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Jōmon_period_''Dogū''_statue_found_in_Tsugaru">Dogū.html"_;"title="Jōmon_period_''Dogū">Jōmon_period_''Dogū''_statue_found_in_Tsugaru _is_a_Cities_of_Japan.html" "title="Dogū''_statue_found_in_Tsugaru.html" ;"title="Dogū.html" ;"title="Jōmon period ''Dogū">Jōmon period ''Dogū'' statue found in Tsugaru">Dogū.html" ;"title="Jōmon period ''Dogū">Jōmon period ''Dogū'' statue found in Tsugaru is a Cities of Japan">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 Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 31,723 in 13,570 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The city's name is atypical for a Japanese place, in that it is written in ''

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

'' rather than ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' (see ''

hiragana cities The hiragana cities of Japan are municipalities whose names are written in hiragana rather than kanji as is traditional for Japanese place names. Many hiragana city names have kanji equivalents that are either phonetic manyōgana, or whose kanji ...

'').

Geography

Tsugaru is located on the west coast of

Tsugaru Peninsula The is a peninsula in Aomori Prefecture, at the northern end of Honshū island, Japan. The peninsula projects north into the Tsugaru Strait separating Honshū from Hokkaidō. The western coast is on the Sea of Japan, while on its eastern coast ...

, facing the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

. The

Iwaki River The is a river that crosses western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. It is in length and has a drainage area of . Under the Rivers Act of 1964 the Iwaki is designated as a Class 1 River and is managed by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, ...

flows through the city. Parts of the city are within the borders of

Tsugaru Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park in Aomori Prefecture in the far northern Tōhoku region of Honshū in Japan. It is rated a protected landscape (category V) according to the IUCN. The park includes a number of discontinuous areas on Tsugaru Peninsula, ...

Neighbouring municipalities

Aomori Prefecture *

Hirosaki is a city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. On 1 April 2020, the city had an estimated population of 168,739 in 71,716 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a castle town fo ...

Goshogawara is a city located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 53,576 in 25,568 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Goshogawara occupies two discontinuo ...

* Ajigasawa * Tsuruta * Nakadomari

Climate

The city has a cold

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 Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Dfb'') characterized by warm short summers and long cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Tsugaru is 10.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1298 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 23.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tsugaru has decreased steadily over the past 60 years.

History

The area of Tsugaru was part of the holdings of the

Tsugaru clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled the northwestern half of what is now Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. The Tsugaru were ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain and its semi-subsidiary, Ku ...

Hirosaki Domain Hirosaki Castle, the seat of the Hirosaki Domain , also known as , was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period JapanRavina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 It is located in Mutsu Province, in northern Honshū ...

in 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 ...

. After the

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 ...

, the area was organised into

Nishitsugaru District, Aomori is a rural district located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. As of September 2013, the district had an estimated population of 19,666 and an area of 831.85 km2. All of the city of Tsugaru was formerly part of Nishitsugaru District. In terms of ...

. With the post-

establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, the area became part of

on April 1, 1889. The village of Kizukuri was raised to town status on May 1, 1901. Kizuki expanded by merging with the neighboring villages of Koshimizu, Shibata, Kawayoke, Shussei, Tateoka and part of Narusawa on March 30, 1955. The city of Tsugaru was established on February 11, 2005, from the merger of the town of Kizukuri, and the villages of

Inagaki is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Inagaki Chusei (1897–1922), Japanese painter * Goro Inagaki (born 1973), Japanese singer and musician *Hiroshi Inagaki (1905–1980), Japanese filmmaker * Jitsuo Inagaki (1928–2 ...

Kashiwa is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 433,436 in 194,216 households and a population density of 3800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The name of the city is written with a si ...

, Morita and

Shariki ''Shariki'' (Russian: Ша́рики, "The Marbles") is a puzzle video game written in 1994 for MS-DOS by Russian developer Eugene Alemzhin. The goal of the game is to gain progressively higher scores by matching three or more balls of the same ...

(all from Nishitsugaru District).

