270px, Hamahara Dam 270px, Enokawa River 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 Ōchi District,

Shimane Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a ge ...

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 4,355 in 1844 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 15 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Misato is located in central Shimane, in the Chugoku Mountains bordered by Hiroshima Prefecture to the south. The Enokawa River runs through the town.

Climate

Misato 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 Misato is 13.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1711 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Misato has been decreasing and is now only a third of what it was 50 years ago.

Neighboring municipalities

Hiroshima Prefecture * Miyoshi Shimane Prefecture * Iinan * Kawamoto * Ōda * Ōnan

History

The area of Misato was part of ancient

Iwami Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Iwami bordered Aki, Bingo, Izumo, Nagato, and Suō provinces. In the Heian period (794–1192) the capital was at moder ...

. 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 ''

tenryō 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 war ...

'' or direct territory of 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 ...

, administered together with the

Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine The was an underground silver mine in the city of Ōda, in Shimane Prefecture on the main island of Honshu, Japan. It was the largest silver mine in Japanese history. It was active for almost four hundred years, from its discovery in 1526 to it ...

. Kasubuchi, the center of Misato Town, is located at the point where the Enokawa River, which flows northward in the Chugoku Mountains, bends and flows westward, and has prospered as a key point for boat transport on the Enogawa River. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, villages were established within

Ōchi District, Shimane is a district located in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 27,648 and a density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbo ...

on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. The town of Misato was formed on October 1, 2004, from the merger of the village of Daiwa and the town of Ōchi.

Government

Misato 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 ...

town council of 12 members. Misato, collectively with the towns of Kawamoto and Ōnan, contributes one member to the Shimane Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the

Shimane 2nd district , the House of Representatives of Japan is elected from a combination of multi-member districts and single-member districts, a method called parallel voting. Currently, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member districts (called proportional re ...

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

Misato is a very rural area, with an economy based on agriculture and forestry.

Education

Misato has two public elementary school and two public junior high schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school

Transportation

Railway

Following the closure of the

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, ...

Sankō Line The is a former railway line and current bus line in western Japan operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The 108.1 km (67.2 mi) line connected in Shimane Prefecture to in Hiroshima Prefecture and featured 30 tunnels. ...

on April 1, 2018, Misato no longer has any passenger railway service. The nearest train station is Gōtsu Station on the

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

* '' - - - - - - - - - ''

Highways

* *

References

External links

*
Misato official website
Towns in Shimane Prefecture Misato, Shimane {{shimane-geo-stub