is the capital

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 ...

of Kōchi Prefecture located on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

in Japan. With over 40% of the prefectural population, Kōchi is the main commercial and industrial centre and the "

primate city A primate city is a city that is the largest in its country, province, state, or region, and disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy. A ''primate city distribution'' is a rank-size distribution that has one very large c ...

" of the prefecture. , the city 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 usi ...

of 320,513 in 164650 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 RosenberPopu ...

of 1000 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Overview

A symbol of the city is its most famous dish, katsuo '' tataki'', made by lightly searing and seasoning bonito.

Cityscape

File:Kochi Japan.jpg,

Skyline A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land. City skylin ...

of Kōchi City（2006） File:080229 Obiyamachi Street Kochi Kochi pref Japan01s.jpg, Obiyamachi in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

Kōchi City（2008） File:Nichiyoichi.jpg, Sunday street markets（2009） File:Kochi-City.jpg, CBD of Kōchi City（2010） File:高知城天守からの景色3 Kochi Castle - panoramio.jpg, Views from

Kōchi Castle is an Edo Period Japanese castle in the city of Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. It is located at Otakayama hill, at the center of Kōchi city, which in turn is located at the center of the Kōchi Plain, the most prosperous area of forme ...

Keep Tower（2013） File:Kochi Castle, enkei.jpg,

（2020）

Geography

Kōchi is located on the southern coast of Kōchi Prefecture, facing the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

to the south. The city area can be divided into three distinct geographic sections. The urban centre lies at the head of Urado Bay, in a narrow

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the smal ...

crossed by several rivers, notably the Kagami River and Kokubu River. The plain is bounded by mountains to the north and a range of hills to the south and west. The northern mountains form the least densely populated part of the city, with the only settlement being along narrow river valleys. The highest point in Kōchi is Kuishi-yama at . To the south of the city centre, Urado Bay cuts through the hills to its outlet into the

. The land surrounding the bay and a small strip of the coastline form the third part of the city. This area, although hillier and less dense than the plain, is nevertheless a major location of housing and port-related industry.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture * Nankoku * Tosa City * Tosa Town * Ino

Climate

Kōchi has a very wet

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 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, nota ...

''Cfa''), receiving twice as much rainfall as Shikoku's other chief cities

Matsuyama 270px, Matsuyama City Hall 270px, Ehime Prefectural Capital Building is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku in Japan and also Shikoku's largest city. , the city had an estimated population of 505,948 in 243541 househo ...

and Takamatsu. It is also the most

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

-prone of Japan's major cities owing to its location directly exposed to the open Pacific Ocean from which the storms enter the country, and has twice received over of rainfall in a day from a typhoon.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kōchi increased rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, and has since leveled off.

History

Feudal period

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Nahari was part of ancient

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

. The river plain now containing the city centre was originally settled as a castle town around

, the seat of the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

'' of

Tosa Domain The was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its history by ...

. The castle site was chosen by

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 (o ...

in 1601 to replace the earlier seats of the

Chōsokabe clan , also known as , was a Japanese samurai kin group. Over time, they were known for serving the Hosokawa clan, then the Miyoshi clan and then the Ichijo clan. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géograph ...

who had previously ruled in province. The city takes its name from that of the castle. As the centre of administration for the province, and the prefecture which succeeded it, the town rapidly grew to become the largest settlement of the region. File:Chosokabe.jpg, Chōsokabe Motochika File:Yamauchi Katsutoyo01s3872.jpg,

File:Kochi Castle08s3872.jpg,

Meiji period

During the time of the

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 practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, Kōchi became famous as a centre of pro-imperial ideology, and later for incubating democratic and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

movements. The city was incorporated on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system..

Tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

service began in the city on May 2, 1904, and the city was connected to the national rail network on November 12, 1951. File:Statue Sakamoto Ryouma.JPG, Sakamoto Ryouma File:Itagaki Taisuke01.JPG,

Itagaki Taisuke Count was a Japanese politician. He was a leader of the "Freedom and People's Rights Movement" and founded Japan's first political party, the Liberal Party. Biography Early life Itagaki Taisuke was born into a middle-ranking ''samurai'' ...

WWII air raid

Kōchi was selected as a target by the United States' XXI Bomber Command because of the city's status as a prefectural capital, and the fact that it was a centre for industry and commercial trade. On July 3, 1945 at 6:22 PM (JST) 129 aircraft took off to bomb Kōchi. 1060 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped on Kōchi, destroying 48% of the built up areas of the city, killing 401 civilians and rendering over 40,000 homeless.

Modern period

On April 1, 1998, the city was designated as the first core city on Shikoku. On January 1, 2005, the villages of Kagami and Tosayama, both from Tosa District were merged into Kōchi. On January 1, 2008, the town of Haruno (from Agawa District) was also merged into Kōchi.

