270px, Eiraku Dam in theOkuyama-Ameyama Nature Park 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 Sen'nan District,

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 ...

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 43,154 in 18377 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 2500 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Kumatori is located 30 kilometers from central

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, in the southern part of Osaka Prefecture, east of Izumisano City, where

Kansai International Airport Kansai International Airport (), commonly known as Kankū (; ), is the primary international airport in the Keihanshin, Greater Osaka Area of Japan and the closest international airport to the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is located on ...

is located. The town is roughly in the shape of a leaf, about 4.8 kilometers east-west and 7.8 kilometers north-south. The eastern part is the foothills of the Izumi Mountains, and the ground is gradually lower from the southeast toward the northwest. The Mide, Uyama, and Sumiyoshi rivers that originate in the Izumi Mountains flow through the central part of the town towards

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. I ...

Neighboring municipalities

* Izumisano * Kaizuka

Climate

Kumatori 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 to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kumatori is . The average annual rainfall is with June 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,Kumatori population statistics
/ref> the population of Kumatori has been increasing over the past century.

History

The area of the modern town of Kumatori was within ancient

Izumi Province :''The characters ''泉州'' are also used for the name of the Chinese city of Quanzhou''. was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of southern Osaka Prefecture. It bordered on Kii Province, Kii to the south, Yamato Province, Ya ...

. As a place name, "Kumatori" appears in the ancient ''

Nihon Kōki is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 840, it is the third volume in the Six National Histories. It covers the years 792–833. Background Following the earlier national history '' Shoku Nihongi'' (797), in 819 Em ...

'' as a place where

Emperor Kanmu , or Kammu, was the 50th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 桓武天皇 (50) retrieved 2013-8-22. according to the traditional order of succession. Kammu reigned from 781 to 806, and it was during his reign that the scop ...

went hunting in 804 AD. In the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, the area was part of a

landed estate In real estate, a landed property or landed estate is a property that generates income for the owner (typically a member of the gentry) without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate. In medieval Western Europe, there were two compe ...

called "Kumatori-no-shō". 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 largely under the control of

Kishiwada Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Izumi Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Osaka Prefecture. It was centered around Kishiwada Castle and was controlled by the ''fudai dai ...

. The village Kumatori was established within Hine District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On April 1, 1896, the area became part of

Sennan District, Osaka is a district located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Population As of 2009, the district has an estimated population of 70,631 and a density of 991 persons per km2. The total area is 71.27 km2. Economy At one time Peach Aviation had its h ...

. Kumatori was elevated to town status on November 3, 195.1

Government

Kumatori 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 14 members. Kumatori collectively with the cities of Kaizuka, Sennan, Hannan and the minor municipalities of Sen'nan District contributes two members to the

Osaka Prefectural Assembly The is the legislature of Osaka Prefecture. As in all prefectures, it is elected to four-year terms by single non-transferable vote in multi- and single-member districts and is responsible for enacting and amending prefectural by-laws, approving ...

. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Osaka 19th 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

Since then

Meiji period The was an era of 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 feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

, Kumatori has been noted for its production of textiles, notably cotton cloth. Agriculture and horticulture also play major roles in the local economy. In exchange for hosting

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

's Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science, the government agreed to make

Kumatori Station is a passenger railway station in located in the town of Kumatori, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Lines Kumatori Station is served by the Hanwa Line and is located 33.0 kilometres from the northern ...

on the

Hanwa Line The is a commuter rail line in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area, owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The 61.3 km (38.1 mi) line runs between Osaka and Wakayama, Japan and has a 1.7 km branchline ...

a stop for express trains, which has contributed to large-scale residential land development and a rapid increase in population since 1963.

Education

Universities and colleges

's Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science is located in Kumatori. * Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences * Osaka University of Tourism

Primary and secondary education

Kumatori has five public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the town government, and one public combined middle/high school operated by the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education.

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, ...

–

Highways

Local attractions

*Okuyama-Ameyama Nature Park

Sister cities

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Notable people from Kumatori

* Toru Murata, baseball player * Sei Muroya, football player * Yuhei Nakaushiro, baseball player

References

External links

*
Kumatori official website
{{Authority control Towns in Osaka Prefecture Kumatori, Osaka