Tome City was born on April 1, 2005 after the eight towns of the former Tome County (Ishikoshi-machi, Towa-cho, Toyosato-cho, Toyoma-machi, Nakada-cho, Hasama-cho, Minamikata-machi and Yoneyama-cho) and Tsuyama-cho from Motoyoshi County were merged into one.  It is located in the northeast edge of Miyagi Prefecture (about 70 km north from Sendai) and adjoins Ishinomaki City in the east, Kurihara City in the west and Ichinoseki City, Iwate in the north.  The population of Tome City is 91,905 (Feb.28, 2004) and has an area of 536.38 square kilometers.  The city office is located in 2-6-1 Nakae, Sanuma, Hasama-cho, Tome City.  This area is widely known as one of the best places for rice (such as "Sasanishiki" and "Hitomebore").  Also, Tsuyama-cho and Towa-cho are famous for forestry.  However, there scatters some factories of electric home appliances.
  
  [Brief History] In 1189 Kiyoshige Saburo Kasai was nominated to be the lord of this area and the southern Iwate along the Kitakami River by Yoritomo Minamoto after the fall of the Oshu-Fujiwara family.  During the Kamakura Period, the Muromachi Period and "Sengoku-jidai" (the Age of Civil Wars) over 400 years, the Kasai clan governed this area.  In 1590 the Kasai family was attainted by Hideyoshi Toyotomi who accused them of not advancing against the Odawara-Hojo clan at the head of his men.  After the battle between the former retainers of the Kasai clan and the Date clan, this area belonged to the Date clan during the Edo Period (1603-1867).  In 1869, Tome Prefecture and then Mizusawa Prefecture were born in turn.  Finally this area was put in Miyagi Prefecture in 1876.  As mentioned above, the new city named Tome City was founded on April 1, 2005.
  
   The former Toyoma-machi, the most attractive place of the area for tourists, was founded about four hundred years ago and once the seat of Mizusawa Prefecture (now the northern part of Miyagi and the southern part of Iwate, Dec. 1871-Nov. 1875): it has approximately 6,600 residents now.  Toyoma-machi still maintains many historical buildings like Kakunodate Town, Akita, including the Samurai Museum, the Police Museum, the old Prefectural Office and the old elementary school ("Kyu-Toyama Kotojinkyo Shogakko") built in 1888.  Toyoma-machi and other three towns of Tome City held some joint events such as a traditional kite festival, a race of boats of the participants' own making across the Kitakami River, fireworks festival and the Kappa [a Japanese imaginary water sprite] Marathon.