Government

Tsugaru 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 20 members. Tsugaru contributes one member to the Aomori Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Aomori 3rd district Aomori 3rd district is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan. It is located on the island of Honshu, in Aomori Prefecture, and includes the cities of Hirosaki, Goshogawara, and Ajigasawa. As ...

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 Tsugaru is heavily dependent on agriculture and

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

. The city serves as a minor regional commercial center. Agricultural produce includes rice, apples, melons, watermelons, and

Brasenia ''Brasenia'', commonly known as ''watershield'', is a genus belonging to the family Cabombaceae, consisting of one species, ''Brasenia schreberi''. It is widely distributed in North America, the West Indies, northern South America (Venezuela, Gu ...

Education

Tsugaru has ten public elementary schools and five public junior high schools which is operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Aomori Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transport

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) -

Gonō Line The is a railway line in Japan linking Higashi-Noshiro Station in Akita Prefecture with Kawabe Station in Aomori Prefecture, in the northern Tōhoku region of Honshu. The line stretches 147.2 km (91.5 mi) along the Sea of Japan coast ...

* - - -

Highway

Tsugaru Expressway The is a two-lane national expressway in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The expressway connects the prefecture's capital, Aomori, and the Tōhoku Expressway to the municipalities of Goshogawara, Tsugaru and, Ajigasawa. It is owned and operated by ...

Local Attractions

* Takayama Inari Shrine *

Kamegaoka Stone Age Site The is an archaeological site in what is now part of the city of Tsugaru, Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, containing the ruins of a Jōmon period settlement. The remains were designated a National Historic Site in 19 ...

, a National Historic Site * Tagoyano Shell Mound, a National Historic Site *

Lake Jūsan , also known locally as is a brackish-water Estuary#Lagoon-type or bar-built, lagoon-type estuary located in the city of Goshogawara in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. It is the third-largest lake in Aomori Prefecture, after Lake Towada and Lake Ogawar ...

Sister city relations

* –

Bath, Maine Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 8,766 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County, which includes one city and 10 towns. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its ...

, United States – Friendship City from 2006 * –

Kashiwa, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 433,436 in 194,216 households and a population density of 3800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The name of the city is written with a si ...

, Japan – from 1994 * –

Shiraoi, Hokkaido is a town located in Iburi, Hokkaido, Japan. As of September 2016, the town had a population of 17,759. It was established in 1867 by the feudal lords of Sendai. Most of the area of the town is forested and parts lie within the Shikotsu-Tōya Nat ...

, Japan – from 2005

Noted people from Tsugaru

Rio Matsumoto is a Japanese actress, model and singer. She has had a prolific career in television drama series since the mid-1990s and since 2003 has also been in several films. She was formerly known as Megumi Matsumoto (松本恵). Acting career Televis ...

, actress * Nitta Hachirō, singer of

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

and

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

*Shunkichi Takeuchi, politician, former Aomori governor *Gento Uehara, songwriter *Kenroku Uehara, songwriter The town has produced many top

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

wrestlers over the years. Among them are: *

Wakanohana Kanji I was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler. He was the sport's 45th ''yokozuna''. He was a popular wrestler and was nicknamed the due to his great fighting spirit and endurance. Wakanohana's younger brother (by twenty-two years) was the late f ...

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the on ...

Takanosato Toshihide , real name , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Namioka, Aomori. He was the sport's 59th '' yokozuna'' from 1983 to 1986 and won four top division tournament championships. After retirement he established Naruto stable which he ran ...

, yokozuna *

Asahifuji Seiya is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Aomori Prefecture, Aomori. He joined professional sumo in 1981, reaching the top ''makuuchi'' division just two years later. He reached the second highest rank of ''Makuuchi#Ōzeki, ōzeki'' ...

, yokozuna *

Wakanosato Shinobu Wakanosato Shinobu (born Shinobu Kogawa; July 10, 1976) is a retired sumo wrestler from Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan. He made his debut in the top division in 1998, and his highest rank was ''sekiwake''. He holds the record for the most consecutive tour ...

sekiwake , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the on ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Aomori Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan 2005 establishments in Japan