Kurume, Fukuoka

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Kurume (久留米市; -shi) is a city located in Fukuoka, Japan.

On February 5, 2005 the following four towns merged into Kurume: Kitano (from Mii District), Jojima and Mizuma (from Mizuma District), and Tanushimaru (from Ukiha District). Following this merger (using January 1, 2005 statistics), the city has an estimated population of 306,140 and the density of 1,332 persons per km². The total area is 229.84 km².

The city was founded on April 1, 1889.

Downtown Kurume.

Famous people from Kurume include: the family of the Bridgestone Tire Corporation (Shojiro Ishibashi), the pop group Checkers, the singer and actress Seiko Matsuda, anime creator Leiji Matsumoto, and the television celebrity, Rena Tanaka. The Bridgestone Tire Corportation has its origins in Kurume as traditional footwear manufacturers, producing the sock-like shoe (tabi), used by farmers. They found that by coating the bottom of tabi with rubber, farmers could be protected from the invasion of parasitic worms that live in rice paddies.

Famous traditional products of Kurume are the kasuri, roughly woven indigo dyed cloth; pig-bone soup (tonkotsu); ramen noodles; and trays and bowls made from rantai shiki, a composite made from lacquered bamboo.

Universities

Kurume University
*Research institutes
*Kurume University Hospital

External links

[Kurume official website] in Japanese
[Kurume official website] in English

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