290px, Tenkawa Village Hall is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located in Yoshino District,

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

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 village 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 1,031 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 5.9 persons per km². The total area of the village is .

Geography

Located in central

, the area of Tenkawa is dominated by the Ōmine Mountain Range. It is home to the highest peak in the Kinki region, Mount Hakkyō (1,915 meters), and the Tennokawa River, the source of the Kumano River, flows through the area. Parts of the village are within the borders of the Yoshino-Kumano National Park and also part of the

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the Kii Peninsula in Japan. Selection criteria The locations and paths for this heritage site were based on their historical and modern im ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Surrounding municipalities

* Gojō * Kurotaki * Kawakami * Kamikitayama

Climate

Tenkawa 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 Tenkawa is 11.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2119 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around -0.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tenkawa is as shown below:

History

The area of Tenkawa was part of ancient

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

. Its location of the deep mountains and secluded valleys led to it becoming a pilgrimage center for mountain worship and a training ground for ascetics from the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

onwards. The village of Tenkawa was established on April 1, 1889, with the creation of the modern municipalities system.

Government

Tenkawa 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 ...

village council of eight members. Tenkawa, collectively with the other municipalities of Yoshino District, contributes two members to the Nara Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the village is part of the Nara 3rd 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 local economy is based on tourism. The majority of the village area is covered by cedar forests, and forestry and lumbering were popular, but the decline in the number of workers, has led to depopulation and an aging population.

Education

Tenkawa has one public combined elementary/junior high school operated by the village government. The village does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railways

Tenkawa has no passenger railway service. The nearest train station is Shimoichiguchi Station on the Kintetsu Yoshino Line in Yoshino.

Highways

Local attractions

Tenkawa is near the base of

Mount Ōmine , is a sacred mountain in Nara, Japan, famous for its three tests of courage. Officially known as , it is more popularly known as Mount Ōmine due to its prominence in the Ōmine mountain range. It is located in Yoshino-Kumano National Park in ...

, also known as Mount Sanjō, the headquarters of the

Shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn prim ...

religion.

Notable places

* Dorogawa Hot Springs * Mitarai Valley * Mount Ōmine Ryusenji Temple * Mount Ōmine Temple * Ten-no-kawa Hot Springs * Yoshino-Kumano National Park

References

External links

*
Tenkawa official website
Villages in Nara Prefecture {{Nara-geo-stub