Cosmo Tower at Inariyama Park

2025-04-21

Inariyama Park is located in Usuda, Saku City, Nagano Prefecture.
Topographically, the eastern side is a cliff with the Chikuma-gawa River flowing through it, while the other three sides are gently sloping hills.
On the northern slope of the hill is Inari Shrine, where the “Komansai” festival in May, which began in the Taisho era, continues to be held to this day. The festival is held to pray for fertility of the grains and prosperity of business, but before World War II, it was also held to pray for the prosperity of sericulture, and sericulture farmers would voluntarily visited the shrine to pray for sericulture.

I visited Inariyama Park during the cherry blossom season. Since it was a holiday, the parking lot was full of visitors, but I was able to park my car after one of the other cars had left.
From the parking lot, I walked up the central stairs while admiring the cherry blossoms.

At the top of the stairs stands a tower (observatory) like this one. This article is not about the Inari Shrine, but about this tower. The name of the tower is “Cosmo Tower".

The Cosmo Tower was completed in 1988.
Since 1984, when the Usuda Space Center was established in Usuda Town, the town has been working on urban development under the slogan “Usuda, a town of stars".
That is why the tower is shaped like a rocket and the playground equipment is made in the image of space.
Incidentally, Usuda became Saku City in 2005 due to the merger of Usuda Town and Saku City.

I came close to the tower. Several sculptures are installed a little below the glass window, which is said to represent the constellations of the four seasons.
The explanation board said that they represent the constellations Centaurus, Hercules, Cassiopeia, and Gemini.

The one in front seems to be Cassiopeia.

The tower has two observation rooms, the 11.1-meter-high “Observation Room 1” and the 21.9-meter-high “Observation Room 2,” from which visitors can view the scenery. I climbed up the narrow stairs to reach Observation Room 1.
The view from Observation Room 1. The shape of the playground equipment is also designed in the image of a spaceship.

After circling the observatory, I found a notice about astronomy on the wall.

Let’s go up the stairs again.

On Observation Room 2, the window frames have descriptions of the scenery, including the names of the mountains.

It is not possible to read the words in the image, but I saw that the mountain in the center in front is Mt. Akadake of Yatsugatake.
There is an arrow slightly to the right of the center of the bottom in the photo, which reads “Okazaki City, the city where has a relationship".
Later, I found out that the relationship was based that Matsudaira Norikata, a feudal lord at the end of the Edo period, who moved his camp from Okudono (now Okudono-cho, Okazaki City) to Tanokuchi (Taguchi, former Usuda Town).
Currently, Saku City and Okazaki City are exchanging with each other.

The site of Tatsuoka Castle, built by Matsudaira Norikata, is located on the east side.
It is hard to tell from this photo, but it is located at the foot of the mountain in the center of the photo. It is about 1.7 km away from here in a straight line.

Moving a little further north.
Mt. Asama can be seen in the distance. Below is the Chikuma-gawa River and the Usuda-bashi Bridge.
(The left third of the image looks a little whitish because of the reflection of the glass.)

Moved a little to the left from the position in the photo above and look at the immediate vicinity of the tower, we can see a small building and a gatepost. This is the Inariyama Water Distribution Pond of the Saku City Waterworks. This site is off-limits.

I climbed down the tower and walked along the north side of the tower.
In addition to the waterworks facilities seen earlier, there are various stone monuments.
For example, some monuments for commemorating the accession to the throne of Emperor Showa, a memorial to the war dead, a monument commemorating the construction of the waterworks, and monuments honoring people related to the area.
A short walk down the northern slope leads to the Inari Shrine.

As I strolled through the park and back toward the parking lot, music began to play.
I wondered what it was, but then three angels appeared from the wall of the tower and began gently waving their hands and moving their wings.
It was a gimmick clock.
I looked closely and saw that the sculptures of the constellations around it were also spinning.

I knew nothing about clocks, but I happened to be nearby at 12 o’clock and was able to see it.
It will operate three times a day (10:00, 12:00, and 15:00).
Usually it is closed as shown in the second and third photos.

This time, I wrote about a building less than 50 years old, which is rare on this site.
This is the end of the article about Cosmo Tower.