Prefecture • Subdivision Name2 — Saga • Subdivision Type3 — District • Extinct Title — Now part of • Leader Title — Mayor • Leader Name — Tatsurō Mine (from February 2017) • Leader Title1 — Vice Mayor • Unit Pref — Metric • Area Total Km2 — 487.58 • Population Total — 111,413 • Population As Of — 1 September 2026 • Population Density Km2 — auto • Timezone1 — JST • Utc Offset1 — +09:00 • Blank Name Sec1 — City hall address • Blank Info Sec1 — 1-1 Nishijōnai, Karatsu-shi, Saga-ken 847-8511 • Blank Name Sec2 — Climate • Blank Info Sec2 — Cfa

The area of Karatsu was part of ancient Hizen Province. In 1591, on the coast of the northern part of the city (formerly the town of Chinzei), Nagoya Castle was constructed. The following year, it became the location from which the Imjin War was launched by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the middle of 1593, Terazawa Hirotaka created Karatsu Domain. In 1602, replacing Nagoya Castle, Karatsu Castle was constructed in what is now the heart of Karatsu. Following the Meiji restoration, 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 on 28 July 1896. Hamasaki was elevated to town status on 1 July 1922. Karatsu annexed Mitsushima on 1 January 1924. Yobuko was elevated to town status on 1 August 1928. Karatsu Village was incorporated into Karatsu Town on 1 January 1932, and on 1 September 1935, both Sashi and Ōchi were elevated to town status. Sashi was subsequently annexed by Karatsu on 11 November 1941. Kyūragi was elevated to town status on 3 May 1952. On 1 November 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 30 September 1956. On 1 November 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 1 November 1966, Hamasaki-Tamashima was renamed Hamatama. On 1 January 2005, the towns of Chinzei, Hamatama, Hizen, Kyūragi, Ōchi, Yobuko and the village of Kitahata (all from Higashimatsuura District) were merged into Karatsu. On 1 January 2006, the village of Nanayama (from Higashimatsuura District) was merged into Karatsu.

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

Fukuoka Prefecture • Itoshima Saga Prefecture • Genkai • Imari • Saga • Takeo • Taku

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

Karatsu has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Karatsu is. The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around, and lowest in January, at around.

• Illustration — Karatsu City Hall • Illustration — Karatsu Castle • Illustration — Karatsu Castle overlooks the city of Karatsu • Illustration — Fresh squid in Yobuko Karatsu has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral 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 of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

• Kagami Jinja. • Karatsu Castle • Karatsu ware pottery • Kawamura Art Museum • Matsurokan • Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum • Nijinomatsubara

Karatsu is famous for its Karatsu Kunchi festival (matsuri), which runs annually from 2 November to 4 November 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) 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. 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.

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).

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.

JR Kyushu - Karatsu Line • Kyūragi - - - Honmutabe - - Onizuka - Karatsu - Nishi-Karatsu JR Kyushu - Chikuhi Line • Hamasaki - Nijinomatsubara - Higashi-Karatsu - Watada - Karatsu JR Kyushu - Chikuhi Line (West) • Greenyellow Honmutabe - Hizen-Kubo - Nishi-Ōchi -

• Nishi-Kyūshū Expressway • Route • Route • Route • Route • Route • Route

• Japan Reihoku, Kumamoto, Japan • South Korea Seogwipo, South Korea • China Yangzhou, China • South Korea Yeosu, South Korea

• Ken Hisatomi (Footballer) • Takeshi Kamura (Badminton player) • Toshiro Miyazaki (Baseball Player)

• Karatsu is the setting for two manga and anime series, Yuri on Ice and Zombieland Saga.

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

The Karatsu Rising Sun International Film Festival is part of the Rising Sun International Film Festival, which is held each November in Kitakyushu. Films are screened in the Theater Enya, and a number of film awards are given by the festival.

Keisuke Kinoshita's award-winning 1951 film Fireworks over the Sea was both filmed and set in Yobuko. Nobuhiko Obayashi's 2017 film Hanagatami, made in collaboration with Theater Enya, was set in Karatsu. It won the Grand Prix at the 72nd Mainichi Film Awards, and screened at international film festivals in over 20 countries.