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 Takaoka District,

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...

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 5,157 in 2673 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 46 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Ochi is located in midwestern Kōchi Prefecture on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

.The western part of the town lies the Yokokurayama Prefectural Natural Park. The center of the town is located at the confluence of three rivers, the Niyodo River, the Sakaori River, and the Yanase River, and is lined with houses and shops. The Ikazu Dam is located in Ochi.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture * Hidaka * Ino *

Niyodogawa 270px, Nakatsu Gorge 270px, Tea plantations in Niyodogawa is a town located in Agawa District, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 4‚861 in 2,788 households and a population density of 15 persons per km2. The ...

Sakawa Sakawa is a Ghanaian term for illegal practices which combine modern Internet-based fraud with African traditionalist rituals. The term or word Sakawa is an Hausa word which means ''putting inside, how to make money''. The rituals, which are most ...

* Tsuno

Climate

Ochi 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 snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ochi is 15.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2688 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in January, at around 25.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Ochi population statistics
/ref> the population of Ochi has been decreased steadily since the 1960s.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Ochi was part of ancient

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

. There is a local legend that

Emperor Antoku was the 81st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1180 through 1185. His death marked the end of the Heian period and the beginning of the Kamakura period. During this time, the Im ...

escaped the disaster at the Battle of Dannoura during the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira clan, Taira and Minamoto clan, Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yori ...

, and lived the rest of his life in obscurity in this area. 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 part of the holdings of

Tosa Domain The was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its ...

ruled by the

Yamauchi clan The Yamauchi clan (山内氏) were a family of rulers over what was then the Tosa Province which spanned the southern half of Shikoku island. The province was given to the family in 1600 after Yamauchi Kazutoyo led troops under Tokugawa Ieyasu ...

from their seat at

Kōchi Castle is an Edo Period Japanese castle in the city of Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. It is located at Otakayama hill, at the center of Kōchi city, which in turn is located at the center of the Kōchi Plain, the most prosperous area of former ...

. The village of Ochi was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. It was raised to town status on June 7, 1900.

Government

Ochi 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 ten members. Ochi, together with the municipalities of Sakawa and Hidaka, contributes one member to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Kōchi 2nd 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

The economy of Ochi is almost entirely agricultural.

Education

Ochi has one public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the village government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

The town does not have any passenger railroad service. The nearest train station is Sakawa Station on the

JR Shikoku The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four Prefectures of Japan, prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Jap ...

Dosan Line The is a railway line in Shikoku, Japan, operated by the Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku). It connects Tadotsu Station in Tadotsu, Kagawa, Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Kagawa, and Kubokawa Station in Shimanto, Kōchi (town), Shimanto, Kōchi ...

in the neighboring town of Sakawa.

Highways

* *

Noted people from Ochi

Futago Kamikita and , born August 11 1960 in Kōchi Prefecture, are two Japanese manga artists and character designers, twin sisters, who work together under the pseudonym of . They are best known internationally for creating the manga versions of the ''Pretty ...

, manga artist * Yūji Yamamoto, politician

References

External links

*
Ochi official website
Towns in Kōchi Prefecture {{Kochi-geo-stub