270px, Sugi no Osugi 270px, Ōsugi Station is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Nagaoka District,

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the town had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 3277 in 1968 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing 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 geog ...

of 10 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Ōtoyo is located in northeastern Kōchi Prefecture on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

. The Yoshino River and the Ananai River flow through the town, which extends 32 kilometers from east to west and 28 kilometers from north to south. The elevation is between 200 and 1,400 meters.

Neighbouring municipalities

Ehime Prefecture *

Shikokuchūō is a city located in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 83,635 in 28876 households and a population density of 200 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Shikokuchūō is the leading producer of pape ...

Kōchi Prefecture *

Kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

* Motoyama Tokushima Prefecture * Miyoshi

Climate

Ōtoyo has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. There are significant differences in the weather depending on the topography. but since Ōtoyo is a heavy rainfall area in general, the annual rainfall reaches 3,000mm in some places, causing landslides and other disasters. The annual average temperature is 14 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Ōtoyo population statistics
/ref> the population of Ōtoyo has declined precipitously since the 1960s. It is the only municipality in Shikoku where over 50% of the population is aged over 65, therefore qualifying as a genkai shūraku.

History

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

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 ...

. During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, the area was part of the holdings of

Tosa Domain The was a Han (Japan), 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 ...

ruled by the

Yamauchi clan The Yamauchi clan (山内氏) were a family of rulers over what was then the Tosa Province which spanned the southern half of Shikoku island. The province was given to the family in 1600 after Yamauchi Kazutoyo led troops under Tokugawa Ieyasu ...

from their seat at

Kōchi Castle is an Edo Period Japanese castle in the city of Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. It is located at Otakayama hill, at the center of Kōchi city, which in turn is located at the center of the Kōchi Plain, the most prosperous area of former ...

. The area was organized into villages within Nagaoka District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, including Higashitoyonaga, Nishitoyonaga, Ōsugi, and Tentsubo. These four villages merged on March 31, 1955 to form the village of Ōtoyo. The name Ōtoyo came from taking the in and the in . Following this, a section of Ōtoyo was absorbed into the town of Tosayamada (present day Kami, Kōchi). On the April 1, 1972, the village became a town.

Government

Ōtoyo 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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

town council of ten members. Ōtoyo, together with the other municipalities of Nagaoka and Tosa Districts, contributes one member to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Kōchi 1st district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

The economy of Ōtoyo is centered on forestry.

Education

Ōtoyo has one public combined elementary/middle school operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

JR Shikoku The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four Prefectures of Japan, prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Jap ...

Dosan Line The is a railway line in Shikoku, Japan, operated by the Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku). It connects Tadotsu Station in Tadotsu, Kagawa, Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Kagawa, and Kubokawa Station in Shimanto, Kōchi (town), Shimanto, Kōchi ...

* - - - - - -

Highways

Kōchi Expressway * * *

Local attractions

Historic sites

*Buraku-ji, Buddhist temple whose Yakushi-do is a National Important Cultural Property *Former Tajikawa Domain Bansho

Shoin is a type of audience hall in Japanese architecture that was developed during the Muromachi period. The term originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but later it came to mean just a drawing room or stu ...

, National Important Cultural Property

Events

*Fukujuso Flower Festival *Osugi Summer Festival *Otaguchi Summer Festival *Wild Game Festival

Tourist sites

* , Special Natural Monument * ''Whitewater Rafting'' - Due to its prime location on the Yoshino River and its proximity to Oboke Gorge Otoyo is the location of a large number of rafting companies. * File:Ryuo Falls 05.JPG, Ryūjin shrine and Ryūō falls File:Mt.Kajigamori.jpg, Mount Kajigamori

Local products

Goishicha Goishicha ( ' go-pebble tea') is a fermented tea originally from China but now grown only in Ōtoyo, Kōchi and Ishizuchi-Kurocha, Ehime prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefect ...

(fermented tea) *

Yuzu Yuzu (''Citrus'' × ''junos'', from Japanese language, Japanese or ; ) is a citrus fruit and plant in the family Rutaceae of China, Chinese origin. Yuzu has been cultivated mainly in East Asia, though it has also recently been grown in New Z ...

lemon juice * Wild Game

Notable people from Ōtoyo

* Masaya Tokuhiro, manga artist *

Tomoyuki Yamashita was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore. His conquest of Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earned him the sobriquet "The Tig ...

, general in the Imperial Japanese Army

References

External links

* Towns in Kōchi Prefecture Ōtoyo, Kōchi {{Kochi-geo-stub