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 southwestern

Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,140,573 (31 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,186 km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to ...

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 n ...

. , 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 usi ...

of 67,793 in 29054 households, 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 RosenberPopu ...

of 290 persons per km². The total area of the city was .

Geography

Kaga is located in the extreme southwestern corner of Ishikawa Prefecture in the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-mod ...

and is bordered by 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, i ...

to the west and

Fukui Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, ...

to the south. Parts of the coastal areas of the city are within the borders of the

Echizen-Kaga Kaigan Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park on the coast of Fukui and Ishikawa Prefectures, Japan. The park was established in 1968. It is rated a protected landscape (category Ib) according to the IUCN. Like all Quasi-National Parks in Japan, Echizen-Kaga Ka ...

Neighbouring municipalities

*Ishikawa Prefecture ** Komatsu *Fukui Prefecture ** Awara ** Katsuyama **

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and inclu ...

Climate

Kaga has a

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 freez ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kaga is 14.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2499 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kaga peaked around 1990 and has declined since.

History

The area around Kaga was part of ancient

Kaga Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the south and western portion of Ishikawa Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Kaga bordered on Echizen, Etchū, Hida, and Noto Provinces. It was part of Hokurikudō Circuit. Its abb ...

. The area became part

Daishōji Domain was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan It was located in Kaga Province, in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The domain was centered at Daishōji ''jin'ya'', located in the center of what is now the city of Kaga in Ishikawa Prefecture. ...

under 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 character ...

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 ...

. Following 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

Enuma District, Ishikawa was a district located in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the district had an estimated population of 9,801 and a density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most ...

. The town of Daishōji was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On January 1, 1958, Daishōji merged with the towns of Yamashiro, Katayamazu, Iburihashi, Hashitate and the villages of Miki, Mitani, Nangō and Shioya (all from Enuma District) to form the city of Kaga. the city expanded on October 1, 2005 through a merger with the town of

Yamanaka Yamanaka (written: ; lit: "middle of mountain") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Akira Joe Yamanaka, singer for the Flower Travellin' Band * Akiko Yamanaka (born 1945), Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic ...

(from Enuma District).

Government

Kaga 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 multi ...

city legislature of 18 members.

Economy

Kaga was traditionally known for its production of

Kutani ware is a style of Japanese porcelain traditionally supposed to be from Kutani, now a part of Kaga, Ishikawa, in the former Kaga Province. It is divided into two phases: ''Ko-Kutani'' (old Kutani), from the 17th and early 18th centuries, and ''Saik� ...

ceramics and a type of silk fabric known as . It is also an important tourist city with a number of

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

s and hot-springs.

Education

Kaga has 21 public elementary schools and seven middle schools operated by the city government, and four public high schools operated by the Ishikawa Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates a special education school.

Transportation

Railway

West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

–

Hokuriku Main Line The Hokuriku Main Line ( ja, 北陸本線, ) is a 176.6 kilometer railway line owned by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) connecting the Maibara Station in Maibara, Shiga, with the Naoetsu Station in Joetsu, Niigata. The section betwe ...

* Daishōji – Kagaonsen – Iburihashi

Highway

* Hokuriku Expressway : : : :

Local attractions

* Yamanaka Onsen *

Yamashiro Onsen is a hot spring resort in the city of Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the largest in the three prefectures which constitute the Hokuriku region of Japan. The ''onsen'' has one hotel and 31 '' ryokan.'' History Yamashiro Ons ...

Sister city relations

Dundas, Ontario : ''For the county in eastern Ontario see Dundas County, Ontario. For the upper tier county, see United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.'' Dundas is a community and town in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is nicknamed the ''Valley Town ...

, Canada, since 1968 *

Tainan, Taiwan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

, friendship city

Notable people

* Masanobu Tsuji, war criminal, army officer and politician. *

Rokusaburo Michiba is a Japanese cuisine chef most notable as the first Japanese Iron Chef on the television series ''Iron Chef''. He was on the show from its inception in 1993 until his retirement on his 65th birthday, January 3, 1996. After his retirement as an ...

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan ( Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and oth ...

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a ki ...

, known as the first Japanese Iron Chef of television series

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle bu ...

Shoji Tabuchi is a Japanese-American country music fiddler and singer who currently performs at his theater, the Shoji Tabuchi Theatre, in Branson, Missouri. Early life Shoji Tabuchi was born April 16, 1944 in Daishōji, Ishikawa, Japan (now Kaga, Ishikawa, J ...

, fiddler and entertainer resident in

Branson, Missouri Branson is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. Most of the city is situated in Taney County, with a small portion in the west extending into Stone County. Branson is in the Ozark Mountains. The community was named after Reuben Branson, postm ...

References

External links

*
katayamazu onsen
Cities in Ishikawa Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan {{Ishikawa-geo-stub