250px, Taizan Park with H-II rocket Kakuda city

is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 28,539, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...

of 190 persons per km² in 11,494 households. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Kakuda is in southeastern Miyagi Prefecture in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of northern Japan. The

Abukuma River The , with a length of , is the second longest river in the Tōhoku region of Japan and the 6th longest river in the country. It is designated as a Classification of rivers in Japan, Class A river. It runs through Fukushima Prefecture and Miyagi P ...

flows through the city.

Neighboring municipalities

Miyagi Prefecture * Marumori * Ōgawara * Shibata * Shiroishi * Watari * Yamamoto

Climate

Kakuda has a humid climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Kakuda is 12.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1259 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.6 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kakuda peaked around 1950 and has fluctuated in the decades since, with a general trend of decline.

History

The area of present-day Kakuda was part of ancient Mutsu Province, and was the location of Kakuda Castle during the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. It was part of the holdings of

Sendai Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of ...

during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. The town of Kakuda was established with the creation of the post-

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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It annexed the neighboring villages of Kitago, Sakura, Nishine, Higashine, Fujio, and Edano on October 1, 1954. Kakuda was raised to city status on October 1, 1958.

Government

Kakuda has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city legislature of 18 members.Kakuda City Council home page
/ref>　Kakuda, together with neighboring Marumori, contributes one seat to the Miyagi Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Miyagi 3rd district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Kakuda has a mixed economy based on light manufacturing of automotive parts and electrics, and on agriculture, primarily the cultivation of soybeans and plums. The area was traditionally noted for its

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, the caterpillar of the Bombyx mori, domestic silkmoth is the most widely used and intensively studied silkwo ...

Education

Kakuda has eight public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government and one public high school operated by the Miyagi Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

AbukumaExpress –

Abukuma Express Line The is a railway line in Japan, owned and operated by the third-sector operator Abukuma Kyuko. The line connects Fukushima Station in Fukushima Prefecture and Tsukinoki Station in Miyagi Prefecture. Both of these stations are also on the T ...

* - - -

Highway

* *

Sister cities

Greenfield, Indiana Greenfield is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Indiana, United States. It lies in Center and Brandywine townships and is part of the Indianapolis metropolitan area. The population was 23,488 at the 2020 census. Greenfield was a ...

, United States, since September 12, 1990 *

Ishikawa, Fukushima is a Towns of Japan, town located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,511 in 5690 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km2. The total area of the town was . Geography Ishikawa is loca ...

, Japan, since April 16, 1979 * Kuriyama, Hokkaido, Japan, since August 26, 1978

Local attractions

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

Kakuda Space Center *Site of Kakuda Castle * Kōzō-ji – Buddhist temple * Yanase-ura Site, archaeological site with Jomon period settlement traces, National Historic Monument

Noted people from Kakuda

* Shinichi Ito, motorcycle racer *

Saito Brothers The Saito Brothers are a professional wrestling tag team composed of Japanese American twin brothers and . They were born on December 19, 1986, in Kakuda, Miyagi, Japan to an American father and Japanese mother. They are signed with the Japanes ...

, consist of Jun and Rei,

Professional Wrestlers Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

References

External links

Official Website
* {{Authority control Cities in Miyagi Prefecture