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 ...

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...

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 of 26,378, and a population density of 31.6 persons per km² in 10,759 households.Tōno City official statistics
/ref> The total area of the city is . Tōno is known as "The City of Folklore" for its rural nature, its preservation of traditional culture and especially for the collection of folktales, ''

Tōno Monogatari Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

,'' written by

Kunio Yanagita Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

in 1910.

Geography

Tōno is located in central Iwate Prefecture, in the floodplain of the

Sarugaishi River The is a river in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. The Sarugaishi River rises in the Kitakami Mountains just south of Mt. Yakushi in Tōno and empties into the Kitakami River in Hanamaki. The Tase Dam is on the Sarugaishi River, in eastern Hanamaki in ...

, surrounded by a ring of mountains.

Mount Hayachine is the highest mountain in the Kitakami Range, located in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshū, Japan. With an elevation of , it is the second highest in Iwate Prefecture after Mount Iwate. Mount Hayachine is mentioned in ''100 Famous Japanes ...

sits at the northernmost point of the city where Hanamaki, Kawai and Tōno meet. At 1,914 meters it is also the city's highest point. Mt. Rokkoushi, (1,294 meters) dominates the landscape to the east and Mt. Ishigami (1,038 meters) is the highest mountain in the west. Together these peaks form Tōno's "big three" mountains. The highest points in southern Tōno are Mt. Sadato (884 meters) on the border of Sumida and Mt. Tane (871 meters) on the borders of Sumita and Ōshū. Accordingly, to legend, in the past the hills in Miyamori blocked the Sarugaishi River creating a large lake in the Tōno area. Miyamori itself is characterized by a series of valleys to the west of Mt. Ishigami that flow west into the

just below the

Tase Dam is a multipurpose dam located on the Sarugaishi River in the former town of Tōwa which is now a part of the city of Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture, in the Tohoku region of northern Japan. Completed in 1954, it is managed by the Tohoku Regio ...

Neighboring municipalities

*Iwate Prefecture **

Kamaishi is a city located on the Sanriku rias coast in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 32,609, and a population density of 74 persons per km2, in 16,230 households. The total area of the city is Geography Kamaishi ...

Hanamaki is a Cities of Japan, city in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 94,691, and a population density of 100 persons per km², in 37,773 households. The total area of the city is . Hanamaki is famous as the birthplace ...

Ōshū Oshu or Ōshū may refer to: *Another name for Mutsu Province, a former Japanese province *Ōshū, Iwate, Japan, a city *Northern Fujiwara The Northern Fujiwara (奥州藤原氏 ''Ōshū Fujiwara-shi'') were a Japanese kuge, noble Japanese c ...

** Miyako ** Sumita **

Ōtsuchi An is a large wooden war mallet used by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The ōtsuchi had a shaft of about much like the ono (war axe). It was mainly used for door breaching Door breaching is a process used by military, police, or emerg ...

Climate

Tōno has a humid climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Tōno is 9.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1388 mm with September as the wettest month and February as the driest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around -2.2 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tōno peaked in around the year 1960 and has declined steadily over the past 60 years. It is now less than it was a century ago. Per official data from Tōno city hall, 37.6% of the population is over the age of 65.

History

The area of present-day Tōno 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 ...

. Pottery fragments can still be found in farmers' fields and other places. Later the area was inhabited 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 ...

and many place names are based on the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu, is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate ...

. In the Early Nine-Years War lasting from 1051 to 1063,

Minamoto no Yoshiie Minamoto No Yoshiie (源義家; 1039 – 4 August 1106), also known as Hachimantarō, was a Minamoto clan samurai of the late Heian period, and '' Chinjufu-shōgun'' (Commander-in-chief of the defense of the North). The first son of Minamoto ...

fought running battles with

Abe no Sadato was a samurai during the Heian period of Japan. In the Zenkunen War, Sadato fought alongside his father against the Minamoto. Life Sadatō was born in 1019, to the Abe clan, as the son of Abe no Yoritoki, the '' chinjufu-shōgun'' (general ...

throughout the area. There are references to this in "Tōno Monogatari" and arrowheads still turn up from time to time. Later the Hiraizumi Fujiwara controlled Tōno which was a prized area for horse breeding, farming and hunting. 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 dominated 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 coming under the control of the

Nambu clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled most of northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region of Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Nanbu claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji of Kai P ...

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 ...

, who ruled

Morioka Domain 300px, Ruins of Morioka Castle was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan. It was ruled throughout its history by the Nanbu clan. It was called during the early part of its history. It was located in northern Mutsu Province, Honshū, ...

