is a

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort ...

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 ori ...

located in

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

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 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 using a ...

of 20,323 in 9897 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 RosenberPopul ...

of 130 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Karuizawa is one of the oldest and most famous summer resorts in Japan, visited by many people from different countries since the

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...

Geography

Karuizawa is located in eastern Nagano Prefecture, bordered by

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

to the north, east and south. The town is located on an elevated plain at the foot of

Mount Asama is an active complex volcano in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. The volcano is the most active on Honshū. The Japan Meteorological Agency classifies Mount Asama as rank A. It stands above sea level on the border of Gunma and Nagano ...

, one of Japan's most active volcanoes. The mountain is classed as a Category A active volcano. A small eruption was detected in June 2015, a more significant eruption spewing hot rocks and a plume of ash occurred in February 2015. Mt. Asama's most destructive eruption in recent recorded history took place in 1783, when over 1,000 were killed. The volcano is actively monitored by scientists and climbing close to the summit is prohibited. *

Usui Pass The is a mountain pass that lies between Nagano and Gunma prefecture in Japan. It has served as one of the major transportation routes in central Japan since at least the eighth century. Road The pass on the ancient Tōsandō highway was des ...

*Highest elevation: (Top of

) *Lowest elevation:

Surrounding municipalities

*Nagano Prefecture ** Saku **

Miyota is a town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,562 in 6897 households, and a population density of 260 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Miyota is located on the eastern ...

** Takasaki **

Annaka 240px, Edo-period Usui Magistrate’s office in Annaka is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 47,911 in 24,749 households, and a population density of 210 persons per km². The total area of the ...

** Shimonita ** Naganohara **

Tsumagoi 250px, Mount Shirane from Manza Onsen is a village located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 9,546 in 3,999 households, and a population density of 28 persons per km². The total area of the village is . G ...

Climate

Karuizawa has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

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, notabl ...

''Dwb'') with warm summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Karuizawa 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 . Precipitation is much heavier in the summer than in the winter.

History

Hiroshige Travellers lighting their pipes by a fire

Kyu-Karuizawa Main Street, Vintage Photos

The area of present-day Karuizawa was part of ancient

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered on Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

, and developed as

Karuisawa-shuku was the eighteenth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the northern portion of the present-day town of Karuizawa, in the Kitasaku District of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Karuisawa-shuku is from the preceding post stat ...

, a post station on the Nakasendō 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 Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

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 ...

. * August 2, 1876: The hamlets of Kutsukake, Shiozawanitta, Karijuku, Narusawanitta, and Yui merged to form the village of Nagakura. The village of Hatsuji in Saku District absorbed the hamlet of Matorikaya. * January 14, 1879: Kitasaku District was created, and the town of Usuitoge, and the villages of Karuizawa, Nagakura, Oiwake were established with Kitasaku District. * 1886: Canadian Anglican missionary Rev.

Alexander Croft Shaw Alexander Croft Shaw M.A. (26 June 1846 – 13 March 1902) was a minister of the Anglican Church of Canada. He is remembered as Archdeacon Shaw, minister to the British Legation in Tokyo and a leading figure in the early years of the Anglica ...

and Tokyo Imperial University English professor

James Main Dixon Image:James_Main_Dixon_1902.jpg , right , 235px , James Main Dixon, 1902 James Main Dixon FRSE (1856, Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley – 27 September 1933) was a Scotland, Scottish teacher and author, and an important scholar of the Scots lan ...

introduced Karuizawa as a summer resort. * April 1, 1889: With the establishment of the modern municipalities system, the town of Usuitoge, and the villages of Karuizawa, and the areas of the former villages of Kutsukake, Shiozawanitta, and Karijuku from the village of Nagakura merged to form the village of Higashinagakura in Kitasaku District, and the areas of the former villages of Narusawanitta and Yui in the village of Nagakura, and the villages of Hatsuji and Oiwake merged to form the village of Nishinagakura in Kitasaku District. * 1910s: Begins to attract the attention of other expatriates and Japanese. Specially Germans congregate here, language professors and academics hold annual conferences. * August 1, 1923: The village of Higashinagakura gains town status to become the town of Karuizawa. (The pre-town areas before gaining the town status is known as Kyu-Karuizawa.) * May 8, 1942: The village of Nishinagakura is merged into Karuizawa * 1942-45: Site of an internment camp for enemy foreigners and diplomats during World War 2. * From 1943 relocation of an increasing number of Germans from Tokyo, which is suffering from US fire bombing. The