IMAGE	IMAGE NO.	DATA
Toyoma-machi		Toyoma-machi (登米町)
	tom2005-004	(Thursday 6 January) Old Office of Mizusawa Prefecture (built in 1872), 1 Tereike-Sakura-koji, Toyama-machi.  It was used between 1872-1875.
	tom2005-006	(Thursday 6 January) Old Office of Mizusawa Prefecture (built in 1872), 1 Sakura-koji, Teraike, Toyama-machi
	tom2005-008	(Thursday 6 January) A Samurai House, Sakura-koji, Teraike, Toyoma-machi
	tom2005-010	(Thursday 6 January) A Samurai House, Sakura-koji, Teraike, Toyoma-machi
	tom2005-012	(Thursday 6 January) Old Elementary School (Kyu-Toyama Kotojinkyo Shogakko, built in 1888), 6 Sakura-koji, Teraike, Toyoma-machi.  Now it is open to the public as a museum of primary education after the Meiji Era.
	tom2005-014	(Thursday 6 January) A monument of Basho Matsuo in front of the Old Elementary School, 6 Sakura-koji, Teraike, Toyoma-machi.  Matsuo stayed here for one night on the way to Hiraizumi from Ishinomaki.
	tom2005-015	(Thursday 6 January) A monument of Basho Matsuo in front of the Old Elementary School, 6 Sakurakoji, Teraike, Toyama-machi: See "Station 22 Ishinomaki" of Matsuo Basho's "Narrow Road to the Deep North":   We walked along the embankment of the Kitakami River, getting glimpses from afar of places celebrated in verse - the Sode Ford, the Pasture of Obachi, and the Reed Plain of Mano.  Trudging on a road along a lengthy expanse of marshy ground, we found that the countryside weighed heavily upon our feelings.  We came to a place called Toima [now "Toyoma-machi] and then spent the night.  At last, the next day, we arrived in Hiraizumi.  The distance we had covered was more than forty-five miles. (trans. from Earl Miner's Japanese Poetic Diaries, 1976)
Nakada-cho		Nakada-cho (中田町)
	tom2005-018	(Thursday 6 January) Statue of "Kamen Raidaa 1-go" (Masked Rider no.1), the hero of the famous juvenile manga/TV drama "Kamen Daidaa" (1971) in the opposite side of "Ishinomori Shotaro Furusato Kinen-kan," Nakada-cho
	tom2005-019	(Thursday 6 January) "Ishinomori Shotaro Furusato Kinen-kan" (Memorial Hall of Shotaro Ishinomori in His Native Place), Nakada-cho.  Born in here in Ishinomori-cho (now part of Nakada-cho), Ishinomori Shotaro (1938-1998) was one of the greatest manga [Japanese cartoon or comic strip] writers.  He got a great debut with "Nikyu Tenshi" (Second-class Angel) in the magazine Manga Shonen in 1954 when he was a high school student here.   After graduating from Sanuma High School, Miyagi, he went to Tokyo to become a manga writer: he soon moved to the legendary manga apartment building called "Tokiwa-so," 5-2235 Shiina-machi [now 5 Minami-Nagasaki, one stop away from Ikebukuro on Seibu-Ikebukuro Line], Toshima Ward, and lived together with various prominent manga artists including Osamu Tezuka, Fujio Fujiko [Hiroshi Fujimoto & Motoo Abiko], Fujio Akatsuka, Jiro Tsunoda and Hiroo Terada.   Until his sudden death in January 1998, he created numerous wonderful works including "Kamen Ridaa," ("Masked Rider"), "Jinzo-Ningen Kikaidaa" ("Android Kikaider"), "Himitsu Sentai Go-Ranger" ("Secret Service Five Rangers," TV series), "Cyborg 009," "Genma Taisen" ("Genma Wars"), "Genshi-Shonen Ryu" ("Ryu the Primitive Boy"), "Harmagedon" (original movie), "Sarutobi Ecchan," "Hotel," "Manga Nihon Keizai Nyuumon" ("Manga Version of the Introduction to the Japanese Ecomony," TV series) and "Manga Nihon no Rekishi" ("Manga Version of the History of Japan").
	tom2005-021	(Thursday 6 January) Statues of Cyborg 009 (right) and Cyborg 003 (left) of the famous manga/TV animation series "Cyborg 009" (1964; 1968;1979;2001), Ishinomori Shotaro Furusato Kinenkan, Nakada-cho
Towa-cho		Basically nothing to see here for the general tourist, but Towa-cho (東和町) is worth visiting if you know Juan Goto, the legendary Christian lord of Fukuwara, Mizusawa, Oshu City, who reclaimed wasteland by damming up the stream of Isawa River, etc. while he invited many Catholic priests from Western Japan where the Tokugawa Shogunate strictly began to control propagandize Christianity under the great lord Masamune Date's generous treatment.  After 1623, however, when Masamune had to send troops to Fukuwara, but Goto left Fukuwara with only several retainers before that.  It was said that Goto and his men wandered in the Nambu dominions.  In March 1951, a grave inscribed with the name of "Don Juan Gotoo 1565-1626" was discovered by an editorial staff of the History of Miyagi Prefecture in Nishikamizawa, Yonekawa, Towa-cho, Tome City, Miyagi, adjoining to Fujisawa-cho.  It is difficult to find the grave but it is along the route 346, about 7 or 8 km east of the crossing of route 295.   For further information, 1. go to: the Juan Goto and Crypto-Christians in Fukuwara page, 2. go to: the Mizusawa (Oshu City) page.
	tom2005-023	(Saturday 7 May) Juan Goto's Grave, Nishikamizawa, Yonekawa, Towa-cho
	tom2005-025	(Saturday 7 May) Juan Goto's Grave, Nishikamizawa, Yonekawa, Towa-cho
	tom2005-026	(Saturday 7 May) Inscribed with the name of "Don Juan Gotoo 1565-1626," on the back of Juan Goto's Grave, Nishikamizawa, Yonekawa, Towa-cho
	tom2005-028	(Saturday 7 May) Probably martyrs' grave, in the precincts of Juan Goto's Grave, Nishikamizawa, Yonekawa, Towa-cho.  Okago, Fujisawa-cho, famous for the history of the crypto-Christians in the early seventeenth century, is about 8 km north from here.
	tom2005-030	(Saturday 7 May) Information post of Juan Goto's Grave, Nishikamizawa, Yonekawa, Towa-cho
	tom2005-031	(Saturday 7 May) Information post of Juan Goto's Grave, Nishikamizawa, Yonekawa, Towa-cho

  For further information of the Juan Goto and Crypto-Christians,
   1. go to the Juan Goto and Crypto-Christians page.
   2. go to the Mizusawa page.
   3. go to the Ichinoseki page.
   4. go to the Azuchi page.

        

Copyright (c) 2005 Eishiro Ito.  All rights reserved.