270px, Sakawa Town Office 270px, Rice terraces in Sakawa 270px, Seizan Bunko 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 Takaoka District,

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 757,914 (1 December 2011) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and ...

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 12,306 in 6036 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 120 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Sakawa is located in a basin along the Yanase River, a tributary of the Niyodo River, in the midwestern part of Kochi Prefecture 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'' (), '' ...

. The landscape is hilly and the roads and footpaths are winding and narrow. The town is 28 km west of

Kōchi City 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 ...

. The tallest mountain in Sakawa is Mt. Kokuzo, with an elevation of 675 meters. Many rivers also run through the town, which are tributaries of the Niyodo River.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture * Tosa *

Ino Ino or INO may refer to: Arts and music *I-No, a character in the ''Guilty Gear'' series of video games *Ino (Greek mythology), a queen of Thebes in Greek mythology *INO Records, an American Christian music label *Ino Yamanaka, a character in th ...

* Susaki * Hidaka * Tsuno

Climate

Sakawa 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 snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sakawa is 15.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2688 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.0 °C. Sakawa experiences extreme seasons. Spring and Fall are mild and cool. Summer is very warm and temperatures routinely reach 35 °C with 100% humidity. The coldest months are January and February with temperatures around 10 °C during the day. There are usually one or two light snowfalls in January. The rainy season is from June to August and

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 ...

s are common during this time.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Sakawa has been decreasing slowly since the 1980s.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Sakawa 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 syste ...

. Relics from the

Japanese Paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC; although any date of human presence before 35,000 BC ...

. Since then, Sakawa has been named “Mecca of geology in Japan” because "some of the world’s rarest and most precious fossils have been unearthed" in Sakawa. through Jomon and

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

s have been found in the town. 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 ...

, the area was part of the holdings 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 t ...

ruled by the

Yamauchi clan The Yamauchi clan (山内氏) were a family of rulers over what was then the Tosa Province which spanned the southern half of Shikoku island. The province was given to the family in 1600 after Yamauchi Kazutoyo led troops under Tokugawa Ieyasu a ...

from their seat at

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 former ...

. The village of Sakawa was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. It was promoted to town status on January 10, 1900.

Government

Sakawa 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 14 members. Sakawa, together with the municipalities of Hidaka and Ochi, contributes one member to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Kōchi 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 ...

Economy

Sakawa's economy is centered on agriculture, notably growing

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, Japanese pears,

tea leaves Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and norther ...

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

, and many other crops. Sakawa is famous for the production of Tsukasabotan, a type of

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

. There is a brewery in town that offers free tours and samples. Traditionally, the town is also home to artisans who produce hand-made earthenware and woven bamboo products.

Education

Sakawa has four public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Kōchi Prefecture Board of Education. There are also one middle school and one high school operated jointly with neighboring Hidaka Village.

Transportation

Railway

Shikoku Railway Company The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Japan. The company has it ...

Dosan Line is a railway line in Shikoku, Japan, operated by the Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku). It connects Tadotsu Station in Tadotsu, Kagawa, and Kubokawa Station in Shimanto, Kōchi. The line links the city of Kōchi with northern Shikoku and t ...

* - - - -

Highways

* *

Local attractions

*Old Seizan Library, the only Western-style wooden structure still standing in Kōchi Prefecture. Although no longer in use as a library (a new building houses all the historical texts), the house remains open as a small museum and historical site. *

Fudō-ga-Iwaya Cave is an archaeological site consisting of a Jōmon period cave dwelling in the Nishiyama-gumi neighborhood of the town of Sakawa, Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku Japan. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 197 ...

, National Historic Site

Notable people from Sakawa

Tomitaro Makino image:Makino Tomitaro.jpg, 200px, Tomitaro Makino was a pioneer Japanese botanist noted for his taxonomic work. He has been called "Father of Japanese Botany". He was one of the first Japanese botanists to work extensively on classifying Japane ...

, Father of Japanese Botany * Ono Daisuke, voice actor * Satoshi Yamaguchi, Japanese football player *

Masako Bandō was a Japanese novelist. She was awarded the prestigious Naoki Prize in 1996 for the novel ''Yamahaha''. Life Born in Sakawa, Takaoka District, Kōchi Prefecture, she graduated from Nara Women's University, after which she studied for a whil ...

, Japanese novelist *

Koji Yoshimura is a former Japanese football player. His younger brother Keiji is also a former footballer. Playing career Yoshimura was born in Sakawa, Kochi on April 13, 1976. After graduating from high school, he joined Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 1995. Howeve ...

, Japanese former

football player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and older brother of

Keiji Yoshimura is a former Japanese football player. His elder brother Koji is also a former footballer. Playing career Yoshimura was born in Sakawa, Kochi on August 8, 1979. After graduating from Aichi Gakuin University, he joined J1 League club Nagoya Gra ...