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 ...

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 817,192 (1 January 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the ...

, Japan. , 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 29,483 in 12662 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 210 persons per km². The total area is .

Geography

Nirasaki is located in the northwestern end of the Kofu Basin in Yamanashi Prefecture, bordered to the east by the

Minami Alps National Park is a national park in the Akaishi Mountains, Chūbu region, Honshū, Japan. The Minami Alps National Park was established on June 1, 1964. It extends along the border of Shizuoka, Yamanashi and Nagano Prefectures for a length of , and a maxi ...

and the west by the

Minami Alps Koma Prefectural Natural Park is a Prefectural Natural Park in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Established in 1966, the park's central feature is the Southern Alps. The park spans the municipalities of Fujikawa, Hokuto, Minami-Alps, Minobu, and Nirasaki. See also * Nat ...

Surrounding municipalities

Yamanashi Prefecture * Hokuto * Minami-Alps * Kai

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Nirasaki is 13/0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1278 mm with September as the wettest month.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Nirasaki has remained relatively steady in recent decades.

History

The area around present-day Nirasaki was the ancestral homeland of the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

, which dominated Kai Province in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

. During 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 ...

, the area was ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia' ...

'' territory under the direct administration of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

, and the village of Niirasaki was a

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

on the

Kōshū Kaidō The was one of the five routes of the Edo period. It was built to connect Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with Kai Province in modern-day Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The route continues from there to connect with the Nakasendō's Shimosuwa-shuku in ...

highway. During the early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, the area was organized into 14 villages under

Kitakoma District, Yamanashi was a district located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. As of March 2006, the district had an estimated population of 6,127 with a density of 184.88 persons per km2. The total area was 33.14 km2. Municipalities Prior to its dissolution, th ...

. Nirasaki was elevated to town status on September 20, 1892. Modern Nirasaki City was founded by merger of Nirasaki with ten surrounding villages on October 10, 1954.

Government

Nirasaki 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 legislature of 18 members.

Economy

The economy of Nirasaki is primarily agricultural.

Education

Nirasaki has five public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the city government and two public high schools operated by the Yamanashi Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

Central Japan Railway Company is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical ...

Chūō Main Line The , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It connects Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faste ...

** - -

Highway

* Chūō Expressway * * *

Sister city relations

* –

Fairfield, California Fairfield is a city in and the county seat of Solano County, California, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay sub-region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is generally considered the midpoint between the cities of San Francisco ...

, USA City of Fairfield. Retrieved July 27, 2017. * –

Jiamusi Jiamusi (Manchu: ; formerly Kiamusze) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China. Located along the middle and lower reaches of the Songhua River, it faces Russia's Khabarovsk Krai across the Ussuri R ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...

, China

Local attractions

*Site of Shinpu Castle, Takeda Hachiman-gu, Ganjo-ji *Site of Hakusan Castle *Nirasaki Asahi onsen *Nirasaki Ōmura Art Museum

Notable people

* Ichizō Kobayashi, industrialist * Azuma Koshiishi, politician *

Satoshi Omura is a generally masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings *哲, "intelligent, philosophy, clear" *悟, "bodhi, enlightenment, apprehension" *敏, "quick, sharp" *智, "knowledge, wisdom" *聡, "intelligent, clever, bright" *慧, "bright ...

, scientist

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Yamanashi Prefecture