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 Nambu built Nabekura Castle in what is now known as Nabekura Park in downtown Tōno as a defence against the powerful

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 ...

to then south, and assigned to Nanbu Naoyoshi, formerly castellan of

Ne Castle is a Muromachi period Motte-and-bailey-style Japanese castle located in what is now the city of Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of far northern Japan. It has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site ...

near Hachinohe in 1627. This formed an unofficial subsidiary 12,500 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' domain of Morioka Domain, which lasted until 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 ...

. With 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 ...

establishment of the modern municipalities system, the town of Tōno was established on April 1, 1889 within Nishihei District of Iwate Prefecture. In 1896, Nishihei and Minamihei districts were merged to form Kamihei District. During the Meiji period, Tōno developed a silk and cotton weaving industry dependent on Morioka. The silk industry was destroyed by intensely cold weather during the winter of 1905–06. The residents of Tōno were reduced to eating wild roots by the famine of this period and many died or moved away. The city of Tōno was officially founded on December 1, 1954 by the merger of the former town of Tōno with the seven villages of Ayaori, Otomo, Tsukimoushi, Matsuzaki, Tsuchibuchi, Aozasa and Kamigo. On October 1, 2005, the village of Miyamori (from Kamihei District) was merged into Tōno to bring the city to its present boundaries.

Government

Tōno 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 eighteen members. Tōno contributes one seat to the Iwate Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Iwate 3rd district Iwate 3rd district is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It is located in Iwate. Ichirō Ozawa of the Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. Th ...

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 ...

Education

There are two senior high schools in Tōno, under the purview of Iwate's Prefectural Board of Education. Iwate Prefectural Tōno Senior High School offers an academic curriculum, while Iwate Prefectural Tōno Ryokuhō Senior High School is vocational. The Tōno city board of education operates three junior high schools: Tōno, Tōno-Higashi, and Tōno-Nishi, and 11 elementary schools: Aozasa, Ayaori, Kamigō, Masuzawa, Miyamori, Otomo, Tassobe, Tōno, Tōno North, Tsuchibuchi, and Tsukimoushi.

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) -

Kamaishi Line The is a rural railway line in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Hanamaki Station in the city of Hanamaki with Kamaishi Station in the city of Kamaishi. History The precursor to the li ...

* - - - - - - - - - - -

Highway

* * * *

Local attractions

Overview

The city has a number of sightseeing spots, such as Kappabuchi, a pool where the mythical creatures called ''

kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...

'' are said to live. Tōno Furusato Village preserves several , or L-shaped houses, from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Chiba Family House is another large that is preserved in Tōno as a museum. Tōno's food includes ''Genghis Khan'' or barbecued lamb and ''hittsumi'' or wheat dumplings as well as horse meat. The Miyamori part of Tōno is known for its ''

wasabi Wasabi (Japanese: , , or , ; ''Eutrema japonicum'' or ''Wasabia japonica'') or Japanese horseradish is a plant of the family Brassicaceae, which also includes horseradish and mustard in other genera. The plant is native to Japan and the Russian ...

'' production and a local brewery makes a ''wasabi'' beer. Festivals include the Tōno Folktales Festival in early February, in which local storytellers recite stories from the ''Tōno Monogatari''. The Tōno Tanabata Festival is held in early August and features a parade of dancers through the city center. In mid-September is the Tōno Festival which also features a parade and ''

yabusame is a type of mounted archery in traditional Japanese archery. An archer on a running horse shoots three special "turnip-headed" arrows successively at three wooden targets. This style of archery has its origins at the beginning of the Kama ...

'' or horseback archery.

Locations

* Tōno Furusato Village - is collection of type houses from the 18th and 19th centuries that have been relocated to this site. There are seasonal events and entertainments provided during peak vacation times. There is also a restaurant, gift shop, library and museum of natural history. * Chiba Family Nanbu Magariya - is a large 200-year-old farmhouse which is still occupied but open for tourists as well. * Denshoen - is a group of buildings including the Kikuchi Family Magariya and the Sasaki Kizen Memorial Museum. The Oshirado Hall enshrines 1,000 Oshira-sama deities. * Tōno Castle Town Materials Museum - is dedicated to preserving artifacts from the Nanbu clan when Tōno was a prosperous castle town. There are

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

netsuke A is a miniature sculpture, originating in 17th century Japan. Initially a simply-carved button fastener on the cords of an box, later developed into ornately sculpted objects of craftsmanship. History Traditionally, Japanese clothing – ...

