is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

located in

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture t ...

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 ...

. In 2003 the district 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 64,552 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 48.64 persons per square kilometer. The total area is 1,327.16 km².

History

Economy

Kuma District is noted for its many

shōchū is a Japanese distilled beverage. It is typically distilled from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat, or brown sugar, though it is sometimes produced from other ingredients such as chestnut, sesame seeds, potatoes, or even carrots. Typ ...

distilleries.

Culture

A local tradition in Kuma District (as well as other neighboring areas in Kumamoto Prefecture) is the . At social settings such as a party one presents one's empty cup to a friend to hold, into which one then pours some beverage for the friend to drink. After the friend finishes the drink he returns the glass and fills it with more of the beverage.

Language

The local dialect is called Kuma-

ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett, Benson or Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben meaning "son of" is also found in Arabic as ''Ben'' (dialectal Arabic) or ''bin ...

. For example, the Japanese word for is pronounced "atsui" in standard Japanese, but "ats-ka" or "nuka" in Kuma-ben.

Towns and villages

* Asagiri * Nishiki * Taragi * Yunomae * Itsuki * Kuma * Mizukami * Sagara * Yamae

Merger

*On April 1, 2003 the town of Menda, and the villages of Fukada, Ōkaharu, Sue and Ue merged to form the new town of Asagiri.

References

{{Authority control Districts in Kumamoto Prefecture