260px, Lake Sanuma is 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

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

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 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 41,621 in 17,294 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 515 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 29.0%. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Shimotsuma is located in western Ibaraki Prefecture. The Kinugawa River flows through the city.

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture * Chikusei *

Jōsō is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,314 in 21,168 households and a population density of 480 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 38.8%. The total area of t ...

* Tsukuba * Yachiyo

Climate

Shimotsuma 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 cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Shimotsuma is . The average annual rainfall is with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Shimotsuma peaked around the year 2000 and has declined slightly since.

History

Shimotsuma developed as a

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

from the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

. It was the center of Shimotsuma Domain under 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 ...

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 town of Shimotsuma was established on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. It was elevated to city status on January 1, 1955. On January 1, 2006, the village of Chiyokawa (from Yūki District) was merged into Shimotsuma.

Government

Shimotsuma 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 ...

city council of 20 members. Shimotsuma contributes one member to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Ibaraki 1st 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 Shimotsuma is primarily agricultural.

Education

Shimotsuma has nine public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates a special education school for the handicapped. A Brazilian school Escola Pingo de Gente was formerly located in Shimotsuma.Escolas Brasileiras Homologadas no Japão

Archive
. Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. Retrieved on October 13, 2015. It has since been renamed to Instituto Educare and moved to Tsukuba.

Transportation

Railway

Kantō Railway Jōsō Line * - - - .

Highway

* *

Local attractions

* Lake Sanuma * Site of Shimotsuma Castle * Tsukuba Circuit

Noted people from Shimotsuma

* Yasuhiro Awano, Olympic judoka * Yusuke Oyama, Professional baseball infielder * Maki Tsukada, Olympic judoka

In popular culture

The city is the setting of Takemoto Novala's novel Shimotsuma Monogatari (also known as Kamikaze Girls), and the

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and film of that name. The movie was filmed on location in Shimotsuma.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture