is a rural

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

located in central Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As a result of various consolidations and mergers of municipalities, most of the district was incorporated into the cities of Okazaki and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

, and now consists of only the town of Kōta. As of 1 October 2019, the district 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 42,200 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical ...

of 744 persons per km². Its total area was 56.72 km².

History

Nukata is one of the ancient counties of western

Mikawa Province was an old province in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mikawa''" in . Its abbreviated form name was . Mikawa bordered on Owari, Mino, Shinano, and Tōtōmi Provinces. Mi ...

. During the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

, most of the area of the district was controlled by the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of t ...

. In 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 characte ...

, under 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 ...

, large portions were administered by the feudal domains of

Okazaki Domain was a feudal domain of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period, Japan located in eastern Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Okazaki Castle in what is now the city of Okazaki, Aichi. It was ruled by a number ...

Okutono Domain , also known as Okudono, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Matsudaira (Ōgyū)" at ''Nobiliare du Japon'', pp. 30-32 retrieved 2013-7-9. was a feudal domain under th ...

and Nishi-Ohira Domain. After 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 ...

, the area became the short-lived "Nukata Prefecture", which was then merged into Aichi Prefecture. In the cadastral reforms of the early Meiji period, on October 1, 1889, Nukata District was divided into one town (Okazaki) and 26 villages. Fukuoka village was raised to town status on November 8, 1893, followed by Hirohata village on May 13, 1895. In a round of consolidation in May 1906, the remaining number of villages was reduced from 24 to 15. Hirohata Town was annexed by Okazaki on October 1, 1914. Okazaki attained city status on July 1, 1916. The village of Iwazu became a town on September 1, 1928 and later the same year, three neighboring villages were annexed by Okazaki, leaving the district with two towns and 11villages. Following World War II, on April 1, 1952 the village of Kōta gained town status. On August 1, 1954 the village of Toyosaka from Hazu District merged into the town of Kōta. The towns of Iwazu and Fukuoka, and the villages of Motojuku, Yamanaka, Fujikawa, Ryudani, and Tokiwa merged into the city of Okazaki on February 1, 1955, and on September 30, 1956 the villages of Toyotomi, Miyazaki, Katano, and parts of Shimoyama merged to form the town of Nukata. Despite pressure from the central government, on November 14, 2003 Kōta declined to participate the Okazaki-Nukata Region Merger Conference. As a result of this Conference, on January 1, 2006 Nukata merged into the city of Okazaki, leaving Kōta as the only remaining portion of Nukata District.

External links

Counties of Japan
{{Authority control Districts in Aichi Prefecture