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the United States-led Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. It issued SCAP Directives (alias SCAPIN, SCAP Index Number) to the Japanese government, aiming to suppress its "milit ...

deported most German nationals in late 1947. * 1951: Selected as International Cultural and Tourism City. * February 1, 1957: Karuizawa absorbed Serizawa area from the former village of Goga, which was absorbed by the town of Miyota. * April 1, 1959: The Kajikazawa area of the former village of Oiwake was split off and merged with the town of Miyota. * 1964:

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

(Equestrian) * February 1972: Asama-Sanso incident; Police besiege communist militants holed up in holiday resort after mass killing and hostage taking. * October 1, 1997: The

Nagano 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 ...

opens, serving Karuizawa. * 1998:

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

(Curling) * 2004:

erupts. * 2016: The G7 Transport Ministers' Meeting * 2019: The

G20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, ...

Energy and Environment Ministers' Meeting

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Karuizawa has been increasing over the past 60 years.

Economy

Since one of the origins of the

Seibu Group is a Japanese holding company that primarily owns Seibu Railway, Prince Hotels, and Seibu Bus and its subsidiaries, which are collectively known as the . In total, fifty-three companies across the world are affiliated with the Seibu Group. The c ...

is in Karuizawa (see also Yasujiro Tsutsumi), Seibu is still developing big businesses in this town such as

Prince Hotels The is the name of a hotel chain company headquartered in Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Seibu Holdings, Inc. Together with Seibu Railway, Prince Hotels is the core company of Seibu Group. Overview During the Allied occupatio ...

Hoshino Resorts is a Japan-based international operator of ''Ryokan (inn), ryokan'' (Japanese inns) with its head office in Karuizawa, Nagano. Founded in 1904 by Kuniji Hoshino as a forestry business in Karuizawa, in the Japanese Alps, it opened its first hot s ...

is headquartered in Karuizawa.

Education

Karuizawa has three public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the town government, and one public high school is operated by the Nagano Prefectural Board of Education. The

UWC ISAK Japan UWC ISAK Japan (ISAK) (Japanese: ユナイテッド・ワールド・カレッジISAKジャパン) is a pre-university international boarding school located in Karuizawa, Japan. UWC ISAK Japan is the 17th member of the United World Colleges movemen ...

international school is also located in the town.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company 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 ...

– Hokuriku Shinkansen ** * Shinano Railway Symbolmark

Shinano Railway ** - -

Highway

Jōshin-etsu Expressway The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and operated by East Nippon Expressway Company. Naming is a kanji acronym consisting of 3 characters, each representing the former names of the prefectures that the route traverses. consists ...

* *

International relations

Campos do Jordão Campos do Jordão () is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in southeastern Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte. The population is 52,405 (2020 est.) in an area of . The city is situated above s ...

, Brazil *

Whistler, British Columbia Whistler ( Lillooet/Ucwalmícwts: Cwitima, ; Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Sḵwiḵw, ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mounta ...

, Canada

Local attractions

Karuizawa was developed as a European-style resort town by a Scottish-Canadian missionary in 1888. In the following decades, the town attracted visitors from across the country seeking to escape the heat of summer and enjoy vacations, as well as a significant number of Westerners. Unlike many other hill stations, Karuizawa was actively open to the natives from the beginning, and many Japanese scholars, artists and others had already built "Western-style" villas in the town by the early 20th century. The Japanese and Western communities interacted well with each other through summer recreation activities and the like. In the 21st century the town retains significant Western cultural influence, and its alpine beauty and cool summer climate (similar to parts of Europe) continue to draw visitors. More recently, Karuizawa has become a popular year-round resort for mainly Japanese, offering many outdoor sports, hot springs and recreational activities. Convenient road and rail access from central Tokyo has ensured Karuizawa's popularity as a location for second homes and resort hotels since the

Meiji era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...

. Karuizawa is known for its historic shopping street known as "Ginza dōri" or "Kyū-dō" (

Ginza Ginza ( ; ja, 銀座 ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo, with numerous intern ...

Street, or the Old Road) and association with both Japanese royalty and visitors such as

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

and

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

. As a side note, The Crown Prince

Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. Bo ...

met Michiko Shoda for the first time on a tennis court in Karuizawa in August 1957, and John Lennon spent several summers in Karuizawa with his family in the late 1970s. Karuizawa hosted

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

events in the

as well as

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

in the

. It is the first city in the world to host both Summer and Winter Olympic events.�
The Olympian Volume 24
��, p.29,

United States Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

, 1998. Since 1997, Karuizawa has been accessible via the

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 ...

