270px, Niyodo River in Tosa 270px, Aerial view of Tosa city center 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 Kōchi Prefecture,

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 26,427 in 12671 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 is . The city of Tosa should not be confused with the historical

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

, which covered all of modern-day Kōchi Prefecture.

Geography

Tosa is located in central Kōchi Prefecture on the southern coast of the island of Shikoku, and faces the Shikoku Mountains to the north and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

to the south. The Niyodo River flows through the Takaoka Plain in the town, where rice is grown.

Surrounding municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture *

Kōchi (city) Kochi is a city in Kerala, India. Kochi or Kōchi may also refer to: People * Kochi people, a predominantly Pashtun nomadic people of Afghanistan * , a Japanese surname: ** Arata Kochi (born 1948 or 1949), Japanese physician and World Health Org ...

* Susaki * Ino * Kōchi * Sakawa * Hidaka

Climate

Tosa has a

Humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Tosa is 15.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2631 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in January, at around 25.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Tosa population statistics
/ref> the population of Tosa has remained relatively stable for the past century.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Tosa was part of ancient

. Remains from 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 ...

dated to 4000 years ago have been found within the city limits. 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 character ...

, the area was part of the holdings of

Tosa Domain The was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its history by ...

ruled by the Yamauchi clan from their seat at Kōchi Castle. 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 village of Takaoka (高岡村) was established within

Takaoka District, Kōchi is a district located in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. As of the Shimanto merger but with 2003 population statistics, the district has an estimated population of 68,854 and a density of 45.1 persons per km2. The total area is 1,527.65 km2. Town ...

with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. Takaoka was elevated to town status on March 1, 1899. Takaoka was elevated to city status on January 1, 1959, and renamed Tosa.

Government

Tosa 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 council of 15 members. Tosa contributes one member to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Kōchi 1st district of the lower house 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 paral ...

Economy

Benefiting from the warm climate and abundant water, the area has long been a prosperous region for agriculture, with greenhouse horticulture in the plains and fruit tree cultivation in the surrounding mountains. In addition, the rich subsoil water of the Niyodo River has nurtured the paper industry, and in the Usa neighborhood, which faces the Pacific Ocean, coastal fishing and seafood processing have developed as key industries.

Education

Tosa has nine public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government and two public high schools operated by the Kōchi Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one private high school. The Kochi Professional University of Rehabilitation is located in Tosa.

Transportation

Railway

Tosa does not have any passenger railway service. The nearest train station is Ino Station on the JR Shikoku Dosan Line.

Highways

Kōchi Expressway *

Sister city relations

Ebetsu, Hokkaidō is a city in Ishikari Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. History Ebetsu was settled originally by Japanese people in 1871, who came from the Miyagi Prefecture on Honshu. In 1878, tondenhei began moving into the area. When the Meiji Government, ...

, since July 15, 1978 * -

Itatiba Itatiba is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil, approximately 80 km from the State Capital. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. The population is 122,581 (2020 est.) in an area of 322.28 km². The average ...

, São Paulo ,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, since August 5, 1989.

Local attractions

* Kiyotaki-ji, 35th temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage * Shōryū-ji, 36th temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Noted people from Tosa

* Seito Saibara, politician, missionary, colonist, and farmer *

Michiharu Kusunoki is a Japanese manga artist from Tosa, Kōchi. He is most known for the street racing series ''Wangan Midnight'' serialized in Kodansha's weekly ''Young Magazine'' and which has been adapted into a 26 episode anime series, a series of video games, ...

,manga artist * Chisako Hara, actress

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tosa, Kochi Cities in Kōchi Prefecture