was 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 on the middle courses of Arida River (有田川) in Arida District, of northwestern

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 ...

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 ...

. As of 2003, 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 15,012 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

of 412.76 persons per km². The total area was 36.37 km². On January 1, 2006, Kibi, along with the towns of Kanaya and Shimizu (all from Arida District), was merged to create the town of Aridagawa. It was surrounded by mountains, the highest being Komeyama. The town was known for Kishu mandarin oranges, known as きしゅうみかん in Japanese. Kibi-cho has a "Fruit Tree Experiment Station" of the "Wakayama Research Center of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries". Kibi-cho City Hall and Kibi Dome were created by

Kisho Kurokawa (April 8, 1934 – October 12, 2007) was a leading Japanese architect and one of the founders of the Metabolist Movement. Biography Born in Kanie, Aichi, Kurokawa studied architecture at Kyoto University, graduating with a bachelor's ...

and constructed in 1993–1995. A fossil tooth of the 20-foot-long Ginsu Shark

Cretoxyrhina ''Cretoxyrhina'' (; meaning 'Cretaceous sharp-nose') is an extinct genus of large mackerel shark that lived about 107 to 73 million years ago during the late Albian to late Campanian of the Late Cretaceous. The type species, ''C. mantelli'', is m ...

from 100 to 82 million years ago in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

period has been found at Atagoyama, Kibi-Cho. Mid-Cretaceous

Ammonite Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

s have been found in the

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

of the Aridagawa (Arida River) valley near Kibi-cho.Abstract of article in journal ''Paleontological Research'', 2008
/ref>

Osamu Higashio is a Japanese former baseball player who played in the Japanese professional leagues from 1969–1988, being remembered as one of the leading Japanese pitchers in the 1980s. He also was manager of the Seibu Lions from 1995 to 2001. Professional ...

, a former professional baseball player (1969-1988) and manager of the

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway ...

from 1995 to 2001, was born in Kibi-cho.

References

External links

Kibi-cho City Hall and Kibi Dome
by

Dissolved municipalities of Wakayama Prefecture Aridagawa, Wakayama {{Wakayama-geo-stub