is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in western

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

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 ...

. , the city had an estimated population of 117,925 in 45,519 households. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Kakegawa is in the coastal plains of southwest Shizuoka Prefecture. It is bordered to the south by the Pacific Ocean, and extends for approximately 30 kilometers north-south by 16 kilometers east-west.

Surrounding municipalities

*Shizuoka Prefecture **

Fukuroi 270px, Shizuoka Stadium is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 88,395 in 34,842 households, and a population density of 820 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Fukuroi is a me ...

** Shimada ** Mori **

Kikugawa is a city located in the western portion of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 48,484 in 17,916 households, and a population density of 510 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The city is known f ...

Omaezaki 270px, Omaezaki City Hall is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Omaezaki is located at the tip of Omaezaki Peninsula on Japan's Pacific coast. , the city had an estimated population of 32,422 in 12,095 households and a population d ...

Demographics

Like most of Japan, Kakegawa's population is almost exclusively Japanese. However, Kakegawa has a noticeable ''Nikkei'' (particularly, South American) population and it is more common to find signs written in Portuguese than in English. Per Japanese census data, the population of Kakegawa has been increasing over the past 50 years.

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters ( Köppen climate classification ''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Kakegawa is 16.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2100 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.8 °C.

History

The Kakegawa area has been regional commercial center within Tōtōmi Province since at least the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle betwee ...

, but developed as a castle town under the Imagawa clan, whose headquarters was in neighboring

Suruga Province was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrevia ...

Kakegawa Castle is a ''hirayama''-style Japanese castle. It was the seat of various ''fudai daimyō'' clans who ruled over Kakegawa Domain, Tōtōmi Province, in what is now central Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Background Kakegawa Castle is located ...

was built by Asahina Yasuhiro, a retainer of Imagawa Yoshitada, in the Bunmei era (1469–1487). The castle later fell into the hands of the Tokugawa clan, but was then given to Toyotomi clan retainer

Yamauchi Kazutoyo , also spelled Yamanouchi (1545/1546? – November 1, 1605). He was retainer of Oda Nobunaga and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His father Yamauchi Moritoyo, was a descendant of Fujiwara no Hidesato, a senior retainer of the Iwakura Oda clan (op ...

in 1580. After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, Kakegawa Domain was created, and ruled by numerous '' fudai'' daimyō. The area prospered during the Edo period, as the Tōkaidō highway connecting

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

with Kyoto passed through Kakegawa, whose post stations included

Nissaka-shuku was the twenty-fifth of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō (road), Tōkaidō. It is located in what is now part of the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka, Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. History Nissaka-shuku w ...

and

Kakegawa-juku was the twenty-sixth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in what is now the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. History Kakegawa-juku was originally the castle town of Kakegawa Castle. It was famous because ...

. Neighboring

Yokosuka Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Tōtōmi Province. It was centered at Yokosuka Castle in what is now the Matsuo district of the city of Kakegawa in Shizuoka Prefecture.fudai'' holding, was also located within what are now the city limits of Kakegawa. After the Meiji Restoration, Kakegawa was made part of the short-lived Hamamatsu Prefecture in 1871, which merged with Shizuoka Prefecture in 1876. Kakegawa Town was created in the cadastral reform of April, 1891, four years after the opening of

Kakegawa Station is an interchange railway station in the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, jointly operated by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tōkai). It is connected to the adjacent Tenryū-Hamanako Railway Kakegawa Station, which is located in ...

on what later became the Tōkaidō Main Line railway. The town expanded steadily over the years, annexing neighboring villages and towns in Ogasa District, and was elevated in status of that of a city in 1954. On April 1, 2005, the towns of Daitō and Ōsuka (both from Ogasa District) were merged into Kakegawa.

Government

Kakegawa has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 30 members

Economy

Kakegawa has a mixed economy. It serves as a regional commercial center for west-central Shizuoka Prefecture. In the agricultural sector, production and processing of

green tea Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since the ...

predominates. The city is surrounded by

fields and is known for its high quality tea. Other crops include cantaloupe, tomatoes, strawberries and roses. In terms of industrial production, Kakegawa has several light industry industrial complexes. Major products include telecommunications equipment and electronics, cosmetics, automotive components and musical instruments.

