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

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

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 137,512 in 58,276 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 1113 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 28.98%. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Koga is located in the extreme southwestern corner of Ibaraki Prefecture. Located almost in the center of the Kanto Plain, the city is very flat. The

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...

flows eastward in the southern part of the city and the Watarase River flows through the west and joins the Tone River north of the Tonegawa Bridge.The altitude of the northern part is slightly higher than that of the southern part, and the rivers that flow through the city flow from north to south except for the Tone River.

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture * Bandō * Goka *

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 '' kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun ...

* Yachiyo * Yūki

Saitama Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 Square kilometre, km2 ( ...

* Kazo * Kuki

Tochigi Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,897,649 (1 June 2023) and has a geographic area of 6,408 Square kilometre, km2 (2,474 Square mile, sq mi ...

* Nogi * Oyama * Tochigi

Climate

Koga 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 cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Koga is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Koga peaked around the year 2000 and has declined slightly since.

History

Koga was settled in the

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

and already known as a ferry port on the Watarase River in the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

and is mentioned in the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

''. During the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

it was the site of an iron smelter and kilns for production of ceramics and roof tiles and was one of the largest centers for iron production in eastern Japan . During the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

it was the location of the Koga kubō, a secondary government created by the Ashikaga shogunate to rule eastern Japan. In the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, it developed into 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 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 ...

became the seat of the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of Koga Domain under 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 ...

and a station on the Nikkō Kaidō highway. The town of Koga was established on April 1, 1889, with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to city status on August 1, 1950. On September 12, 2005, Koga absorbed the towns of Sanwa and Sōwa (both from Sashima District) to create the new and expanded city of Koga. The new city hall is now located at the former town of Sōwa.

Government

Koga 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 24 members. Koga contributes three members to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Ibaraki 7th 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

Koga was known in the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

through the prewar

Shōwa era The was a historical period of History of Japan, Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death on January 7, 1989. It was preceded by the T ...

as a center for sericulture. At present, the economy is highly industrialized, with the number of factories as second within Ibaraki Prefecture, after Hitachi city. KDDI Corp.’s Yamata Transmitting Station, the only shortwave station still in business in Japan, is located in Yamata (now Koga, Ibaraki). The station started broadcasts on the 1st of January 1941. The announcement of Japan’s surrender by Emperor Hirohito, in 1945, was transmitted from this station to the Japanese military personnel located overseas.

Education

Koga has 23 public elementary schools and nine public middle schools operated by the city government, and five public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education. In addition, there is one private high school.

Transportation

bus

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

–

Tōhoku Main Line The Tōhoku Main Line () is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Saitama, Saitama, Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Uts ...

Highway

* * *

Sister cities

* Sanhe,

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

, China

Local attractions

*site of Koga Castle *site of Koga Kubo residence * Suzume-jinja * Hase Kannon temple *Koga History Museum * Sogo Koen Park, near the Watarase River, was formally a summer palace for a local daimyo. It has two restored 17th century farmhouses, like including the Nakayama house and Takami Senseki house/museum. *Navel Park in Sowa-machi has outdoor and barbecue facilities for families. *Koga west of the station is old and has many old buildings. Many of the streets are cobbled. *Tenkoku Art Museum.

Notable people

* Hideo Jinpu, politician *

Kawanabe Kyōsai was a Japanese painter and caricaturist. In the words of art historian Timothy Clark, "an individualist and an independent, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting". Biography Living through the Edo period to the Meiji pe ...

, artist * Reiko Okano, manga artist * Okuhara Seiko, artist * Koji Yamamuro, Olympic gymnast

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture Koga, Ibaraki