260px, Kinokawa City Hall 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 def ...

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. , 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 usi ...

of 60,592 in 26652 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

of 270 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Kinokawa is located on the northern border of Wakayama Prefecture with Osaka Prefecture and the Izumi Mountains to the north and the Kii Mountains to the south. The Kinokawa River, after which the city is named, runs through the city from east to west.

Neighboring municipalities

Wakayama Prefecture * Wakayama (city) * Kainan * Iwade * Kimino * Katsuragi Osaka Prefecture * Sennan *

Izumisano Izumisano ( ja, 泉佐野市, Latn, ja, Izumisano-shi, ) is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 98,840 in 47658 households and a population density of 1700 persons per km². The total area of the ...

* Kaizuka * Kishiwada

Climate

Kinokawa has a

Humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kinokawa is 14.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1713 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 3.2 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kinokawa has remained relatively steady over the past 60 years.

History

The area of the modern city of Kinokawa was within ancient Kii Province. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the area became was organized into 36 villages within

Naga District, Wakayama was a district located in Wakayama, Japan. There was only one town left within the district before the dissolution: * Iwade History *On November 11, 2005 - the towns of Kishigawa, Kokawa, Momoyama, Naga Naga or NAGA may refer to: Mythol ...

with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Kokawa was raised to town status on November 10, 1894, and Kishigawa on March 31, 1955 and

Naga Naga or NAGA may refer to: Mythology * Nāga, a serpentine deity or race in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions * Naga Kingdom, in the epic ''Mahabharata'' * Phaya Naga, mythical creatures believed to live in the Laotian stretch of the Mekong Ri ...

on July 1, 1955. The towns of Momoyama, and Uchita were established in 1956, The modern city of Kinokawa was established on November 11, 2005, from the merger of the five towns of Kokawa, Kishigawa, Naga, Momoyama and Uchita.

Government

Kinokawa 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 22 members. Kinokawa contributes three members to the Wakayama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Wakayama 2nd district of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

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

Kinokawa has a mixed economy. Agriculture, particularly

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

remains a very strong component and is the major employer. Light and medium industries, particularly electronics and IT-related industries, have been attracted to the area due to its proximity to the Hanshin urban area.

Education

Kinokawa has 16 public elementary schools and seven public middle schools operated by the city government and two public high schools operated by the Wakayama Prefectural Department of Education. Kinki University's Biology-Oriented Science and Technology Institute is located in Kinokawa.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and i ...

–

Wakayama Line The is a railway line that links Nara Prefecture to Wakayama Prefecture in Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It connects Ōji Station on the Yamatoji Line to Wakayama Station on the Hanwa Line and Kisei Main Line, with ...

* - - - - Ryobi Group logo

Wakayama Electric Railway – Kishigawa Line * - - -

Highway

Keinawa Expressway * * *

Local attractions

* Kokawa-dera, No.3 of the

Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage The is a pilgrimage of thirty-three Buddhist temples throughout the Kansai region of Japan, similar to the Shikoku Pilgrimage. In addition to the official thirty-three temples, there are an additional three known as . The principal image in each ...

* Former Nate-juku Honjin, National Historic Site * Kii Kokubun-ji ruins, National Historic Site * Kishi Station and station mascot Tama a

calico cat A calico cat is a domestic cat of any breed with a tri-color coat. The calico cat is most commonly thought of as being typically 25% to 75% white with large orange and black patches (or sometimes cream and grey patches, which is called a mut ...

Notable people from Kinokawa

Naoya Masuda Naoya Masuda (益田直也, born October 25, 1989, in Kinokawa, Wakayama) is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Pref ...

, baseball pitcher *

Hanaoka Seishū was a Japanese surgeon of the Edo period with a knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine, as well as Western surgical techniques he had learned through ''Rangaku'' (literally "Dutch learning", and by extension "Western learning"). Hanaoka is said t ...

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

of 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 ...

Midori Shintani is a female Japanese judoka. Shintani won a gold medal at the women's open category of the 2005 World Judo Championships in Cairo. She won a silver medal at the +78 kg category of the 2001 World Judo Championships in Munich. She won a ...

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

wrestler *

Ryumon Yasuda was a Japanese painter and sculptor. Biography Yasuda was born as Juemon Yasuda in Ryumon Village, Naga District (now Kinokawa City) in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan in 1891. He was inspired to pursue arts after seeing Hishida Shunsō's "The Fa ...

, painter and sculptor

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Wakayama Prefecture