250px, View of Hota from Mount Nokogiri is a

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

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama 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 7,409 in 3543 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 160 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Kyonan is located in southwestern

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

, about 60 kilometers from the prefectural capital at

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

and 60 to 70 kilometers from central Tokyo. Facing the

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous ...

coast, the inland mountainous area is part of the

Bōsō Hill Range The is a mountain range on the Bōsō Peninsula of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The highest point in the Bōsō Mountain Range is at Mount Atago, with an altitude of . The hill range runs from roughly in a line from Mobara or Ōamishirasato to Ki ...

. At the southern end is Nishigasaki, which juts out into the Uraga Channel. The coastline is rugged and has fishing ports such as Yasuda and Katsuyama. There are also many islands and reefs. The town extends approximately 10.75 kilometers east to west by 7.3 kilometers north and south. The coastal portion of the town is within the boundaries of the

Minami Bōsō Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park in the Kantō region of Honshū in Japan. It is rated a protected landscape (category V) according to the IUCN. The park includes numerous widely separated portions of the coastal areas of southern Bōsō Peninsula, r ...

Neighboring municipalities

Chiba Prefecture *

Futtsu 260px, Futtsu City Hall is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 42,476 in 18,115 households and a population density of 210 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Futtsu is l ...

* Kamogawa *

Minamibōsō is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 37,143 in 17,175 households and a population density of 160 persons per km². The total area of the city is , making it the fifth largest city in Chiba Pr ...

Climate

Kyonan has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kyonan is 15.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1804 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kyonan has declined by more than half over the past 70 years.

History

The area of present-day Kyonan was part of ancient Awa Province. The villages of Katayama and Ota were established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Katsuyama was raised to town status in January 1896 and Hota in January 1897. The town of Kyonan was formed by the merger of Katsuyama and Hota on March 30, 1959. With the creation of the city of Minamibōsō in 2006, Kyonan is the only remaining unincorporated portion of Awa District.

Government

Kyonan 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 ...

town council of 12 members. Kyonan, together with the city of Minamibōsō, contributes one member to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Chiba 12th district , the House of Representatives of Japan is elected from a combination of multi-member districts and single-member districts, a method called Parallel voting. Currently, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member districts (called proportional r ...

of the lower house 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 ...

Economy

Kyonan serves as a commercial center for the surrounding region of southwest-central Chiba Prefecture. The primary industry is

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

and agriculture (rice and flowers). Mount Saga has been used for narcissus cultivation at least from 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 ...

1603–1868, and Kyonan remains one of the largest producers of the flower in Japan. The tourist industry is a growing component of the local economy.

Education

Kyonan has one public elementary school, Kyonan Elementary School (鋸南小学校); and one public junior high school, Kyonan Junior High School (鋸南中学校), operated by the town government. The former Katsuyama Elementary School (勝山小学校) and Yasuda Elementary School (保田小学校) merged into Kyonan Elementary in 2014, with the Katsuyama building becoming the Kyonan Elementary building. The town does not have a high school; however, the

Chiba Prefectural Board of Education Chiba Prefectural Board of Education is a department of the Chiba Prefecture in Japan. The board supervises elementary and middle schools operated by other school districts and directly operates public high schools. Schools directly operated by ...

operates one special education school for the handicapped. Hota Shiosai Elementary School ( 保田しおさい学校) is physically located in Kyonan, but it is a municipally-operated school by Katsushika City,

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 ...

Transportation

Railway

JR East –

Uchibō Line The is a railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) adjacent to Tokyo Bay, paralleling the western (i.e., inner) shore of the Bōsō Peninsula. It connects Soga Station in the city of Chiba to Awa-Kamogawa Station in ...

* –

Highway

Noted people

Hishikawa Moronobu Hishikawa Moronobu ( ja, 菱川師宣; 1618 – 25 July 1694) was a Japanese artist known for popularizing the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock prints and paintings in the late 17th century. He consolidated the works of scattered Japanese art s ...

(1618–1694), ''ukiyoe'' artist of the

, was born in the village of Hodomura in present-day Kyonan. The Hishikawa family practiced

dyeing Dyeing is the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving color with desired color fastness. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular ...

and a gold and silver-thread

embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...

in the area. The Hishikawa Moronobu Memorial Hall was built in Kyonan to commemorate his life and work.菱川師宣記念館

Local attractions

250px, Nihon-ji Daibutsu * Mount Nokogiri *

Nihon-ji is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kyonan, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The temple is located on the slopes of Mount Nokogiri and is known for its Nihon-ji Daibutsu. Nihon-ji was established as a Hossō sect temple, was transferred to the Tendai ...

temple complex *Narcissus fields on Mount Saga * Hota Beach, visited by

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work '' Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer ...

in 1899 *Hishikawa Moronobu Memorial Hall

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Towns in Chiba Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Kyonan