260px, Lake Sanuma 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

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

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 41,638 in 16,021 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 515 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 29.0%. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Shimotsuma is located in western Ibaraki Prefecture. The Kinugawa River flows through the city.

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture * Yachiyo * Jōsō *

Tsukuba is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 244,528 in 108,669 households and a population density of 862 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 20.3%. The total ar ...

* Chikusei

Climate

Shimotsuma has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Shimotsuma is . The average annual rainfall is with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Shimotsuma peaked around the year 2000 and has declined slightly since.

History

Shimotsuma developed as a

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

from the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

. It was the center of

Shimotsuma Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Hitachi Province (modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Shimotsuma '' Jin'ya'' in what is now the city of Shimotsuma, Ibaraki. It was ruled f ...

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 ...

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 town of Shimotsuma was established on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. It was elevated to city status on January 1, 1955. On January 1, 2006, the village of Chiyokawa (from Yūki District) was merged into Shimotsuma.

Government

Shimotsuma 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 council of 20 members. Shimotsuma contributes one member to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Ibaraki 1st district Ibaraki 1st district (茨城県第1区, ''Ibaraki-ken dai-ikku'' or simply 茨城1区, ''Ibaraki-ikku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan. It is located in the central region of Ibaraki ...

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

The economy of Shimotsuma is primarily agricultural.

Education

Shimotsuma has nine public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates a special education school for the handicapped. A Brazilian school Escola Pingo de Gente was formerly located in Shimotsuma.Escolas Brasileiras Homologadas no Japão

Archive
. Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. Retrieved on October 13, 2015. It has since been renamed to Instituto Educare and moved to

Transportation

Railway

Kantō Railway is a private railway company, which operates two lines in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. The company is a subsidiary of Keisei Electric Railway and other companies. Additionally, the company has a bus department in Ibaraki Prefecture and Chiba ...

Jōsō Line The is a railway line in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Kantō Railway is a private railway company, which operates two lines in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. The company is a subsidiary of Keisei Elect ...

* - - - .

Highway

* *

Local attractions

Tsukuba Circuit is a motorsport race track located in Shimotsuma, a neighboring city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, about north of central Tokyo. It is long, with 32 pit garages and a long back straight. There is a small chicane used only for ...

* Site of Shimotsuma Castle * Lake Sanuma

Noted people from Shimotsuma

* Maki Tsukada, Olympic judoka * Yasuhiro Awano, Olympic judoka

In popular culture

The city is the setting of

Takemoto Novala is the professional name of , a Japanese author and fashion designer. Biography Takemoto was born in Uji, Kyoto, Uji, south of Kyoto. As a child, he was shy and preferred drawing and Reading (process), reading (two of his favorite authors were ...

's novel Shimotsuma Monogatari (also known as

Kamikaze Girls ''Kamikaze Girls'', originally released in Japan as , is a 2002 Japanese light novel written by Novala Takemoto. The story centers on the friendship between two students named Momoko Ryugasaki and Ichigo "Ichiko" Shirayuri. These two are fro ...

), and the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

and film of that name. The movie was filmed on location in Shimotsuma.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture