Kumiyama-cho (久御山町)
Remarks
Kumiyama-cho is a town located in Kuse-gun in the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture.
Geography
The town area is all flatland formed after the reclamation of Ogura-ike Pond.
River: The Yodo-gawa River runs in the northern part of the town, and the Kizu-gawa River (Kyoto Prefecture) runs in the southern part of the town. The Uji-gawa River mainly forms a border with Kyoto City, and the Kizu-gawa River forms a border with Joyo City and Yawata City.
Kumiyama-cho is located on the east-west central line in the Kyoto Basin, with a mild climate due to the town being far from the northern, eastern and western mountains forming the basin. The steamy heat in summer in Kyoto City is known nationwide, but, Kumiyama-cho is a little cooler because of a broad reclaimed field covering the northern part of the town which works to cool the area. Because mountains are far away, Kumiyama-cho may have no snow in winter even if a sprinkling of snow falls in neighboring areas.
An isolated enclave called 'Misato-yama Mountain Property District' exists in the area adjacent to Uji City and Ujitawara-cho.
The isolated enclave has no fixed domicile residents, and is used as a facility of Kyoto Prefecture, 'Sports Square for residents of a prefecture (commonly called Midorigaoka).'
Equestrian events were held here in the Kyoto National Sports Festival in 1988.
History
October 1, 1954: Kumiyama-cho was formed by a merger between Sayama-mura and Mimaki-mura.
The town was named after 'Kuse-gun,' 'Mimaki-mura' and 'Sayama-mura.'
Before the merger of Kumiyama-cho, Uji City was formed in 1951 through a merger of the following two towns (pronounced as "cho" in Japanese in this case) and three villages (pronounced as "mura" in Japanese): Uji-cho, Makishima-mura, Ogura-mura and Okubo-mura which composed Kuse-gun, and Higashi-Uji-cho, Uji-gun. Subsequently, Joyo City was organized as a municipality in 1972, and only one town remained in Kuse-gun.
Politics and government
Town mayor: Nobuo SAKAMOTO as of January 2007 (since August 2000)
Post office in charge
Kumiyama Post Office
Economy
Agriculture
An extensive rice-growing area called Ogura-ike Reclaimed Land lies in the northern half of the town area. Suburban agriculture is active in the western part of National Route 1. The Japanese radish named 'Yodo Daikon Japanese radish' has been designated as a regional brand.
Products can be shipped to other regions immediately because National Route 1 runs through the town. The road network greatly contributes to the development of agriculture in Kumiyama-cho, and new road networks which opened in the 2000s are brightening its prospects.
Because of an outlet store for vegetables of Kumiyama-cho established within the premises of a recently-opened large-scale retail store, the area's name recognition increased gradually, until it experienced growth through establishing repeat customers.
Industry
The Kumiyama Industrial Park located in the town, has many business offices mainly related to metal processing, plastic processing and food manufacturing. A business alliance called 'Yokouke' is standard fare in the town (and surrounding area), and interaction of people between that of the local industries can be seen. The existence of many plants by famous companies and the availability of new road networks have raised expectations for the industry.
Some of the larger plants receive students from other regions. This system allow families operating industries in another region to dispatch their children to the business offices in Kumiyama-cho for several years after graduating school, in order to allow them to master technologies, and bring success to their parents' business through on-site practice.
Since Kumiyama-cho has no industrial establishment that emits black smoke, its environmental burden is comparatively small. As the industry greatly contributes to the finance of Kumiyama-cho, and supports its balanced budget, Kumiyama-cho does not need to receive any local allocation tax.
Because its industrial power is much stronger than its commercial power, the Kumiyama-cho Industry Association operated as an economic organization of industrial establishments for a long time, but, was integrated with the commercial association in 2003. The result has led to the promotion of more dense exchanges among companies.
Commerce
Commerce used to be weak due to the existence of only noncorporate stores, small-scale food supermarket, gas stations and used car dealerships along National Route 1, and used to rely heavily on Uji City and Kyoto City. However, after the opening of large-scale commercial facilities such as JUSCO KUMIYAMA, LOC TOWN KUMIYAMA, people came from surrounding municipalities, and commerce was strengthened. However, at the same time, small-scale conventional stores collapsed. A local supermarket, Super Iwaki, is still surviving.
