Magome-juku on the Nakasendō is a

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 ...

located in

Gifu is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...

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 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 using a ...

of 78,930, 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 120 persons per km² in 30,788 households The total area of the city was .

Geography

Nakatsugawa is in the

Tōnō is the southeastern portion of Gifu Prefecture in the Chūbu region of Japan. The Tōnō region received its name as a combination of the ''kanji'' for "east" (東) and "Mino" (美濃). The borders of this region are not officially set, but it ge ...

region of far eastern Gifu Prefecture, bordering on Nagano Prefecture.

Mount Ena is a mountain peak of the Kiso Mountains range in the Chūbu region of Japan. Geography Mount Ena is in elevation. It is located on the border between Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture and Achi, Nagano, Achi in Nagano Prefecture. ...

, the southernmost of the

Kiso Mountains are a mountain range in Nagano and Gifu prefectures in Japan. They are also called the and they combine with the Hida Mountains ("Northern Alps") and the Akaishi Mountains ("Southern Alps") to form a group collectively known as the Japanese Al ...

on the border between Nakatsugawa, Aichi and Nagano Prefecture is the highest point in the city, with an elevation of . The

Kiso River The is a river in the Chubu region of Japan roughly long, flowing through the prefectures of Nagano, Gifu, Aichi, and Mie before emptying into Ise Bay a short distance away from the city of Nagoya.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al.'' (2005) ...

and the

Agi River The is a river in Japan which flows through Gifu Prefecture. It is part of the Kiso River system. Geography The river originates from Mount Yaki on the border of Nakatsugawa and Ena and flows west. It flows through the Akigawa Dam and the � ...

flow through the city.

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and mild winters (

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 ...

''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Nakatsugawa is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Neighbouring municipalities

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

Ena Ena or ENA may refer to: Education * École nationale d'administration, French Grande école, for civil service * Education Networks of America, Internet service provider Fictional characters * Ena Sharples, from the British soap opera ''Coron ...

Gero Gero I ( – 20 May 965), sometimes called the Great ( la, magnus),Thompson, 486. Also se was a German nobleman who ruled an initially modest march centred on Merseburg in the south of the present German state of Saxony-Anhalt, which he expande ...

** Shirakawa ** Higashishirakawa *

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 ...

** Kiso ** Ōtaki **

Ōkuwa is a village located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 3,693 in 1558 households, and a population density of 16 persons per km². The total area of the village is . Geography Ōkuwa is located in the ...

** Achi ** Hiraya

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Nakatsugawa population statistics
/ref> the population of Nakatsugawa peaked around the year 2000 and has declined since.

History

The area around Nakatsugawa was part of traditional

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

. 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 ...

, much of the area was under the control of

Owari Domain The was a feudal domain of Japan in the Edo period. Located in what is now the western part of Aichi Prefecture, it encompassed parts of Owari, Mino, and Shinano provinces. Its headquarters were at Nagoya Castle. At its peak, it was rated at ...

Naegi Domain was a feudal domain of Edo period Japan It was located in Mino Province, in central Honshū. The domain was centered at Naegi Castle, located in what is now the city of Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture. It is the smallest domain within the T ...

and

Iwamura Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Mino Province in what is now the town of Iwamura, Gifu. It was centered around Iwamura Castle, and controlled parts of Mino and Suruga Provinces. Iwamura Domain ...

, or was ''

tenryō 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 ...

'' under direction control of 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 ...

Nakatsugawa-juku was the forty-fifth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the city of Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture, Japan.69 Stations of the Nakasendō The are the rest areas along the Nakasendō, which ran from Nihonbashi in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto.Yama to Keikoku Publishing (2006). Nakasendō o Aruku (Revised ed.). Osaka: Yama to Keikoku Publishing. .Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 6 ...

highway connecting Edo 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 ...

. In the post-

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 ...

cadastral reforms, Ena District in Gifu prefecture was created, and Nakatsugawa was proclaimed a town per the April 1, 1897 establishment of the modern municipalities system. Nakatsugawa merged with the town of Naegi in 1951 and was elevated to city status on April 1, 1952. Nakatsugawa annexed the village of Nakamoto in 1954, Ochiai in 1956, and Agi in 1957. On February 13, 2005, the towns of Tsukechi,

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

and

Sakashita was a town located in Ena District, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 5,753 and a density of 193.25 persons per km². The total area was 29.77 km². On February 13, 2005, Sakashita, along with the town ...

and the villages of Hirukawa, Kashimo and Kawaue (all from the former Ena District), and the village of Yamaguchi (from

Kiso District is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of November 1, 2005, the district has an estimated population of 34,759. The total area is 1,546.26 km2. Historically, the district was once known as Nishichikuma District (西筑摩郡) ...

) were merged into Nakatsugawa.

Government

Nakatsugawa 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 ...

city legislature of 24 members.

Education

Colleges and universities

* Chukyo Gakuin University *

Nagoya University , abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was the seventh Imperial University in Japan, one of the first five Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of T ...

- Nakatsugawa campus

Primary and secondary education

Nakatsugawa has 19 public elementary schools and 12 public middle schools operated by the city government. The city has four public high schools operated by the Gifu Prefectural Board of Education, and one public high school operated by the city government.

Transportation

Railway

JR Central is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical ...

Chūō Main Line The , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It connects Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faste ...

** - - - * Akechi Railway Logo

Akechi Railway The is a Japanese railway line in Gifu Prefecture connecting Ena and Akechi stations, which are both located in Ena. There are stations located in Nakatsugawa city as well. This is the only railway line operates. The third-sector company t ...

(Akechi Line) ** -

Highway

Chūō Expressway The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and operated by NEXCO Central. Naming Officially the expressway is designated as the Chūō Expressway Nishinomiya Route (from Takaido Interchange to Komaki Junction), the Chūō Expressway Nag ...

* * * *

Sister city relations

* -

Registro Registro is a city near the Atlantic coast of São Paulo, Brazil. The population is 56,393 (2020 est.) in an area of 722 km². The elevation is 25 m. Registro in Portuguese means register, and this name was given to the city because it was th ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, since 1980

Domestic

* - Ōiso,

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, since 1973 * - Komoro,

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

, since 1973

Local attractions

*''Kurikinton'' - Nakatsugawa is known for its abundant chestnut harvest and the chestnut delicacy known as ''kurikinton'' ( 栗きんとん). ''Kurikinton'' is produced by boiling and mashing the chestnuts, then mixing them with sugar and reforming into a chestnut shape. It is widely available during the autumn months. Many families make their own, while purchased ''kurikinton'' is popular as well for home consumption and as gifts. * Takamine Co., a Japanese guitar manufacturer known for its steel-string acoustic guitars is headquartered in Nakatsugawa. * Misaka Pass, a National Historic Site

Notable people from Nakatsugawa

Seison Maeda was the art-name of a nihonga painter in the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan. His legal name was Maeda Renzō. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary Japanese painters, and one of the leaders of the Nihonga movement. Biography ...

, ''Nihonga'' painter *

Junji Ito is a Japanese horror manga artist. Some of his most notable works include ''Tomie'', a series chronicling an immortal girl who drives her stricken admirers to madness; ''Uzumaki'', a three-volume series about a town obsessed with spirals; and ...

, horror mangaka

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Cities in Gifu Prefecture