, swords and so forth on display. * Fukusen-ji Temple - is a Shingon Buddhist temple housing the largest wooden Kannon statue in Japan. The grounds of the temple are quite extensive and have many buildings including a five-story pagoda. * Tōno Kura no Michi Gallery - is a collection of old "kura" or storehouses that have been made into an art gallery, gift shop and toy museum. * Kappabuchi - is a pool behind Joken-ji Temple which is said to be the home of many "kappa" or mythical water sprites. * Denderano - is a hut far from any houses where the elderly were brought to die in ages past, for they were seen by their children as no longer productive. The landscape where the huts were is called Dendera Field. * 500 Buddhist Disciples - are a group of carvings on granite rocks done by a priest of Daiji-ji Temple to commemorate the victims of a famine. * Arakawa-kōgen Farm - an Important Cultural Landscape

Events

* Tōno Folktales Festival - in early February - in which storytellers recite tales from Tōno Monogatari. * Tōno Machiya Doll Festival - from late February through early March - in which traditional dolls are displayed in shops and museums throughout the city. * Tōno Cherry Blossom Festival - in early May - in which the cherries bloom and everyone parties under the blossoms. * Tōno Horsepower Tournament - on the 4th Sunday in June - in which draft animals compete in pulling heavy loads. * Manuke-bushi Festival - in early August - is a humorous dance held on the streets of Tōno. * Tōno Tanabata Festival - in early August - is a dance and parade that starts in front of the station and goes through the city. *Tōno Fireworks Festival - on August 15 - is fireworks. *Tōno Festival - in mid-September - is another dance and parade through the city streets celebrating the harvest. *Tōno Dobekko Festival - every weekend from late November to early March - is a chance to drink

moonshine Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial dist ...

legally.

Folklore

Tōno is known throughout Japan as the cradle of ''Tōno Monogatari'' (''Tales of Tōno''), written in 1910 by

, who gathered folk tales of the area. This book is now considered one of the greatest studies of Japanese folklore, and inspired the 1982 movie of the same name. Several of these tales involve the

Kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...

, mischievous water sprites. A legendary location in Tōno is the ''Kappa-buchi'', a water stream where kappas are said to live. The mascot of the city, ''Karin-chan'', is a cute kappa holding a bellflower. She is usually depicted walking in front of a .

National Historic Sites

Ayaorishinden Site is an archaeological site containing the remains of a large early Jōmon period settlement located in the city of Tōno, in Iwate Prefecture in the far northern Tōhoku region of Japan. It has been designated by the central government as a ...

, Jomon period archaeological site

International relations

* -

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

, Italy since August 8, 1984. * -

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, Tennessee since September 15, 2017. Tōno is also twinned with three Japanese cities: *

Mitaka, Tokyo 260px, Inokashira Park in Mitaka is a city in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 190,403, and a population density of 12,000 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Mit ...

, since 1989 *

Musashino, Tokyo is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 147,492 in 77,779 households, and a population density of 13,000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Based on the 2015 Ka ...

, since 1988 *

Kikuchi, Kumamoto is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. The city was founded on August 1, 1958. As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 49,455 and a population density of 180 persons per km2. The total area ...

, since 1998 From 1990 to 2010, the high schools of Tōno and the

Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences The Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences is a K–12 magnet school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was opened in 1986 in the former Wyatt Hall building which was used as a high school until 1983. The building was built in 1920–1921 and desi ...

(CSAS) in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

were paired by School Partners Abroad to establish an exchange program. Near the end of every Japanese school year (in March), a delegation of Tōno high-school students visited Chattanooga, and reciprocally, a delegation from CSAS visited Tōno every summer. The city of Tōno embraced this exchange and organized a delegation of junior high school students to visit CSAS and the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (CSLA) a few weeks before the high school students. After many delegations between the two cities, Chattanooga and Tono became sister cities on September 15, 2017.

Notable people from Tōno

* Inō Kanori, anthropologist *

Kuniko Koda is a Japanese politician and a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). Early life and education Koda was born in Tono City, Iwate Prefecture, on 8 September 1965. She graduated from International Christian Univer ...

, politician *

Isaac Namioka Isaac Namioka (April 25, 1928 - September 25, 2019) was a Japanese-American mathematician who worked in general topology and functional analysis. He was a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Washington. He died at home in Seatt ...

, mathematician. *

Kizen Sasaki , also sometimes Sun-Hee Sasaki and Kyōseki Sasaki (5 October 1886 – 29 September 1933), was a Japanese folklorist, sometimes known as the ''Japanese Grimm''.Dorson, Richard M. (1975) "Foreword" ''in'' Kunio, Yanagita (1975) ''The legends o ...

, folkloristKizen Sasaki birthplace memorial museum
/ref>

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tono, Iwate Cities in Iwate Prefecture