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

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

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 95,706 in 36,201 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 222 persons per km². The total area of the city was .

Geography

Sanjō is located in an inland region of north-central Niigata Prefecture. It is about 2 hours from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

via the

Jōetsu Shinkansen The is a high-speed shinkansen railway line connecting Tokyo and Niigata, Japan, via the Tōhoku Shinkansen, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Despite its name, the line does not pass through the city of Joetsu or the hist ...

or 4 hours on the

Kan-Etsu Expressway The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and managed by East Nippon Expressway Company. Naming is the ''kanji'' acronym of and the old comprising modern-day Niigata Prefecture. Officially, the Kan-Etsu consists of two routes. Both ...

and

Hokuriku Expressway The , (abbreviated as , is a 4-laned national expressway in Japan. It is owned and managed by East Nippon Expressway Company and Central Nippon Expressway Company. Overview The first section was opened in 1972 by Japan Highway Public Corpo ...

. The

Shinano River The , known as the in its upper reaches, is the longest and widest river in Japan and the third largest by basin area (behind the Tone River and Ishikari River). It is located in northeastern Honshu, rising in the Japanese Alps and flowing g ...

flows through the west of it from south to north and the Ikarashi-gawa River flows through the centre of the urbanised area.

Surrounding municipalities

** Niigata ** Tsubame ** Nagaoka **

Mitsuke is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 39,908 in 15,139 households, and a population density of 510 persons per km². The total area of the city is , making it the smallest city in Niigata Prefec ...

Uonuma is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 35,027 in 13,289 households, and a population density of 37 persons per km2. Its total area is . The city is famous for its ''koshihikari'' rice, which comm ...

Aga Aga or AGA may refer to: Business * Architectural Glass and Aluminum (AGA), a glazing contractor, established in 1970 * AGA (automobile), ''Autogen Gasaccumulator AG'', 1920s German car company *AGA AB, ''Aktiebolaget Svenska Gasaccumulator'', a ...

Gosen Gosen may refer to: *Gosen, Niigata, Japan * Gosen-Neu Zittau, Brandenburg, Germany * Gosen (Company), a Japanese manufacturer of sporting equipment *Gosen Wakashū, an ancient Japanese poetry anthology *Land of Goshen The land of Goshen ( he, ...

Kamo The name Kamo may refer to the following: Places Japan (Note: ''kamo'' ( 鴨), is the common word for ''duck'' in Japanese, but the following names do not necessarily mean ''duck'' and are not necessarily written with that character.) * Kamo, N ...

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...

** Tadami

Climate

Sanjō has a Humid climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sanjō is . The average annual rainfall is with September 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 Sanjō peaked at around 1985 and has declined steadily since.

History

The area of present-day Sanjō was part of ancient

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

. 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 Sanjō Domain, a feudal domain 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 ...

from 1598 to 1651. Afterwards, it was divided between

Nagaoka Domain was a '' fudai'' feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Echigo Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Nagaoka Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture ...

Murakami Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Echigo Province (modern-day Niigata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Murakami Castle in what is now the city of Murakami, Niigata.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 ...

'' territory administered directly by the shogunate. After the start of the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, the area was organised as part of

Minamikanbara District, Niigata is a district located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. When the district was formed back in the Meiji Period, the district covered the cities of Sanjō and Mitsuke, the town of Tagami, and parts of Kamo and the northern part of Nagaoka. As of Ju ...

. The town of Sanjō was created with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to city status on January 1, 1934. Heavy rain causes extensive flooding in 1961 and in 2004. On May 1, 2005, the town of Sakae, and the village of Shitada (both from Minamikanbara District) were merged into Sanjō.

Government

Sanjō 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 22 members. On November 8, 2020, attorney Ryo Takizawa was elected to become the next mayor of Sanjō.

Economy

Tsubamesanjo Regional Industries Promotion Center RESEARCH CORE

Sanjō is traditionally known for its iron crafts, notably knives and scissors. The following are headquartered in Sanjō. * Snow Peak (camping equipment manufacturer) * Marunao (chopsticks manufacturer) * Suwada (nail care manufacturer) It is also one of the municipalities where a local Factory Festival takes place once per year in October (Kouba no Saiten).

Education

Sanjō has 25 public elementary schools and nine public middle schools operated by the city government. There are four public high schools operated by the Niigata Prefectural Board of Education, and the prefecture also operates one special education school.

Transportation

Railway

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Shin'etsu Main Line The Shinetsu Main Line ( ja, 信越本線, ) is a railway line, consisting of three geographically separated sections, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. It was originally one continuous line connecting and via . S ...

* - - - - JR logo (east)

Yahiko Line The is a Japanese railway line operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) which connects Yahiko Station in the village of Yahiko and Higashi-Sanjō Station in the city of Sanjo, both in Niigata Prefecture. The line shares its name wit ...

*Tsubame-Sanjō - -

Highway

* 20px

– Sanjō IC * * * *

Sister cities

Vaughan, Ontario Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

, Canada (since October 18, 1993) *

Ezhou Ezhou () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Hubei Province, China. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 1,079,353, of which 695,697 lived in the core Echeng District. The Ezhou - Huanggang built-up (''or metro'') area was home t ...

, China (since April 28, 1994)

Notable people from Sanjō

Chihiro Kaneko is a Japanese people, Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB). He previously played for the Orix Buffaloes. Career Kaneko pitched for the Orix Buffaloes. He won the N ...

(baseball player) *

Masayuki Kakefu (born May 9, 1955) is a Japanese former professional baseball third baseman in Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, ...

（baseball player） *

Tetsuji Morohashi was an important figure in the field of Japanese language studies and Sinology. He is best known as chief editor of the '' Dai Kan-Wa jiten'', a comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters, or ''kanji''. Biography Morohashi's father was also ...

(lexicographer) Tetsuji Morohashi Museum
/ref> * Shohei Baba (baseball player, professional wrestler) *

Kumi Mizuno is a Japanese actress best known for appearing in several Toho kaiju films of the 1960s and early 1970s. Early life Mizuno was born Maya Igarashi on 1 January 1937 in Sanjō Niigata prefecture, Japan. She was acquainted with Giant Baba, her jun ...

(motion picture actress)

References

External links

Official Website

Slow and Steady Shitada
official website for the Shitada area of Sanjo, featuring many outdoor destinations and activities {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanjo, Niigata Cities in Niigata Prefecture