The was located in the northwestern part of

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

, the main island of

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 north ...

. It lay along the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

within the

Chūbu region The , Central region, or is a region in the middle of Honshu, Honshū, Japan, Japan's main island. In a wide, classical definition, it encompasses nine prefectures (''ken''): Aichi Prefecture, Aichi, Fukui Prefecture, Fukui, Gifu Prefecture ...

, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to

Koshi Province was an ancient province or region of Japan in what is now the Hokuriku region. The region as a whole was sometimes referred to as . Koshi appears as one of the original provinces in the '' Nihon Shoki''. In 598 AD, the residents of Koshi prese ...

and

Hokurikudō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through the old Japanese geographical region.Nussbaum, "''Hokurikudō''" in Both were situated along the northwestern edge of Honshū. ...

area in pre-modern Japan. Since the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

until 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 ...

the region was a core recipient of population, the population grew to be much larger proportionately than it is today, despite the rural character. With the growth of urban centers in the 20th century, particularly Tokyo and

Chūkyō Chukyo can refer to: * Emperor Chūkyō (1218-1234), 85th emperor of Japan the city of Nagoya ( 中京 Chūkyō). Various things are named after the city: *Chūkyō Industrial Area *Chūkyō Metropolitan Area *Chūkyō Television Broadcasting * C ...

, the Hokuriku has steadily declined in importance to become relative backwaters. The region is also known for traditional culture that originated from elsewhere that has been long lost along the

Taiheiyō Belt The , also known as the Tōkaidō corridor, is the megalopolis in Japan extending from Ibaraki Prefecture in the northeast to Fukuoka Prefecture in the southwest, running for almost . Its population is about 74.7 million. The urbanization zone ...

. The Hokuriku region includes the four prefectures of Ishikawa,

Fukui is a Japanese name meaning "fortunate" or sometimes "one who is from the Fukui prefecture". It may refer to: Places * Fukui Domain, a part of the Japanese han system during the Edo period * Fukui Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in ...

, Niigata and

Toyama Toyama may refer to: Places and organizations * Toyama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island * Toyama, Toyama, the capital city of Toyama Prefecture * Toyama Station, the main station of Toyama, ...

, although Niigata is sometimes included in one of the following regions: * : includes Niigata and

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

prefectures * : includes Niigata, Nagano and Yamanashi prefectures * : includes both the Hokuriku and Shin'etsu regions

Major cities

The major population centers of Hokuriku are: * Niigata (

designated city A , also known as a or , is a Japanese city that has a population greater than 500,000 and has been designated as such by order of the Cabinet of Japan under Article 252, Section 19, of the Local Autonomy Law. Designated cities are delegat ...

) *

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな ...

(

core cities The Core Cities Group (also Core Cities UK) is a self-selected and self-financed collaborative advocacy group of large regional cities in the United Kingdom outside Greater London. The group was formed in 1995 and serves as a partnership of el ...

) * Jōetsu, Nagaoka ( special cities) Of these, Niigata is the largest with a population of over 800,000. File:Bandaibashi-Bridge 20130929.JPG,

Niigata City may refer to: * Niigata Prefecture, Japan **Niigata (city), the capital of the prefecture * Albirex Niigata, the city's professional football club * Niigata Transys, a Japanese railway vehicle manufacturer * Niigata Stadium, an athletic stadium in ...

File:Kanazawa Katamachi.jpg,

Kanazawa City is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな� ...

File:Fugan unga.JPG,

Toyama City Toyama may refer to: Places and organizations * Toyama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island * Toyama, Toyama, the capital city of Toyama Prefecture * Toyama Station, the main station of Toyama, ...

File:Ao-re Nagaoka 20120801 01.jpg, Nagaoka City File:Fukui - panoramio - kcomiida (2).jpg,

Fukui City is the capital city of Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 264,217, and a population density of 69.2 persons per km2, in 102,935 households. Its total area is . Most of the population lives in a small central area; ...

File:Takada station square.JPG, Jōetsu City

Industries

The main industries in the Hokuriku area include chemicals, medicine, tourism, textiles and textile machinery, heavy machinery, farming, and fishing.

Koshihikari is a popular cultivar of Japonica rice cultivated in Japan as well as Australia and the United States. ''Koshihikari'' was first created in 1956 by combining 2 different strains of ''Nourin No.1'' and ''Nourin No.22'' at the Fukui Prefectur ...

, a popular variety of rice is a special product of Hokuriku subregion.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, Hokuriku subregion has had negative population growth since year 2000.

Climate

The Hokuriku region has the highest volume of snowfall of any inhabited and arable region in the world. This is because dry

Siberian Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

air mass In meteorology, an air mass is a volume of air defined by its temperature and humidity. Air masses cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles, and adapt to the characteristics of the surface below them. They are classified according to la ...

es, which develop high

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...

over the

, are forced upwards when they encounter the mountains of

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

, causing the humidity to condense as snow. The long winters and deep snow of this region are depicted in '' Hokuetsu Seppu'', an encyclopedic work of the late

which describes life in the

Uonuma is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 35,027 in 13,289 households, and a population density of 37 persons per km2. Its total area is . The city is famous for its ''koshihikari'' rice, which comm ...

district of Niigata Prefecture. The Hokuriku region is also the setting for

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal an ...

's novel ''

Snow Country is a novel by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. The novel is considered a classic work of Japanese literature and was among the three novels the Nobel Committee cited in 1968, when Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Writ ...

''.

Tourism

Hokuriku is listed as in Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2014 – Top 10 Regions. The region has seen an influx of tourists since 2015 as the

Hokuriku Shinkansen The is a high-speed Shinkansen railway line jointly operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West), connecting Tokyo with in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The first section, between and in Nagano Pr ...

(formerly Nagano Shinkansen) extended its services from Nagano to Kanazawa, enabling direct bullet train services to the Hokuriku region from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. When services commenced in March 2015, the travel time from Tokyo to Toyama was reduced to about 2 hours, with Kanazawa an additional 30 minutes away.

Notes

References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth (2005)
''Japan Encyclopedia''
Cambridge, Massachusetts:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

. . , . {{DEFAULTSORT:Hokuriku Region Chūbu region