Hirogawa, Wakayama-Cedar Herald Index

is a town in Arida District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 6,778 in 2833 households and a population density of 100 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Hirogawa is located on the coast in north-central Wakayama Prefecture, facing the Kii Channel. The Hirogawa River flows through the town. The climate is moderated by the influence of the Kuroshio Current offshore.

Hirogawa, Wakayama

Neighboring municipalities

Wakayama Prefecture

Yuasa

Aridagawa

Yura

Hidaka

Hidakagawa

Climate

Hirogawa has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Hirogawa is 15.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1878 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 5.8 °C. The area is subject to typhoons in summer.

Hirogawa, Wakayama

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Hirogawa has remained fairly steady over the past century.

Hirogawa, Wakayama

History

The area of the modern town of Hirogawa was within ancient Kii Province, and remains from the Jōmon period through the Kofun period indicate many centuries of settlement. During the Edo period, the hamlet of Hiro was a fishing port and farming settlement. The hamlet became famous during the 1854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake, when local headman Hamaguchi Goryō saved the lives of the villagers by setting fires to rice sheaves to guide villagers to a hilltop to save them from a tsunami. The story was popularized by Inamura no Hi: The Burning Rice Fields by Tsunezo Nakai (translated and published in English by Sara Cone Bryant) and Lafcadio Hearn's Gleanings in Buddha-Fields (1897). Hamaguchi devoted himself to helping fellow villagers find jobs and built confidence by constructing a huge seawall. He also established a private academy called "Taikyu-sha" (current Taikyu Junior/High School) to give the villagers the opportunity to learn. (According to the school record, they are not teaching the way to be successful or be famous but to be practical in many ways, such as farming and ironing.) In 1907, George Trumbull Ladd, assisting Marquis Ito Hirobumi, visited the school and later published his journal Rare Days in Japan (1910).

The village of Hiro was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to town status on October 1, 1950. On April 1,1 955, Hiro merged with the neighboring villages of Minamihiro and Tsugi, becoming the town of Hirogawa.