270px, ''Tsurushi-Hina'' in Hanawa is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

located in

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. , the town had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 8,369 in 3301 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

of 40 persons per km². The total area of the town was .

Geography

Hanawa is located in the southernmost portion of Fukushima prefecture, bordering on

Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefecture ...

to the south. *Mountains: Yamizozan (1021.8m), Yoneyama *Rivers:

Kuji River is a river in Fukushima Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It rises at the northern slope of Mount Yamizo, where the border of these three prefectures is located, and flows into Pacific Ocean at Hitachi and Tokai in Ib ...

Climate

Hanawa has a humid climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Hanawa 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 .

Neighboring municipalities

* Fukushima Prefecture ** Tanagura ** Yamatsuri ** Samegawa *Ibaraki Prefecture ** Takahagi ** Kitaibaraki ** Hitachiōta

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Hanawa population statistics
/ref> the population of Hanawa has been declining over the past 60 years.

History

The area of present-day Hanawa was part of ancient

Mutsu Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori Prefectures and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. Mutsu Province is also known as or . The term is often used to refer to the comb ...

. Part of the area formed part of the holdings of

Tanagura Domain was a '' fudai'' feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in southern Mutsu Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Tanagura Castle, located in what is now part of the town of Tanagura in Fukushima ...

, and part wa''s

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

'' territory under direct control of the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, it was organized as part of Higashishirakawa District within the

Nakadōri is a region comprising the middle third of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It is sandwiched between the regions of Aizu to the west and Hamadōri is the easternmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two being Nak ...

region of Iwaki Province. Tsunetoyo Village was formed on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was elevated to town status on November 3, 1948, changing its name to Hanawa at that time. Hanawa annexed the neighboring villages of Sasahara, Ishii and Takagi in March 1955.

Economy

The economy of Hanawa is primarily agricultural. A major crop is

Konjac Konjac (or konjak, ) is a common name of the East and Southeast Asian plant ''Amorphophallus konjac'' ( syn. ''A. rivieri''), which has an edible corm (bulbo-tuber). It is also known as konjaku, konnyaku potato, devil's tongue, voodoo lily, sn ...

Education

Hanawa has three public elementary schools and one combined public middle/high school operated by the town government.

Transportation

Railway

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

– Suigun Line **

Highway

* * *

Local attractions

*Abukumo Kogen Art Museum

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Towns in Fukushima Prefecture