was 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
Iwate Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture (behind Hokkaido) at , with a population of 1,165,886 (as of July 1, 2023). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Pre ...
,
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 ...
. It is currently part of the city of
Ōshū. Mizusawa is home to one of the six
International Latitude Observatories. The observatories were close to the parallel of 39 degrees 8 minutes north latitude. They worked together to study the Earth's "wobble" using stars selected by
Dr. Kimura, the astronomer in charge of the Mizusawa station. Twelve groups of stars that had six pairs of stars each were chosen. Two groups of stars were observed at each station following a schedule of dates, time, and duration prepared by Kimura.
National Park Service: Astronomy and Astrophysics (Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory)
/ref>
As of February 2006, 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 60,239 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 621.53 persons per km2. The total area was 96.92 km2.
History
* On April 1, 1889, the town of Mizusawa was created due to the establishment of the modern municipalities system (''shichōson-sei'').
* On April 1, 1954, Mizusawa became a city when the town absorbed the neighboring villages of Anetai, Shinjo, Sakuragawa, Kuroishi and Haneda.
* On February 20, 2006, Mizusawa, along with the city of Esashi, the towns of Isawa and Maesawa, and the village of Koromogawa (all from Isawa District), was merged to create the city of Ōshū, and no longer exists as an independent municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
.
Notable people born here
* Shohei Ohtani - Former Nippon Professional Baseball
is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball".
The roots of the league ...
(NPB) and current Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
(MLB) player
References
External links
Ōshū official website
Dissolved municipalities of Iwate Prefecture
Ōshū, Iwate
{{Iwate-geo-stub