Karuizawa (軽井沢町, Karuizawa-machi) is a resorttown located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 October 2016[update], the town had an estimated population of 20,323 in 9897 households,[1] and a population density of 130 persons per km2. The total area of the town is 156.03 km2 (60.24 sq mi). Karuizawa, one of the oldest and most famous summer resorts in Japan, has been visited by many people from around the world since the 19th century.[2]
Geography
Mt.Asama seen from Karuizawa
Karuizawa is located in eastern Nagano Prefecture, bordered by Gunma Prefecture to the north, east and south. The town is located on an elevated plain at the foot of Mount Asama, one of Japan's most active volcanoes. The mountain is classed as a Category A active volcano. A small eruption was detected in June 2015, a more significant eruption spewing hot rocks and a plume of ash occurred in February 2015. Mt. Asama's most destructive eruption in recent recorded history took place in 1783, when over 1,000 were killed. The volcano is actively monitored by scientists and climbing close to the summit is prohibited.[3]
Karuizawa has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classificationDfb) with warm summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Karuizawa is 8.6 °C (47.5 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,246.2 mm (49.06 in) with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 20.8 °C (69.4 °F), and lowest in January, at around −3.3 °C (26.1 °F).[4] Precipitation is much heavier in the summer than in the winter.
Climate data for Karuizawa (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1925–present)
From Hiroshige's series Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido (1834–1842), view 19 and station 18 at KaruisawaAlexander Croft ShawKaruizawa Union Church, before 1945Kyu-Karuizawa Ginza (Main Street), 1930sKaruizawa Foreigner's Cemetery
August 2, 1876: The hamlets of Kutsukake, Shiozawanitta, Karijuku, Narusawanitta, and Yui merged to form the village of Nagakura. The village of Hatsuji in Saku District absorbed the hamlet of Matorikaya.
January 14, 1879: Kitasaku District was created, and the town of Usuitoge, and the villages of Karuizawa, Nagakura, Oiwake were established with Kitasaku District.
April 1, 1889: With the establishment of the modern municipalities system, the town of Usuitoge, and the villages of Karuizawa, and the areas of the former villages of Kutsukake, Shiozawanitta, and Karijuku from the village of Nagakura merged to form the village of Higashinagakura in Kitasaku District, and the areas of the former villages of Narusawanitta and Yui in the village of Nagakura, and the villages of Hatsuji and Oiwake merged to form the village of Nishinagakura in Kitasaku District.
1910s: Begins to attract the attention of other expatriates and Japanese.[6] Specially Germans congregate here, language professors and academics hold annual conferences.
August 1, 1923: The village of Higashinagakura gains town status to become the town of Karuizawa. (The pre-town areas before gaining the town status is known as Kyu-Karuizawa.)
May 8, 1942: The village of Nishinagakura is merged into Karuizawa.
1942–45: Site of an internment camp for enemy foreigners and diplomats during World War 2
From 1943 relocation of an increasing number of Germans from Tokyo, which is suffering from US fire bombing. The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers deported most German nationals in late 1947.
1951: Selected as International Cultural and Tourism City
February 1, 1957: Karuizawa absorbed Serizawa area from the former village of Goga, which was absorbed by the town of Miyota.
April 1, 1959: The Kajikazawa area of the former village of Oiwake was split off and merged with the town of Miyota.
2019: The G20 Energy and Environment Ministers' Meeting
2023: G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in conjunction with the G7 Summit[7]
Demographics
Per Japanese census data,[8] the population of Karuizawa has been increasing over the past 60 years.
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±%
1940
8,746
—
1950
13,676
+56.4%
1960
13,299
−2.8%
1970
13,373
+0.6%
1980
14,195
+6.1%
1990
15,464
+8.9%
2000
16,181
+4.6%
2010
19,023
+17.6%
2020
19,188
+0.9%
Economy
Since one of the origins of the Seibu Group is in Karuizawa (see also Yasujiro Tsutsumi), Seibu is still developing big businesses in this town such as Prince Hotels.
Karuizawa has three public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the town government, and one public high school is operated by the Nagano Prefectural Board of Education. The UWC ISAK Japan international school is also located in the town.
Shaw Memorial ChurchKyu-Karuizawa GinzaKumoba PondMikasa StreetShiraito Falls
With its comparatively cool summer weather, its cold refreshing nights, its heavy air-clearing showers, its southern aspect, and its position close to some of the most picturesque mountain scenery of Japan, Karuizawa leaves little to be desired as a summer retreat.
... while quite recently even Japanese gentlemen of high degree have begun to build houses and introduce their families. As in so many other cases, the world followed the lead of the missionaries. Foreigners are now the raison d’étre of Karuizawa, and no echo of Feudalism haunts the hills.
Karuizawa was developed as a European-style resort town by a Scottish-Canadian missionary in 1888. In the following decades, the town attracted visitors from across the country seeking to escape the heat of summer and enjoy vacations, as well as a significant number of Westerners. Unlike many other hill stations, Karuizawa was actively open to the natives from the beginning, and many Japanese scholars, artists and others had already built "Western-style" villas in the town by the early 20th century. The Japanese and Western communities interacted well with each other through summer recreation activities and the like.[14] In the 21st century the town retains significant Western cultural influence,[15][16] and its alpine beauty and cool summer climate (similar to parts of Europe) continue to draw visitors.
More recently, Karuizawa has become a popular year-round resort for mainly Japanese, offering many outdoor sports, hot springs and recreational activities. Convenient road and rail access from central Tokyo has ensured Karuizawa's popularity as a location for second homes and resort hotels since the Meiji era.
Karuizawa is known for its historic shopping street known as "Ginza dōri" or "Kyū-dō" (Ginza Street, or the Old Road) and association with both Japanese royalty and visitors such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono.[17] As a side note, The Crown Prince Akihito met Michiko Shoda for the first time on a tennis court in Karuizawa in August 1957,[18] and John Lennon spent several summers in Karuizawa with his family in the late 1970s.[19]
Since 1997, Karuizawa has been accessible via the JR EastNagano Shinkansen. New high speed rail links has resulted in modest population growth and the development of large outlet style shopping malls.
Summers in Karuizawa were not just a break in the year but seemed a whole lifetime in themselves. I have far more memories of the minutiae of life there than I do of the much longer periods of time spent in Tokyo.
Karuizawa is an old summer resort in Japan very much like the Hamptons except it's in the mountains. There is a coffee house in a pine forest near Karuizawa. John & I fell in love with the place, and found ourselves going there almost every day with Sean.
They (Olivia's parents) had two properties up in Karuizawa in the mountains for the summer. People fled Tokyo in the summer because the heat is quite extreme.
^ ab"International Exchange". List of Affiliation Partners within Prefectures. Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^Cargill Gilston Knott, “On the Summer Climate of Karuizawa”, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. XIX, Ginza: Hakubunsha, 1891, p.574
^Ernest Foxwell, A Tale of Karuizawa, The Living Age, Vol. 236, Boston : Living Age Company, 1903, p.107
^Arthur Lloyd, Every-day Japan, London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Cassell and Company Limited, 1909, p.281
^Anne Shannon, Lana Okerlund, "Finding Japan: Early Canadian Encounters with Asia”, p.56, Heritage House, 2012.
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