is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

located in

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...

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 village 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 5,650 in 2177 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 42 persons per km². The total area of the village was .

Geography

Kunohe is located in north-central Iwate Prefecture, within the

Kitakami Mountains is a mountain range in northeastern Honshu, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan.Kitakami Moun ...

, in the river valley of the Niida River. Over 70 percent of the village area is covered by mountains and forests. Portions of the village are within the borders of the

Oritsume Basenkyō Prefectural Natural Park is a Prefectural Natural Park in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Established in 1962, the park spans the municipalities of Ninohe, Ichinohe and Kunohe. The central features of the park are and . See also * National Parks of Japan National may ...

Neighboring municipalities

Iwate Prefecture * Ninohe * Karumai * Kuzumaki * Ichinohe *

Kuji is a Japanese city in Iwate Prefecture. , the city had an estimated population of 34,418 in 15,675 households, and a population density of 55 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Kuji is in far northeastern Iwate Prefect ...

Climate

Kunohe 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 ...

''Dfa '') characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kunohe is 8.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1280 mm with September as the wettest month and February as the driest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around -3.2 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Kunohe population statistics
/ref> the population of Kunohe peaked around the year 1960 and has declined steadily over the past 60 years.

History

The area of present-day Kunohe 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 ...

, dominated by the

Nambu clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled most of northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region of Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Nanbu claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji of Kai Pr ...

from the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

, and part of

Hachinohe Domain was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan It is located in Mutsu Province, in northern Honshū. The domain was centered at Hachinohe Castle, located in the center of what is now the city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture. History O ...

under 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 ...

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 early

Meiji period 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 ...

, the villages of Toda, Ibonai and Esashika were created within Kita-Kunohe District on April 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. Kita-Kunohe District and Minami-Kunohe Districts merged to form Kunohe District on April 1, 1897. The three villages merged to form the modern village of Kunohe on April 1, 1955.

Economy

The economy of Kunohe is based on agriculture, the production of charcoal and animal husbandry, primarily poultry. The village is famous for its production of

amacha is a Japanese herbal tea made from fermented leaves of ''Hydrangea macrophylla'' var. ''thunbergii''. The name derives from the characters for and . Amacha means ''sweet tea''. This tea contains tannin and phyllodulcin, a sweetener 400–800 ti ...

Government

Kunohe 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, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

village council of 12 members. Ichinohe, and the city of Ninohe together contribute two seats to the Iwate Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the village is part of Iwate 2nd district of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

Education

Kunohe has five public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the village government. There is one public high school operated by the Iwate Prefectural Board of Education.

Geography

Neighboring municipalities

Climate

Demographics

History

Economy

Government

Education

Transportation

Railway

Highway

References

External links