Education

Tokyo Women's Medical University , TWMU, is a private university in Tokyo, Japan. The University olso operates the Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital within the campus, as well as a separate hospital in Yachiyo, Chiba. History TWMU originated from , which was founded b ...

- Kakegawa campus *Kakegawa has 23 public elementary schools, and nine public middle schools operated by the city government and four public high schools operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates two special education schools for the handicapped. The city formerly hosted a Brazilian school, a primary school called Centro Educacional Sorriso de Criança.

Transportation

Railway

Central Japan Railway Company is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical ...

- Tōkaidō Shinkansen * JR logo (central)

- Tōkaidō Main Line ** * Tenryū Hamanako Railroad Tenryū Hamanako Line **

Highway

* Tōmei Expressway * Shin-Tōmei Expressway * *

Local attractions

, located only a few hundred meters from Kakegawa Station
Kakegawa Kacho-en
which hosts a large variety of bird and plant species in a greenhouse-enclosed private garden. * Yokosuka Castle, a National Historic Site * Takatenjin Castle ruins, a National Historic Site *

Wadaoka Kofun group The is an archaeological site with a cluster of burial mounds from the Kofun period located in what is now part of the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka in the Tōkai region of Japan. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 199 ...

, a National Historic Site * Kotonomama Hachiman-gu, the '' ichinomiya'' of Tōtōmi Province.

Twin towns – sister cities

Kakegawa is twinned with: * Corning, United States (1987) *

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

, United States (1979) *

Hoengseong County Hoengseong County is a county in Gangwon Province, South Korea. The roots of ''Codonopsis lanceolata'' ( ko, deodeok, script=Latn), a bonnet bellflower species, play an important role in local agriculture. The Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, a ...

, South Korea (2001) * Ōshū, Japan (1985) *

Pesaro Pesaro () is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Marche, capital of the Province of Pesaro e Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, ...

, Italy (2019)

Notable people

Yoshinobu Ishikawa was the governor of Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan, first elected in 1993. A native of Kakegawa, Shizuoka, formerly known as Daitō, Shizuoka, and graduate of the University of Tokyo, Department of Law, he had worked at the Ministry of Home Affai ...

, politician *

Ichiki Kitokurō Baron was a Japanese statesman. He served as Minister of Education (1914), Home Minister (1915), Imperial Household Minister (1925), and Chairman of the Privy Council (1934-1936). He served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan for one ...

, politician *

Yoshioka Yayoi was a Japanese physician, educator, and women's rights activist. She founded the Tokyo Women's Medical University in 1900, as the first medical school for women in Japan. She was also known as Washiyama Yayoi. Biography Yoshioka was born in what ...

, physician, educator *

Satoru Mizushima is a Japanese filmmaker and nationalist. He graduated from Waseda University majoring in German literature. He can often be seen and heard during nationalist rallies in Tokyo, especially during anti-Chinese protests. He denies Japan's destructive ...

, filmmaker *

Shunpei Uto was a Japanese former freestyle swimmer who won two medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Uto endured much hardship after World War II and deposited both his medals to a pawnshop to get some money for living. He later found a job in general affa ...

, Olympic swimmer *

Kenya Matsui is a Japanese football player who plays for Taichung Futuro. National team career In June 2005, Matsui was selected Japan U-20 national team for 2005 World Youth Championship. But he did not play in the match, as he was the team's reserve goa ...

, professional soccer player * Hajime Moriyasu, former professional soccer player and current manager of the

Japan national football team The , nicknamed the , represents Japan in men's international Association football, football. It is controlled by the Japan Football Association (JFA), the governing body for football in Japan. Japan was not a major football force until the e ...

*Yusuke Morisawa, dancer and member of the group ''

World Order In international relations, international order refers to patterned or structured relationships between actors on the international level. Definition David Lake, Lisa Martin and Thomas Risse define "order" as "patterned or structured relatio ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Cities in Shizuoka Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan