was a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

located in Kurihara District,

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 ...

. On April 1, 2005, Uguisuzawa, along with the towns of Ichihasama, Kannari, Kurikoma, Semine, Shiwahime, Takashimizu, Tsukidate and Wakayanagi, and the village of

Hanayama Hanayama is a Japanese toy company founded in 1933. They are best known for their metal disassembly puzzles " HUZZLE" series (also known as "CAST PUZZLE"), which include reproductions of older designs, and new puzzles by other inventors such as Os ...

(all from Kurihara District), were merged to create the city of

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 with ...

Geography

Uguisuzawa was located on the border between the

Ōu Mountains The are a mountain range in the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan. The range is the longest range in Japan and stretches south from the Natsudomari Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture to the Nasu volcanoes at the northern boundary of the Kantō re ...

and the

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 ...

plain. The Nihasama River starts here and runs through the town. The Namari River, a branch of the Nihasama also runs through Uguisuzawa.

Demographics

In October 1999, the town 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 3,246. The population as calculated in previous National Censuses was as follows.

History

The village of Uguisuzawa dated back to 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 ...

. It gained town status on April 1, 1951, by merging with nearby Fukuro Village - Uguisuzawa comprises Fukuro, Nango, and Hosokura villages. On April 1, 2005, Uguisuzawa was dissolved as a municipality, becoming part of the city of Kurihara.

Transport

Rail

Uguisuzawa was served by the Kurihara Den'en Railway Line, which closed in March of 2007 due to low ridership. Three stations on the line were located within Uguisuzawa: * Uguisuzawa Station * Uguisuzawa Kōgyōkōkō Mae Station * Hosokura Mine Park Mae Station

Road

* National Route 457

Education

* Miyagi Uguisuzawa Technical High School (renamed Iwagasaki Technical High School after merging with Iwagasaki High School in the nearby town of Kurikoma)Miyagi Uguisuzawa Technical High School
* Uguisuzawa Junior High School (closed/merged with Kurikoma Junior High School April 1, 2013) * Uguisuzawa Elementary School

Places of interest

* Hosokura Mine Park * Film set of Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad filmed in Uguisuzawa's Hosokura district in 2007.

Notable persons from Uguisuzawa

* Ichiro Ichikawa, politician

References

{{Authority control Dissolved municipalities of Miyagi Prefecture Kurihara, Miyagi