270px, Tome City Hall 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

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

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 77,897 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 150 persons per km² in 27,298 households. The total area of the city is . The area is noted for its rice production.

Geography

Tome is in far northeastern Miyagi Prefecture, bordered by Iwate Prefecture to the north. The

Kitakami River The is the fourth largest river in Japan and the largest in the Tōhoku region. It is long and drains an area of . page 793 It flows through mostly rural areas of Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures. The source of the river is the Mount Nanashirug ...

flows through the city. The city is approximately 70 kilometers north of the prefectural capital of

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

Neighboring municipalities

Miyagi Prefecture *

Ishinomaki is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 138,538, and a population density of 250 persons per km2 in 61,919 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Ishinomaki is in northeastern Miya ...

Kurihara Kurihara City Hall is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 66,565, and a population density of 83 persons per km2 in 24,994 households. The total area of the city is . Parts of the city are wi ...

* Ōsaki *

Kesennuma is a city in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,803 and a population density of in 26,390 households. The total area of the city is . Large sections of the city were destroyed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake an ...

* Wakuya *

Minamisanriku is a town in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , it had an estimated population of 12,516, and a population density of 77 persons per km² in 4504 households. The total area of the town is . It is a resort town on a coastline of wooded islands and moun ...

Iwate Prefecture *

Ichinoseki is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. , the city had a population of 114,476 and a population density of 91 persons per km² in 46,375 households. It is currently the second largest city by population in ...

Climate

Tome has a humid climate (

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'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Tome 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 Tome peaked in the 1950s and has declined steadily over the past 70 years.

History

The area of present-day Tome was part of ancient

Mutsu Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori Prefectures and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. Mutsu Province is also known as or . The term is often used to refer to the comb ...

, and has been settled since at least the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

by the

Emishi The (also called Ebisu and Ezo), written with Chinese characters that literally mean "shrimp barbarians," constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region, referred to as in contemp ...

people. During the later portion of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

, the area was ruled by the

Northern Fujiwara The Northern Fujiwara (奥州藤原氏 ''Ōshū Fujiwara-shi'') were a Japanese noble family that ruled the Tōhoku region (the northeast of Honshū) of Japan during the 12th century as their own realm.

. 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 ...

, the area was contested by various

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

clans before the area came under the control of the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date family was founded ...

Sendai Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of the i ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

. The town of Tome was established on June 1, 1889 within

Tome District, Miyagi was a district located in northeastern Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It was dissolved in 2005 when forming the city of Tome. As of 2000, the district estimated population of 89,389 and a density Density (volumetric mass density or specific m ...

with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. The city of Tome was established on April 1, 2005, from the merger of the towns of Hasama, Ishikoshi, Minamikata, Nakada, Toyoma, Towa, Toyosato, Tsuyama, and Yoneyama (all from Tome District), and the town of

Tsuyama is a city in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 102,294 and a population density of 200 persons per km². The total area was 185.73 km². The area increased in 2005 as the result of a merger with adjacent t ...

(from Motoyoshi District). Tome District was dissolved as a result of his merger.

2011 earthquake and tsunami

Tome was one of several cities severely affected by an earthquake and tsunami on Friday, 11 March 2011, with as many as 6,000 people left homeless. On 15, 2011, authorities announced that German and Swiss teams with search dogs would be deployed to the city to aid in search and recovery efforts. Other search and rescue team came from Australia and New Zealand. Early reports suggest that many residents of the nearby town of

, which was one of the hardest hit by the tsunami, had evacuated to Tome.

Government

Tome 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 26 members. Tome contributes two seats to the Miyagi Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Miyagi 6th district was an electoral district for the Japanese House of Representatives. The district was established In 1994 as a single member district from most of Miyagi 2nd district (excluding the city of Ishinomaki and the districts of Monou and Oshika). ...

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 Tome is largely based on agriculture.

Education

Tome has 21 public elementary schools, one combined public elementary/middle school, nine public junior high schools operated by the city government, and three public high schools operated by the Miyagi Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company 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 ...

(JR East) -

Tōhoku Main Line The Tōhoku Main Line ( ja, 東北本線, ) is a long railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Utsunomiya, Fukush ...

* - -

(JR East) -

Kesennuma Line The is a local railway line in Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connected Maeyachi Station in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi to Kesennuma Station in the city of Kesennuma, Miyagi. The route links the north-easte ...

* - - - '

Highway

*: (Tsukidate and Wakayanagi interchanges) *: (Monou-Toyosato, Toyoma (Tome), Towa/Mitakido, and Monou-Tsuyama interchanges) * * * * *

Local attractions

Toyoma Education Museum Toyoma Education Museum exhibits the history of education in Japan since the Meiji period. It is housed in the of 1888 in the city of Tome, Miyagi Prefecture. The U-shaped two-storey building around a courtyard, lined with balconies and with h ...

* Naganuma Futopia Park

Twin towns – sister cities

Tome is twinned with: * Nyūzen, Japan * Southlake, United States * Vernon, Canada

Noted people from Tome

Shotaro Ishinomori was a Japanese manga artist who became an influential figure in manga, anime, and , creating several immensely popular long-running series such as '' Cyborg 009,'' the ''Super Sentai'' series (later adapted into the ''Power Rangers'' series), ...

, manga artist *

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of '' Akira'', in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of th ...

, manga artist * Kouzou Sasaki, politician *

Shio Satō (6 December 1952 – 4 April 2010) was a Japanese manga artist. Satō was a member of the Post Year 24 Group, a group of female manga artists considered influential in the development of shōjo manga. She also wrote under the pen name . She ...

, manga artist *

Maruyama Gondazaemon was a Japanese sumo wrestler, who is formally recognised as the third ''yokozuna''. His real name was . He came from Mutsu Province in the Sendai Domain (part of what is now Miyagi Prefecture). Career Maruyama went to Edo (now Tokyo) at the ag ...

, sumo *

Shinobu Sugawara , better known mononymously by his ring name Shinobu, is a Japanese professional wrestler. He has worked in several promotions, in particular 666, Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) and Dragon Gate (DG). Professional wrestling career Sugawara start ...

, Japanese professional wrestler

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Miyagi Prefecture