is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
located in
Nagano Prefecture,
Japan. , the village 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 977, and a
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), 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 ...
of 3.9 persons per km². The total area of the village is . Ōshika is listed as one of
The Most Beautiful Villages in Japan.
Geography
Ōshika is located mountainous southern of Nagano Prefecture, between the Ina Mountains and the
Akaishi Mountains, with the
Japan Median Tectonic Line passing through the southern portion of the village.
Surrounding municipalities
* Nagano Prefecture
**
Ina
**
Komagane
**
Iida
**
Iijima
**
Nakagawa
**
Matsukawa
**
Toyooka
*
Shizuoka Prefecture
**
Aoi-ku,
Shizuoka
Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Ōshika has declined rapidly over the past 50 years.
Climate
The village has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cold winters (
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''). The average annual temperature in Ōshika is 10.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1655 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.5 °C.
Ōshika climate data
/ref>
History
The area of present-day Ōshika was part of ancient Shinano Province. 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 characte ...
, the area was part of the ''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' ...
'' territories administered directly by 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 present village of Ōshika was established on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system.
Education
Ōshika has one public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the village government. The village does not have a high school.
Transportation
Railway
*The village does not have any passenger railway service
Highway
*
References
External links
*
Official Website
Villages in Nagano Prefecture
{{Nagano-geo-stub