270px, Shikoku karst landscape 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 5,127 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 26 persons per km².The total area of the town is .

Geography

Tsuno is located in the mid-western part of Kochi 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 town is surrounded by the Shikoku Mountains and the landscape is steep, with about 90% occupied by forests, and the area ratio of agricultural land and residential land is low. In the Hayama area, the Shinjo River runs east and west in the central area, and in the Higashitsuno area are the headlands of the Shimanto River.

Neighbouring municipalities

Ehime Prefecture * Kumakōgen Kōchi Prefecture *

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 ...

* Ochi * Sakawa * Shimanto Town * Susaki * Tosa * Yusuhara

Climate

Tsuno 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 Tsuno is 12.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2375 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in January, at around 23.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.9 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Tsuno population statistics
/ref> the population of Tsuno peaked around the year 1950 and has declined by roughly two-thirds in the decades since.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Tsuno 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 ...

. 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 from their seat at Kōchi Castle. The villages of Kamihayama (上半山村), Shimohayama (下半山村) and Higashitsuno (東津野村) ere established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. Kamihayama and Shimohayama merged to form the village of Hayama on September 30, 1956. Hayama and Higahshi-Tsuno merged to form the town of Tsuno on February 1, 2005.

Government

Tsuno 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 ten members. Tsuno, together with the municipalities of Nakatosa, Yusuhara, and Shimanto, contributes two members 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

Tsuno's economy is based on agriculture (notable rice and green tea) and forestry.

Education

Tsuno has three public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

Tsuno has no passenger railway service. The nearest train stations as Susaki Station and Tosa-Shinjō 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.

Highways

* *

References

External links

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