延岡市　Nobeoka-City

All over Japan, not only near rivers, but around rice fields and houses you can see fireflies everywhere, but the number of places where you can see them in one place has decreased. Kitagawa is one of the places where a small number of fireflies live. With deep mountains and vast forests, the natural environment with beautiful waters flowing is protecting the existence of fireflies. Protecting the fireflies goes hand in hand with protecting nature.

All of the people in the town are striving to create a town with a beautiful natural environment for the fireflies' habitat, as a clear sign of the revitalisation of the town. The project has been named "Firefly Naissance (birth)". Firefly House was conceived from such warm hopes from the townspeople. With the theme of "Raising a heart to look after nature", everyone is studying nature conservation through the firefly project.

Inside Firefly House, from materials on fireflies and Kitagawa being displayed, there is also a research room with lodging, firefly observation and a breeding room.

Also, adjacent to Firefly House is Riverboat House.

In the early days of the Showa period (1926～) the main industry of Kitagawa Town was forest products, and these were piled onto sailing boats (boats where the cargo was loaded on top) and transported from Kitagawa to Nobeoka's Eastern sea harbour. With the river as a traffic route, the sailing boats were a very effective mode of transport. In Riverboat House, as well as a sailing boat from that time, restored fishing boats are also on display, with efforts to preserve them in their historical surroundings.

Finding out about the history of transport centred on the river, and that this sustained the town's industry, evokes a new appreciation and love for the town.