270px, Jison-in temple 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 Ito District,

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

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 3,996 in 1770 households 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 91 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Kudoyama is located near the prefectural border at the northeastern end of Wakayama Prefecture, on the south bank of the Kinokawa River, and consists of a valley formed along the Fudodani River that flows into it, and a valley formed by the Nyu River that flows into it from the east.

Neighbouring municipalities

Wakayama Prefecture * Hashimoto * Katsuragi * Kōya

Climate

Kudoyama 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 Kudoyama is 13.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1781 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Kudoyama population statistics
/ref> the population of Kudoyama has declined steadily over the last 70 years.

History

The area of the modern town of Kudoyama was within ancient

Kii Province , or , was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today Wakayama Prefecture, as well as the southern part of Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered Ise, Izumi, Kawachi, Shima, and Yamato Pro ...

and was long associated with

Mount Koya Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

. In 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 ...

, the temple of Jison-in, which had the grave of the mother of

Kūkai , born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...

. During the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, it was the location of exile for

Sanada Masayuki was a Japanese Sengoku period lord and ''daimyō''. He was the head of Sanada clan, a regional house of Shinano Province, which became a vassal of the Takeda clan of Kai Province. Along with his father and brothers, Masayuki served the Taked ...

and

Sanada Yukimura , also known as , was a Japanese samurai warrior of the Sengoku period. He was especially known as the leading general on the defending side of the Siege of Osaka. Yukimura was called "A Hero who may appear once in a hundred years", "Crimson D ...

. The village of Kudyama was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, and was raised to town status on September 1, 1910. The village of Kane was annexed by Kudoyama on March 31, 1955.

Government

Kudoyama 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 ...

town council of 10 members. Kudoyama collectively with the town of Kōya, contributes one member to the

Wakayama Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefe ...

. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Wakayama 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

The economy of Kudoyama is centered on

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

and seasonal tourism. The town has long been regarded as the gateway to the temples of Mount Koya. The production of ''

washi is traditional Japanese paper processed by hand using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (''Edgeworthia chrysantha''), or the paper mulberry (''kōzo'') bush. ''Washi'' is generally tougher than ordinary ...

'' paper is a local handicraft.

Education

Kudoyama 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

18px

Nankai Electric Railway is a private railway in Japan, founded in 1884. The name ''Nankai'' (which means "South Sea") comes from the company's routes along the Nankaidō, the old highway that ran south from the old capital, Kyoto, along the sea coast. Nankai predate ...

–

Nankai Kōya Line The is a railway line in Osaka Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, owned and operated by the Nankai Electric Railway, a private railway operator. It connects Osaka and Koyasan, the capital of the Japanese Buddhist sect Shingon, via the ...

* Kudoyama - Kōyashita - Shimo-Kosawa - Kami-Kosawa

Highway

Local attractions

* Jison-in temple *

Kōyasan chōishi-michi is a pilgrimage route on the Kii Peninsula in the Kansai region of Japan. It begins at the Jison-in temple in the town of Kudoyama on the south bank of the Kinokawa River and extends twenty-four kilometres to Mount Kōya, or Kongōbu-ji Temple, ...

Niukanshōfu Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Kudoyama, Ito District, Wakayama, Ito district, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. In 2004, it was designated as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name ''Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range''. ...

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 ...

Notable people from Kudoyama

* Takao Obana,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

of the

Yokohama BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current ...

* Masanori Sugiura, Olympic baseball player

References

External links

*
Kudoyama official website
Towns in Wakayama Prefecture Kudoyama, Wakayama {{Wakayama-geo-stub