was 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
Minamisaku District,
Nagano Prefecture
is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...
,
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 ...
. It is the
farthest point in the country away from the sea, although the nearby town of
Saku claims to hold this distinction as well.
As of 2003, the town has 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 15,731 and a
density
Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...
of 189.05 persons per km
2. The total area is 83.21 km
2.
History
*c. 1875 The village of Yuhara absorbed the village of Yuharashinden in
Saku District.
*August 2, 1876 The villages of Tanokuchi and Kaminakagomi merged into the village of Taguchi.
*c. 1879 Minamisaku District government enforced. The villages of Usuda, Shimootagiri, Katsuma, Kamiotagiri, Nakaotagiri, Nakaotagirishinden, Yuhara, Mibun, Shimogoe, Taguchi, Irisawa and Hirabayashi belongs to Minamisaku District.
*April 1, 1889 The city, town, and village status enforced.
**The village of Usuda absorbed the villages of Shimootagiri and Katsuma.
**The villages of Kamiotagiri, Nakaotagiri, Nakaotagirishinden and Yuhara merged to form the village of Kirihara.
**The village of Taguchi absorbed the villages of Mibun and Shimogoe, and the former village of Kiyokawa in the village of Tokiwa.
**The villages of Irisawa and Hirabayashi merged to form the village of Aonuma.
*June 30, 1951 The village of Usuda gained town status.
*August 1, 1955 The town of Usuda absorbed the village of Kirihara.
*September 30, 1956 The villages of Taguchi and Aonuma merged to form the village of Taguchiaonuma.
*April 1, 1957 The town of Usuda absorbed the village of Taguchiaonuma.
*April 1, 1959 Sohara, Haguroshita and Hirabayashi area from the former village of Taguchiaonuma broke off and went to the town of Saku.
* April 1, 2005, Usuda, along with the town of
Mochizuki, and the village of
Asashina (both from
Kitasaku District), was merged into the expanded city of
Saku.
Town of star shine
* The people of Usuda declare Usuda to be "town of
star
A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
shine" in 1995. There are some notable spots connected with stars, for example,
Usuda Deep Space Center,
Usuda Star Dome, Cosmo Tower, and Tatsuoka Castle Site (a
star fort
A bastion fort or ''trace italienne'' (a phrase derived from non-standard French, meaning 'Italian outline') is a fortification in a style developed during the early modern period in response to the ascendancy of gunpowder weapons such as c ...
).
File:Cosmo Tower.jpg, Cosmo Tower
File:Tatsuoka Castle 1975.jpg, Tatsuoka Castle Site
References
External links
*
*
Dissolved municipalities of Nagano Prefecture
Saku, Nagano
{{Nagano-geo-stub