Fishery
This area used to be a rich fishing ground before Ogura-ike Pond was reclaimed. Although the entrance for boats was decided under the agreement, the area held such an abundant supply of different freshwater fish that it was said that any boat was allowed to catch as much fish as possible after leaving. Because of these benefits from this, people did not leave the area despite recurring floods. Its fishery history ended when the Ogura-ike Pond was reclaimed, and agriculture replaced fishing.
Industrial population
Sister and associated cities
Domestic
International
Warwick (Australia)
Area
Health
Average age
Education
Neighboring municipalities
Fushimi Ward in Kyoto City, Uji City, Joyo City, Yawata City, and Ujitawara-cho in Tsuzuki-gun
Transportation
Railroads
Keihan Electric Railway operated between Yawata City and Yodo runs through a small area of Kumiyama-cho, but no station is established.
Bus routes
Bus services are operated from Yodo Station and Chushojima Station on the Keihan Electric Railway, and from Okubo Station on the Kintetsu Kyoto Line (Kyoto Prefecture).
Bus services are mainly operated by Keihan Uji Bus Co., Ltd. and Keihan City Bus from Keihan Yodo Station to Keihan Uji Station (Keihan) via Kumiyama-cho town office and Kintetsu Okubo. Bus services are frequently operated from Keihan Chushojima Station. Westbound circulating bus services and eastbound circulating bus services operated by Keihan Bus Co., Ltd. connect among Yodo Station, JUSCO KUMIYAMA and Kumiyama-cho town office. Circulating bus services are also operated by the town. The area has good accessibility due to the comparatively large number of buses which run through each route.
Roads
Expressway
Expressway running through the town: Dainikeihan Road and Keiji By-pass
National route
National routes running through the town: National Routes 1, 24 and 478
Prefectural route
Prefectural routes running through the town: the Uji-Yodo Line of Kyoto Prefectural Route 15, the Yawata-Uji Line of Kyoto Prefectural Route 81, and the Yawata-Joyo Line of Kyoto Prefectural Route 281
Scenic sites, historic sites, tourist spots, festivals and events
Arami-jinja Shrine (Engi Shiki Jinmyo Cho; list of nationwide shrines as of 927)
The shrine pavilions were built during the Edo period. A shrine sign designed by Michitomi HIGASHIKUZE, one of seven nobilities during the late Tokugawa shogunate, is established at the entrance. There is also a monument engraved with a poem in the volume nine of Manyo-shu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), 'Gaggling of geese resonate on Okura-ike Pond, a hunter aims at geese flying to the paddy field in Fushimi,' which showed the landscape of this place.
Kozuya-bashi Bridge (commonly called Nagare Bashi; floating bridge)
A wooden bridge over the Kizu-gawa River (Kyoto Prefecture) connects with Yawata City on the opposite bank. This bridge is famous for having bridge girders which wash away when the river water increases. Samurai dramas are sometimes shot here.
Others
Two area codes are used in Kumiyama-cho. Although there are some exceptions, the area code for the Mimaki Elementary School District is 075-63x (under the control of NTT Yodo Building), and that for the Sayama and Tozumi Elementary School Districts is 0774-4x (under the control of NTT Shinden Bekkan Annex). Since the Kumiyama-cho town office is located at the connecting point of both districts, both the area codes of 075 and 0774 are applied to the town office.
This brought harmful results. Since the area code, 0774-4x, is also used in the southern part (Hirono-machi, Okubo-cho, Iseda-cho, etc.) of Uji City, when dialing 119 from the relevant area in Kumiyama-cho, the phone is connected to the Fire Department of Uji City, but not connected to the Fire Department of Kumiyama-cho which people in Kumiyama-cho want to call. To solve this problem, an ordinary telephone number, not 119, was provided to residents in the relevant area as a telephone number to call the Fire Department of Kumiyama-cho, and a sticker bearing the telephone number in big letters is distributed to each household.
This problem was solved in the middle of 1990s by installing the telephone lines of Uji City and Kumiyama-cho separately within the telephone exchange station. However, because of this solution, the area using 0774-4x in Kumiyama-cho was included in the category of 'areas of 0774-4x and within Uji City,' when all areas using 0774-4x came to be covered by the flat-rate communication service, FLET'S ISDN, started by NTT West. A similar problem occurred when the provision of FLET'S ADSL started.
Major companies based at Kumiyama-cho
Kyoto Tool Co., Ltd. - Manufacturing of tools
Kota - Manufacturing and sales of hair cosmetics for beauty salons, and medicated cosmetics
Kyosha Co., Ltd.