. New high speed rail links has resulted in modest population growth and the development of large outlet style

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

In popular media

* The Birds of Karuizawa from

Sept haïkaï ''Sept haïkaï — esquisses japonaises'' (Seven Haiku: Japanese Sketches) is a composition for piano and small orchestra by Olivier Messiaen. It was published by Alphonse Leduc in 1966 and subsequently republished numerous times. It typically la ...

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

's composition *

The Wind Rises is a 2013 Japanese animated historical drama film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, Toho and KDDI. It was rele ...

, Studio Ghibli film : Karuizawa appeared in a part of the film. * When Marnie Was There, Studio Ghibli film : The model of the mansion that appeared in the film is the villa in Karuizawa. *

Karuizawa Yūkai Annai , often translated to ''The Portopia Serial Murder Case'' in English, is an adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 in June 1983, and has since been ported to other personal computers, ...

Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

adventure game * The Curious Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Japan,

Dale Furutani Dale Furutani (born December 1, 1946, in Hilo, Hawaii) is the first Asian American to win major mystery writing awards. He has won the Anthony Award and the Macavity Award and has been nominated for the Agatha Award. His book, ''The Toyotomi B ...

's novel : The story is based on the premise that

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

was in Karuizawa in the “missing years (1891-1894)”.

Notable residents

Neil Gordon Munro Neil Gordon Munro (1863–1942) was a Scottish physician and anthropologist. Resident in Japan for almost fifty years, he was notable as an early archaeologist and one of the first Westerners to study the Ainu people of Hokkaido. Biography Educa ...

, Scottish physician and anthropologist *

Paul Jacoulet Paul Jacoulet (1896–1960) was a French, Japan-based woodblock print artist known for a style that mixed the traditional ukiyo-e style and techniques developed by the artist himself. Biography Jacoulet was born in Paris in 1896 and lived in Jap ...

, French woodblock print artist * Massimo Baistrocchi, Italian diplomat * Paul Bryan, British Conservative politician * T. Canby Jones, American professor *

E. Herbert Norman Egerton Herbert Norman (September 1, 1909 – April 4, 1957) was a Canadian diplomat and historian. Born in Japan to missionary parents, he became an historian of modern Japan before joining the Canadian foreign service. His most influential bo ...

, Canadian diplomat and historian *

Ronald Lampman Watts Ronald Lampman Watts (March 10, 1929 − October 9, 2015) was a Canadian academic, who served as the 15th Principal and Vice-chancellor of Queen's University from 1974 until 1984. Born in Karuizawa, Japan to Canadian missionary parents. Educat ...

, Canadian professor * Willie Weeks, American bass guitarist *

Tatsuo Hori was a Japanese translator and writer of poetry, short stories and novels. Early life Born in Tokyo, Hori studied Japanese literature at Tokyo Imperial University under Saisei Murō and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. In addition to Japanese writers of ...

, Japanese writer *

Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. To English-speaking audiences, he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in '' Letters from Iwo Jima'' and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in ''The Last Samurai'', for which he was nomi ...

, Japanese actor * Kōji Tamaki, Japanese singer * Yukihiro Takahashi, Japanese drummer * Kazumi Watanabe, Japanese guitarist * Towa Tei, Japanese record producer *

Tabaimo Ayako Tabata (born 1975), also known under her artist name Tabaimo, is a contemporary Japan, Japanese artist. She combines hand-drawn images and digital manipulation to create large scale animations which evoke traditional Japanese woodblock prints ...

, Japanese artist

Summer residents

, Canadian missionary *

J. G. Waller Rev. John Gage Waller (26 January 1863 – 22 March 1945) was a minister of the Anglican Church of Canada who was active in the central region of Japan, Chubu, in particular in Nagano Prefecture on behalf of the Anglican Church in Japan. Wa ...

, Canadian missionary *

, Scottish professor * Edward Bickersteth, Anglican missionary *

Walter Weston Walter Weston (25 December 1861 – 27 March 1940), was an English clergyman and Anglican missionary who helped popularise recreational mountaineering in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Background and early life Weston was born 25 Dece ...

, English missionary * Hannah Riddell, English missionary * Hugh Fraser, English diplomat * Bernard Leach, British studio potter * Francis Brinkley, Anglo-Irish editor *

Walter de Havilland Walter Augustus de Havilland (31 August 1872 – 20 May 1968) was an English patent attorney who became professor of Law at Waseda University and was one of the first Westerners to play the game of Go at a high level. He was the father of film s ...

