is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

located in

Akita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its geographic area is 1 ...

, Japan. , the town had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using ...

of 19,337 in 6632 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical ...

of 119 persons per km². The total area was .

Geography

Misato is located at the far southeastern of

, bordered by the

Ōu Mountains The are a mountain range in the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan. The range is the longest range in Japan and stretches south from the Natsudomari Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture to the Nasu volcanoes at the northern boundary of the Kantō r ...

and Iwate Prefecture to the east.

Neighboring municipalities

*Akita Prefecture ** Daisen ** Yokote * Iwate Prefecture ** Nishiwaga

Climate

Misato 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 freez ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Cfa'') with large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, but is heaviest from August to October. The average annual temperature in Misato is 14.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1743 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around -3.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Misato peaked at around the year 1960 and has been in steady decline since then.

History

The area of present-day Misato was part of ancient Dewa Province, dominated by the Satake clan during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, who ruled Kubota Domain under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

. The area was organized into six villages within Semboku District, Akita with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The village of Rokugō was raised to town status in 1891. The town of Misato was established on November 1, 2004, from the merger of the towns of Senhata and Rokugō, with the village of Sennan.

Economy

The economy of Misato is based on agriculture and forestry. Rice is the primary cash crop. Industries are centered around food processing, with

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and ind ...

brewing and fermented foods made from soybeans such as natto, miso, and soy sauce predominant.

Education

Misato has three public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town has one public high school operated by the Akita Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is 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 ar ...

Ōu Main Line The is a railway line in Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Fukushima Station through Akita Station to Aomori Station. Since the opening of the Yamagata Shinkansen on July 1, 1992, the Fukushima–Y ...

* -

Highway

Sister city relations

* – Ruisui, Hualien,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

(friendship city)

Local attractions

Hotta-no-saku The is an archaeological site containing the ruins of a large-scale Heian period ''josaku''-style fortified settlement located in what is now part of the municipalities of Daisen and Misato in the Tōhoku region of Japan Japan ( ja, � ...

, National Historic Site

Noted people from Misato

Kosugi Tengai was the pen-name of a novelist in Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa period Japan. His real name was Kosugi Tamezō. He is considered the founder of the naturalism movement in modern Japanese literature. Kosugi was born in what is now Misato, Akita P ...

, author

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Towns in Akita Prefecture