270px, Ritto Horse Training Center 270px, Otsuki Taisha ''honden'' is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city 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 70,312 in 29068 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 1300 persons per km². The total area of the city is . It is well known to Japanese horse racing fans because it is home to one of the two

Japan Racing Association The Japan Racing Association ( ja, 日本中央競馬会 Nippon Chūō Keiba Kai, or JRA) is a public company established to operate Chūō Keiba (中央競馬 Central horse racing) and to manage racecourses, betting facilities, and horse-training ...

's training centers and the famous jockey brothers,

Yutaka Take (born March 15, 1969 in Kyoto, Kyoto) is a Japanese jockey. A legend in Japan, Yutaka Take made his riding debut in 1987 and currently holds seven all-time records in his native country. Take has won at least one Grade 1 races for 23 straigh ...

and Koshiro Take who were also born in Rittō.

Geography

Located in the southern part of Shiga prefecture, Rittō is located on Japan's main transportation arteries. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen, JR

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parall ...

, Meishin Expressway, Shin-Meishin Expressway, Japan National Route 1 and Japan National Route 8 all pass through the city. The opening of highway interchanges and new train station has led to increasing urbanization, as the city is within commuting distance of

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ...

and

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, and is relatively close to

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most p ...

to the east. About half of them city area is mountainous.

Neighboring municipalities

Shiga Prefecture *

Yasu Yasu may refer to the following: *The name for Jesus in some languages including Arabic and Swahili (the language spoken around East and Central African Countries) as spoken by Ahmadis and Christians (Yasū' or Yesu (يَسُوعَ)) and Malayalam ...

* Konan *

Kōka was a after '' Tenpō'' and before '' Kaei.'' This period spanned the years from December 1844 through February 1848. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * December 2, 1844 (): The new era name of ''Kōka'', meaning "Becoming Wi ...

* Ōtsu * Kusatsu *

Moriyama 270px, Lake Biwa from Moriyama is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 85,485 in 34366 households and a population density of 1533.63 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Mo ...

Climate

Rittō has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Rittō is 14.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1430 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.5 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Rittō increased rapidly since the 1960s.

History

Rittō is part of ancient Ōmi Province. 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 ...

, much of the area which became Rittō was under control of either Zeze Domain or was

tenryo The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

territory directly administered by 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 villages within Kurita District, Shiga with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On October 1, 1954 the villages of Konze, Hayama, Haruta and Daihō were merged to create the town of Rittō. The

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

characters for Rittō are "chestnut" (栗; ''kuri'') and "East" (東; ''higashi''), despite the fact that Rittō is located in western Japan and is not known for chestnut trees. The name was taken from its location in the eastern portion of former Kurita District (栗太郡; Kurita-gun). The

opened the Ritto Horse Training Center on November 11, 1969, and has been one of the two major training centers for race horses in Japan. Rittō was raised to city status on October 1, 2001.

Government

Rittō 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, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

city council of 18 members. Rittō contributes two members to the Shiga Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Shiga 3rd district of the lower house of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...

Economy

The economy of Rittō was formerly centered on agriculture; however due to its location near the major population centers of Kyoto and Osaka and on major transportation arteries, it is increasing industrialized, with the city government aggressively pursuing the development of

industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park ...

s. Sekisui Chemical and Nissin Foods are major employers.

Education

Rittō has nine public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government. There are two public high schools operated by the Shiga Prefectural Department of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

JR West – Biwako Line * JR logo (west)

JR West – Kusatsu Line *

Highway

Meishin Expressway * *

Sister city relations

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, United States (1976) * Hengyang,

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

, China

Local attractions

*Otsuki Taisha, Shinto shrine *

Wachūsan Honpo is an early Edo period pharmacy located on the former Tōkaidō highway in the city of Rittō, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The building was designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan (ICP) in 1954 and a National Historic Site of Japan in ...

, Edo Period pharmacy, National Historic Site * Komasaka Stone Buddhas, National Historic Site

Notable people

Yuichi Fukunaga is a Japanese jockey who has won 29 Grade 1 races in Japan and abroad. He is affiliated with the Japan Racing Association (JRA) in Rittō. His father is former jockey Yoichi Fukunaga who was said to be a "genius" during his active career, and hi ...

, jockey * Yutaka Kobayashi (actor), actor * Masanori Morita, mangaka * Koshiro Take, jockey *

, jockey

References

External links

*
Rittō City official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritto, Shiga Cities in Shiga Prefecture Rittō, Shiga