, English patent attorney *

, English musician *

August Karl Reischauer August Karl Reischauer (; born September 4, 1879; died July 10, 1971) was an American Presbyterian missionary, best known for his work in Japan. Life and work August Karl Reischauer was born in Jonesboro, Illinois. He graduated from Hanover ...

, American missionary * Mary Eddy Kidder, American missionary *

Edwin O. Reischauer Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (; October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University. Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and cul ...

, American diplomat *

Edgar Bancroft Edgar Addison Bancroft (November 20, 1857 – July 28, 1925) was an American lawyer and diplomat. He served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 1924 to 1925.

, American diplomat *

William J. Sebald William Joseph Sebald (November 5, 1901 – August 10, 1980) was an American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Burma from April 1952 to July 1954, and to Australia from 1957 to 1961. Education and career Sebald graduated from t ...

, American diplomat * Joseph Grew, American diplomat *

Robert L. Eichelberger Robert Lawrence Eichelberger (9 March 1886 – 26 September 1961) was a general officer in the United States Army who commanded the Eighth United States Army in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, Southwest Pacific Area during Wo ...

, American general officer *

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japan ...

, American writer and professor *

Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi (; born William Merrell Vories; October 28, 1880 – May 7, 1964) was an educator, architect, entrepreneur, Christian lay missionary, and founder of the Omi Mission. Born in the United States, he later became a natu ...

, American architect *

Antonin Raymond Antonin Raymond (or cs, Antonín Raymond), born as Antonín Reimann (10 May 1888 – 25 October 1976)"Deaths Elsewhere", ''Miami Herald'', 30 October 1976, p. 10 was a Czech American architect. Raymond was born and studied in Bohemia (now part ...

, Czech-American architect * Roman Rosen, Russian baron and diplomat *

Leo Sirota Leo Gregorovich Sirota (May 4, 1885 - February 25, 1965) was a Jewish pianist born in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Podolskaya Guberniya, Russian Empire, now Ukraine. Biography Leo Sirota began studying piano at the age of five. By the age of nine he w ...

, Ukrainian-born Jewish pianist * Beate Sirota Gordon, Austrian-born American performing arts presenter *

Fosco Maraini Fosco Maraini (; 15 November 1912 – 8 June 2004) was an Italian photographer, anthropologist, ethnologist, writer, mountaineer and academic. Biography He was born in Florence from the Italian sculptor Antonio Maraini (1886–1963) and Cornelia ...

, Italian photographer * Topazia Alliata, Italian noblewoman and painter *

Dacia Maraini Dacia Maraini (; born November 13, 1936) is an Italian writer. Maraini's work focuses on women's issues, and she has written numerous plays and novels. She has won awards for her work, including the Formentor Prize for ''L'età del malessere'' ...

, Italian writer *

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

, Japanese emperor *

, Japanese emperor * Naruhito, Japanese emperor * Empress Michiko, Japanese empress *

Empress Masako is as the Queen consort, consort of Emperor of Japan, Emperor Naruhito, who 2019 Japanese imperial transition, ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019. Masako, who was educated at Harvard and Oxford, had a prior career as a diplomat. E ...

, Japanese empress *

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka General was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of China and the Second World War. Son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and uncle by marriage of Em ...

, member of the Japanese imperial family *

Ōkuma Shigenobu Marquess was a Japanese statesman and a prominent member of the Meiji oligarchy. He served as Prime Minister of the Empire of Japan in 1898 and from 1914 to 1916. Ōkuma was also an early advocate of Western science and culture in Japan, and ...

, Japanese prime minister *

Fumimaro Konoe Prince was a Japanese politician and prime minister. During his tenure, he presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the breakdown in relations with the United States, which ultimately culminated in Japan's entry into World W ...

, Japanese prime minister *

Ichirō Hatoyama was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956. A conservative, Hatoyama helped oversee the 1955 merger of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party to create the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), of which Hatoyam ...

, Japanese prime minister * Eisaku Satō, Japanese prime minister * Morihiro Hosokawa, Japanese prime minister * Tarō Asō, Japanese prime minister *

Shōjirō Ishibashi was a Japanese businessman who founded the Bridgestone Corporation, the world's largest maker of tires, in 1931 in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. the company was named after its founder: in the Japanese language, ''ishi'' means "stone" and ...

, Japanese businessman * Akio Morita, Japanese businessman *

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble, ''Forbes'' listed Tsutsumi as the wealthiest person in the world during 1987–94 due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. ...

, Japanese businessman * Masayoshi Son, Korean-Japanese businessman * Sadako Ogata, Japanese professor *

Nitobe Inazō was a Japanese people, Japanese author, educator, agricultural economist, diplomat, politician, and Protestantism, Protestant Christians, Christian during the late Meiji (era), Meiji era. Early life Nitobe was born in Morioka, Iwate, Morioka, ...

