White Plum City Strange Tales

🌸 Hakubai City World Setting Materials 🌸

■ Basic Information

Hakubai City is a fictional provincial city located in the Hokuriku region of modern Japan. Population approximately 120,000. Known for tourism and traditional crafts. The city's name originates from the "Great White Plum Tree" that once bloomed magnificently in this area—however, it is said that the tree suddenly burned down 300 years ago. The citizens call this legend the "Great Hakubai Fire" and hold a memorial service every February.

Yokai and strange creatures also exist in this world, but most people do not believe in their existence.

■ Major Areas

【Sougaoka】

A hilly area spreading across the northeastern part of the city. "Hakubai High School," the symbol of Hakubai City, stands at the summit of the hill. The cherry blossom-lined school road is famous, and in spring, flower viewers visit from outside the city.

🏫 Hakubai High School

• Founded in 1889. A traditional school with a former middle school as its predecessor. The main building, made of red brick, is designated as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property. The school motto is "Plum blossoms do not fear the cold." In addition to the general curriculum, it also has a Traditional Crafts Department (learning the basics of pottery and Yuzen dyeing).
• 3 classes per grade (30-32 students per class), with approximately 280 students in total.
• School spirit: "Pursuit of both academic and athletic excellence, and contribution to the community." While there is a uniform, shoes and bags are optional. School rules are standard, but participation in community events is emphasized, with frequent involvement with the local community throughout the year.
• Students with strong spiritual sensitivity occasionally witness "the shadow of a woman in a white kimono."

⛲️ Hakubai Central Park

• A vast park spreading across the middle of the hills. The "Hakubai Memorial Monument" stands in the center, surrounded by plum and cherry trees. "May peace be upon the souls sleeping in this land" is inscribed on the base of the monument.

【Old Town District】

The central part of Hakubai City. Centered around "Umekoji Street," where traditional merchant houses from the Edo period remain, it is lined with shopping streets, restaurants, and machiya cafes.

🏬 Umekoji Shopping Street

• An arcade shopping street approximately 200 meters long. The long-established senbei shop "Baikado" is a regular haunt for Sakura Hana. Their signature product, "Hakubai Senbei," is a simple soy-flavored rice cracker with a plum blossom imprint.
• The old bookstore "Zosho-do" at the end of the shopping street is actually run by a yokai. The owner is a tsukumogami of books named "Fukurumayouhi," who secretly deals in old literature and forbidden books related to yokai.

♨️ Hakubai Onsen Village

• A hot spring town located at the southern end of the old town. There are several day-use hot spring facilities such as "Shirasagi no Yu" and "Umemi no Yu." The water quality is sodium chloride spring, said to have health benefits (yokai sometimes disguise themselves as humans and come to bathe secretly).

🍵 Machiya Cafe "Hanaikada"

• A cafe renovated from a 150-year-old machiya. Matcha parfait and hojicha are specialties. The elderly proprietress has strong spiritual sensitivity and will tell stories about yokai—whether you believe her or not is up to you.

【Hakubai Station Area / New Town District】

A modern area. Lined with station buildings, shopping malls, and business hotels.

🚉 Hakubai Onsen Station

• There is a monument in the shape of a white plum blossom in the rotary in front of the station. From here, transfer to the local line "Homura Railway" for the direction of Inunaki Village, and it takes about 1 hour.

📕 Hakubai City Library "Bairinkan"

• A modernist architectural library. The local history room stores ancient documents related to the "Great Hakubai Fire," but documents that get close to the core have been secretly removed by someone and are unavailable for viewing.

Inunaki Village World Setting Materials

■ Basic Information

A small mountain village located about 1 hour from Hakubai City via the Hokuriku local line "Homura Railway," at the terminal station "Inunakiguchi Station," and then about a 30-minute walk up a mountain path. Population approximately 300. Administratively part of Hakubai City (Inunaki District, Hakubai City), but due to geographical isolation, it forms its own cultural sphere. Mobile phone reception is only available in the village center, and Wi-Fi is installed only in the community center and the police box.

Benevolent yokai live in the mountains and rivers, and the majority of the villagers coexist with this fact as an "open secret." To outsiders, they protect the truth by saying, "Yokai used to live in this land."

⚠️ This is unrelated to the urban legend "Inunaki Village."

■ Geography and Natural Environment

🏞️ Inunaki River

• A clear stream flowing north-south through the center of the village. The upper reaches lead to a 15-meter-high waterfall called "Shinken no Taki," and the basin becomes a natural pool, serving as a playground for children in the summer. A few families of kappa live in the river, and it is common to see them swimming with human children—of course, they hide their presence when outsiders arrive. The river is rich in freshwater fish (iwa, yamame), supporting the village's diet.

⛰️ Mt. Inunaki

• A mountain soaring approximately 800 meters above sea level to the northeast of the village. Old mountain asceticism shrines are scattered near the summit, and the area from the middle of the mountain upwards is considered the "Tengu's domain," which villagers rarely enter. The hiking trail is maintained, but there are places where the path disappears, and it is said that only those "invited by the mountain" can reach the summit. Various yokai inhabit the mountain, and they have a loose coexistence relationship as the village's "neighbors."

There is a giant ancient cedar tree called "Sennen Sugi" halfway up the mountain, with a small shrine at its roots. This shrine symbolizes the "boundary" between humans and yokai.

🌾 Terraced Rice Fields and Satoyama

• Beautiful terraced rice fields spread across the southern slopes of the village, offering picturesque scenery in all four seasons. Spring: cherry blossoms reflected in the rice paddies, summer: lush green rice stalks, autumn: golden harvest, winter: a serene world of white snow.
  Yokai also secretly cooperate in the management of the terraced fields, and small spirits called "Ta no Kami" watch over the bountiful harvest.

■ Major Facilities

🏠 Inunaki Village Community Center "Narukami-do"

• A wooden community center located in the center of the village. It has a history of over 200 years, characterized by its thick beams and irori (sunken hearth). It is used for various purposes such as village meetings, festival preparations, and as a playground for children. A framed calligraphy reads "Humans and Yokai, Living Together" on the wall. In times of emergency, it also serves as a venue for joint meetings between yokai and humans.

🚃 Inunakiguchi Station

• The terminal station of the Homura Railway. A single-track, unmanned station with an average of about 30 passengers per day. A faded sign that reads "Inunaki Village Tourist Information" is propped up in the small wooden station building, but almost no tourists visit. In front of the station, there is one vending machine and a handwritten map of the village.
  It has been witnessed that a girl with dog ears and a tail travels to Hakubai City and back on foot instead of using this train.

⛩️ Inunaki Shrine

A small shrine located by the Inunaki River, near Shinken no Taki. The enshrined deity is "Inunaki Daimyojin"—ostensibly the guardian deity of the mountain, but in reality, it enshrines the leader of the beastmen who established peace between humans and yokai in this land 500 years ago. At the annual "Inunaki Festival" in October, humans and yokai carry the portable shrine together. To outsiders, it is explained as a "costume parade."

👮 Police Box

• The only small police box in the village. The resident police officer is customarily appointed from among those who "know the village's circumstances," and also plays a role in handling yokai-related incidents discreetly. The current officer is a gentle middle-aged man.

♨️ Public Bath "Inunaki no Yu"

• A village-operated public bath located along the Inunaki River. It is a sulfur spring with water flowing directly from the source, effective for neuralgia and muscle pain.