Government

Kōchi 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 multi ...

city council of 42 members. The current mayor (since 2003) is Seiya Okazaki. Kōchi contributes 15 members to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between the Kōchi 1st district and Kōchi 2nd districts 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 paral ...

External relations

Twin towns/sister cities

International

;Sister Cities ;Friendship city

National

;Sister city

Education

Universities

Kōchi is home to two universities, Kōchi University (national) and University of Kochi (prefectural), and four

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in ...

s including Kochi Junior College. ;National university * Kōchi University ;Public university * University of Kochi（ Kōchi Prefectural University） ;Private university *Kochi gakuen university *

The Open University of Japan is a distance learning university which has students from all over Japan; it accepted its first students in 1985. History Although founded by the national government initiative with a single-issue law and heavily subsidized by the government ...

Schools

;Elementary and secondary education Kōchi has 39 public elementary schools, 17 public middle schools and one public high school operated by the city government, one private and one national elementary school, and five private combined middle/high schools. The city has eight public high schools administered by the Kōchi Prefectural Department of Education. The prefecture also operates one middle school and one combined middle/high school.

Transport

Airport

Kōchi Ryōma Airport Kochi is a city in Kerala, India. Kochi or Kōchi may also refer to: People * Kochi people, a predominantly Pashtun nomadic people of Afghanistan * , a Japanese surname: ** Arata Kochi (born 1948 or 1949), Japanese physician and World Health Org ...

, located in nearby Nankoku

Railways

Kōchi is located on the JR Shikoku's Dosan Line connecting it to northern Shikoku, and via interchanges with the Tosa Kuroshio Railway to the eastern and western parts of Kōchi Prefecture. JR's central station in Kōchi is Kōchi Station.

Conventional lines

Shikoku Railway Company JR Shikoku Dosan Line *

Tramways

The most visible form of transport within Kōchi is the

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

service run by Tosaden Kōtsū. Its three lines with historic cars service the major north–south and east–west axes of the city. ; Tosaden Kōtsū * Sanbashi Line * Gomen Line * Ino Line

Busways

The city also has an extensive bus network.

Highways

Kōchi is also serviced by the Kōchi interchange of the Kōchi Expressway which connects to the national expressway system.

Expressway

Kōchi Expressway * E55 Expressway (Japan)

Kōchi-Tōbu Expressway

Japan National Route

* * * * * *

Seaways

*Port of Kōchi

Tourism

still exists in its pre- restoration form, and is one of the main tourist attractions. Other places of interest in the city centre are the shopping arcade, the regular Sunday street markets which are close to a kilometre in length, and , a bridge that featured in a famous Kōchi song about the forbidden love of a Buddhist priest.

Local attractions

The mountain holds a public park with views of the city, and is home to stop 31 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Chikurin-ji, as well as the Makino Botanical Garden. Off Museum Road (Kenritsu Bijutsukandori) is The Museum of Art, Kōchi, where the main collection is composed of expressionistic works related to Kōchi. The Former Yamauchi Residence and Tosa Yamauchi Family Treasury and Archives are also to be found in the city. File:Katsurahama Aquarium 01.jpg, Katsurahama Aquarium File:200104 Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden01s5.jpg, Makino Botanical Garden File:Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum.jpg, Sakamoto Ryōma Memorial Museum File:Kochi City Sawada Mansion Aug. 12, 2016.jpg, Sawada Mansion

Historic spots

;Castle *

*Urado Castle ruins ;Shrine The

Shinto Shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The ''honden''Also called (本殿, meanin ...

'' Tosa jinja'' is located to the west. ;Temples Temples No.30 ( Zenrakuji, No.31( Chikurin-ji) and No.33 ( Sekkei-ji) on the Shikoku Pilgrimage are located in the city. At the mouth of Urado Bay, the remnants of Urado Castle (an earlier provincial seat) stand above , a famous beach with an aquarium and statue of the Kōchi hero Sakamoto Ryōma. Nearby on the grounds is the Sakamoto Ryōma Memorial Museum. File:Tosa-jinja haiden-1.JPG, Tosa jinja File:Chikurin-ji Temple - panoramio (1).jpg, Chikurin-ji

Culture

Yosakoi Performers at Kochi Yosakoi Matsuri 2008 40

Festival・Events

;Festival Kōchi's most famous festival is the

Yosakoi Yosakoi () is a unique style of dance that originated in Japan and that is performed at festivals and events all over the country. The first Yosakoi festival was held in 1954 in Kōchi, Japan, on the island of Shikoku. Yosakoi-style dancing has ...

which is held in August. Teams of dancers dance to traditional and modern songs at various places around Kōchi. The total number of dancers is in the thousands. *

;Events *Sunday street markets

Gourmet

* Katsuo-no-tataki *

Katsuobushi is simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'', sometimes referred to as bonito). It is also known as bonito flakes. ''Katsuobushi'' or similarly prepared fish is also known as . Shaved ''katsuobushi'' and dried ...