, Japanese author * Takeo Arishima, Japanese writer *

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , art name , was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He committed suicide at the age of ...

, Japanese writer * Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese writer * Kunihiko Kodaira, Japanese mathematician *

Shigeaki Hinohara was a Japanese physician. In 1941 he began his long working association with St. Luke's International Hospital in central Tokyo and worked as a medical doctor throughout the wartime firebombing of the city. From 1990 he served as the hospital's ...

, Japanese physician * D. T. Suzuki, Japanese Buddhist monk *

, Japanese artist *

Arata Isozaki Arata Isozaki (磯崎新, ''Isozaki Arata''; born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019. Biography Isozaki was ...

, Japanese architect *

Junzo Sakakura was a Japanese architect and former president of the Architectural Association of Japan. After graduating from university he worked in Le Corbusier's atelier in Paris. He rose to the position of studio chief during his seven-year stay in the st ...

, Japanese architect *

Matsumoto Hakuō II is a Japanese kabuki actor, one of the most popular ''tachiyaku'' (specialist in male roles) currently performing. Like many members of the kabuki community, he can trace his lineage back several generations, many members of his family being ...

, Japanese kabuki actor *

Ichikawa Ennosuke III , better known by the stage name , is a Japanese kabuki actor, famous for his love of '' keren'' (stage tricks). He is considered the king of ''chūnori''; he has flown out over the audience, held aloft on strings, over 5000 times. Biography Enno ...

, Japanese kabuki actor * Sayuri Yoshinaga, Japanese actress

Evacuees of World War II

Leonid Kreutzer Leonid Kreutzer (13 March 1884 in St. Petersburg – 30 October 1953 in Tokyo) was a classical pianist. Life and career Kreutzer was born in St. Petersburg into a Jewish family. He studied composition under Alexander Glazunov and piano under Anna ...

, Russian-born Jewish pianist *

Alexander Mogilevsky Alexander Yakovlevich Mogilevsky (russian: Александр Яковлевич Могилевский; January 15(27), 1885March 7, 1953) was a classical concert violinist and director of the Kremlin Band for Tsar Nicholas II. Career Born in Ode ...

, Ukrainian violinist *

Victor Pokrovsky Victor Alexandrovich Pokrovsky was a choir director, translator, and music arranger. He worked for the Metropolitan Sergius (Tikhomirov) at Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Tokyo, Japan) from 1924 until 1962—except for during World War II and some of ...

, Russian choral director * Varvara Bubnova, Russian painter *

Victor Starffin Victor Starffin ( rus, Виктор Константинович Старухин, Viktor Konstantinovich Starukhin, 1 May 1916 – 12 January 1957), nicknamed , was a Japanese baseball player. While playing in Japan, he became the first professio ...

, Russian baseball player * Manfred Gurlitt, German conductor *

Eta Harich-Schneider Eta (Margarete) Harich-Schneider (''née'' Schneider; 16 November 1894 – 10 January 1986) was a German harpsichordist, musicologist, Japanologist and writer. Life Born in Oranienburg, Harich-Schneider later gave her year of birth as 1897, wh ...

, German harpsichordist *

Karlfried Graf Dürckheim Karl Friedrich Alfred Heinrich Ferdinand Maria Graf Eckbrecht von Dürckheim-Montmartin (24 October 1896 – 28 December 1988) was a German diplomat, psychotherapist and Zen master. A veteran of World War I, he was introduced to Zen Buddhism ear ...

, German diplomat and Zen master * Joseph Rosenstock, Polish-born American conductor *

Robert Guillain Robert Guillain (4 September 1908 – 29 December 1998) was a French journalist who spent most of his career in Asia at times of momentous events, such as the Pacific War. He wrote several books on Asia, especially Japan. Guillain was considered b ...

, French journalist *

Widar Bagge Widar Bagge (30 April 1886 – 18 April 1970) was a Swedish diplomat. Early life Bagge was born on 30 April 1886 in Fuxerna, Lilla Edet Municipality, Sweden, the son of wholesaler John Bagge and his wife Fredrika (née Corin). He received a Candi ...

, Swedish diplomat * Francis Haar, Hungarian socio-photographer

References

External links

* * :ja:軽井沢
Official Website

Karuizawa Tourism Website

Karuizawa Tourism Website
{{Olympic venues equestrian Towns in Nagano Prefecture Venues of the 1964 Summer Olympics Venues of the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic equestrian venues