is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

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 city 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 26,998 in 13363 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 92 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Located in western

, the Yoshino River flows west through the city. It is surrounded mostly by mountains, although the

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

is located in a flat basin. Situated north of the city hall is Mount Kongō, at 1,125 meters.

Persimmon The persimmon () is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus '' Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Chinese and Japanese kaki persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki''. In 2022, China produced 77% of the world's p ...

is a major fruit crop in Gojō.2005.Kangaeru Shakaika Chizu.Tokyo:Yotsuya-Ōtsuka Publishing, p.36

Neighboring municipalities

Gose Gose () is a warm fermented beer that is usually brewed with at least 50% of the grain bill being malted wheat (with the rest being malted barley such as Pilsner malt), fruit syrups - such as lemon and coriander - and salt - either added or a ...

* Kamikitayama * Kurotaki * Nosegawa * Ōyodo * Shimoichi * Tenkawa * Totsukawa

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

* Chihayaakasaka * Kawachinagano

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

* Hashimoto * Kōya

Climate

Gojō 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 climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool to cold winters. Precipitation is significantly higher in summer than in winter, though on the whole lower than most parts of Honshū, and there is no significant snowfall. The average annual temperature in Gojō is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Gojō was on 5 August 2021; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 19 February 2012.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Gojō in 2020 is 27,927 people. The population has been on decline over the past quarter of a century. Gojō has been conducting censuses since 1950.

History

The area of Gojō was part of ancient

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

, and contains many

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumulus, tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞 ...

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

s and ancient

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

. 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 ...

, it was a

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

and part of the ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil war ...

'' holdings under the direct control of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. During the Bakumatsu period, it was one of the sites of the Tenchūgumi incident. The town of Gojō was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to city status on October 15, 1957 by merging with the town of Nohara and the villages of Makino, Kitauchi, Uchi, Sakaibe, Oata, and Minamiata. The village of Minamiuchi was annexed on January 1, 1957, and the villages of Nishiyoshino and Ōtō on September 25, 2005.

Government

Gojō 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 ...

city council of 12 members. Gojō contributes one member to the Nara Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Nara 3rd 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 local economy is based on agriculture, forestry and light manufacturing. In Sumikawa-cho in the northeast of the city, there are the

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

Technopark, Naraya Gojo Wood Industrial Park, and the newly developed residential area Elbe Town Gojo and Renaissance Court, while the Gojo Kita Interchange on the Keihanawa Expressway and Iden-cho are home to the Kitauchi Industrial Park.

Education

Gojō has four public elementary schools, three public junior high school and one public high school operated by the city government and one public high school operated by the Nara Prefectural Board of Education. There are also a private junior high and a private high school.

Transportation

Railways

JR West , 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, ...

– Wakayama Line : - -

Highways

Keinawa Expressway * * * * *

Local attractions

* Gojō Shinmachi old town * Uchi River Rock Carvings, National Historic Site

Notable people from Gojō

* Ryotaro Tanose, politician * Machiko Ono, actress

References

External links

Gojō City official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gojo, Nara Cities in Nara Prefecture Gojō, Nara