*SawachiDish Sushi *Tosa-maki

Museums

* Kōchi Castle Museum of History * Kōchi Literary Museum * Ryōma's Birthplace Memorial Museum * Sakamoto Ryōma Memorial Museum * The Museum of Art, Kōchi

Sports

File:Haruno baseball park.JPG, Kōchi Fighting Dogs
（Kochi Prefectural Haruno Baseball Stadium） File:Harunokyu20090213a.jpg,

Kochi United SC commonly known as Kōchi United SC (高知ユナイテッドSC, ''Kōchi Yunaiteddo Esushi'') is a football club based in Kōchi, the capital city of Kōchi Prefecture in Japan. They play in the Japan Football League, Japan's fourth tier of sem ...

（ Kochi Haruno Athletic Stadium） File:Kochi Racecouse 20080720.jpg, Kochi Racecourse

Horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

File:Ryouma st1.JPG, Kōchi

Velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...

（Ryoma Stadium）
Keirin File:Kochi Prefectural Gymnasium01ss3200.jpg, Kochi Prefectural Gymnasium

Notable people from Kōchi

Nakahama Manjirō , also known as John Manjirō (or John Mung), was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Opening of Japan.* Voyage to America During his early life, he lived as a simple fisherman in ...

(1827–1898) was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the opening of Japan. * Okada Izō (1832–1865) was a samurai of the late

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 character ...

, feared as one of the four most notable assassins of the

Bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji governm ...

period. * Sakamoto Ryōma (1836–1867) was a leader of the movement to overthrow the

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 Bakumatsu period. *

(1837–1919) was a politician and leader of the

Freedom and People's Rights Movement The (abbreviated as ) or Popular Rights Movement was a Japanese political and social movement for democracy in the 1880s. It pursued the formation of an elected legislature, revision of the Unequal Treaties with the United States and Europea ...

, which evolved into Japan's first political party. * Tsutomu Seki (born 1930) is an astronomer who has discovered a number of comets and asteroids. *

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the '' Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton ...

(born 1959) is a video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. * Ryōko Hirosue (born 1980) is an actress and pop star, best known in the West for her roles in the Luc Besson-produced ''

Wasabi Wasabi ( Japanese: , , or , ; ''Eutrema japonicum'' or ''Wasabia japonica'') or Japanese horseradish is a plant of the family Brassicaceae, which also includes horseradish and mustard in other genera. The plant is native to Japan and the Russi ...

'' and the Academy Award-winning Japanese film '' Departures''. *Aaron Zagory (born 1985) is a Kōchi-born former US college football player, and the starting kicker for Stanford University in 2006 and 2008. * Sumi Shimamoto (born 1954) is an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

voice actress, best known for playing Kyoko Otonashi in '' Maison Ikkoku'' and Nausicaa in '' Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind''. *

Noa Tsurushima Noa Tsurushima (鶴嶋乃愛 ''Tsurushima Noa''; born 24 May 2001) is a Japanese actress and model. Early life Tsurushima was born in Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a popu ...

(born 2001) is a model and actress, best known for portraying Is and As in ''

Kamen Rider Zero-One is a Japanese tokusatsu drama series produced by Toei Company and TV Asahi. It is the 30th series in the ''Kamen Rider'' franchise and the first series in the Reiwa period. The show premiered on September 1, 2019, following the finale of ''Kamen ...

''. * Tomitaro Makino (1862–1957) was a pioneering botanist, sometimes referred to as the Father of Japanese Botany. * Kusunose Kita (1836–1920) was an advocate for Women's rights in Japan, particularly in Kochi. * Tetsuya Nomura (born 1970) is a video game artist, designer and director who currently works for Square Enix. Famous for being a character designer for the Final Fantasy Series. *Nakamura Kazuha (born 2003) is a member of Korean girl group

Le Sserafim Le Sserafim ( ; ; stylized in all caps) is a South Korean girl group formed by Source Music and Hybe Corporation. The group consists of five members: Sakura, Kim Chae-won, Huh Yun-jin, Kazuha and Hong Eun-chae. Originally a sextet, Kim Ga-ram ...

. *Nonaka Shana (born 2003) is a member of Korean girl group Lapillus.

References

External links

Kōchi City official website

Kōchi City official website

Yosakoi Festival in Kōchi City
HK * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kochi, Kochi Cities in Kōchi Prefecture Port settlements in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan