Kyowa 共和町

• Kyowa (共和): the name is Japanese. It was chosen at the 1955 merger of three villages from 444 names suggested by residents, and "Kyōwa" ("together in harmony") got the most votes.¹
• Hattari (発足): from Ainu kamuy-hattar, "the gods' deep pool". One tradition says a divine spirit lived in the pool. Another says salmon crowded into it and bears came to eat them.²²
• Horoni (幌似): read as poro-nay ("big river") or, more likely according to the Hokkaido Government list, poro-ican-i ("the big salmon spawning ground"). Matsuura Takeshirō's diary of 1857 describes "Horoichan" as a place where many salmon lay eggs.²³
• Horikappu (堀株): horka-p or horka-pet, "the river that turns back", after the winding lower course of the Horikappu River.²⁴
• Rinomai (梨野舞納): riyam-nay, possibly "the river where people spent the winter", because salmon could be caught from autumn through to spring. Scholars disagree about this reading.²⁵
• Maeda (前田): named after the Maeda family, lords of the Kaga (Kanazawa) domain. Former Kanazawa samurai started a farm here.¹

• Prehistory: finds at the Riyamunai site (リャムナイ遺跡) show that people lived on the terraces of the Horikappu River from the early Jōmon period.¹
• Ainu and Edo era: the Ainu of the area traded with the Japanese. In the 1850s the Yoichi trading post (ヨイチ運上家) opened the Rubeshibe rest house (ルベシベ通行屋) for travellers crossing Inaho Pass (稲穂峠).⁵ In 1857 the shogunate set up government farms (御手作場, otesakuba) at Horoni and Hattari to guard against Russian expansion. The town calls this the start of farming in Shiribeshi.¹²¹³
• Meiji settlement: in 1883 the Kigyōsha (起業社), a company of former Kanazawa-domain samurai, grew the area's first successful rice crop.³ Settlement took off from the late 1880s. In 1902 Mita Yoshimasa (三田義正), a former Nanbu-domain samurai from what is now Iwate, founded the Kozawa ranch that is now Mita Farm.¹
• Railway and mine: the railway reached Kozawa in 1904 through the new Inaho Tunnel.¹²¹ A sweet shop by the station sold "tunnel mochi" (トンネル餅) to celebrate the tunnel. The money from it helped the owner, Nishimura Kyūtarō, train his son Keiyū as a painter.¹ A copper smelter opened at the Kunitomi mine in 1908, and Sumitomo bought the mine in 1935. The Iwanai Line branched from Kozawa in 1912.¹²⁴
• 1955 merger: many people wanted to include Iwanai, but a great fire caused by the 1954 Tōya Maru typhoon changed plans. On 1 April 1955 only the three farming villages merged, as Kyowa Village.¹¹²
• Postwar: floods struck in 1961 and 1962, and the first Raiden watermelons were shipped in 1963. Kyowa became a town in 1971.¹² A nuclear plant was first planned in 1969 near the Kyowa–Tomari boundary as "Kyowa-Tomari". In 1978 it was moved to the Tomari coast.²⁶
• 1980s–2000s: Kyowa took up the scarecrow theme in 1983.³ The Iwanai Line closed in 1985. After that came the Horoni railway park (1988), the Kakashi Furusatokan (1994), the art museum (1999) and JA Kyowa (2000). In 2001 Japan's first nuclear off-site emergency center (原子力防災センター) opened in Kyowa. Typhoon No. 18 caused severe damage in 2004.¹²
• Recent: Kyowa High School closed in 2019.¹² The Niki–Yoichi section of the Kutchan–Yoichi Road opened on 23 March 2025, and the two Kyowa interchanges are still being built.²⁷ The town's first roadside station is due to open in fiscal 2027.²⁸

• Setting: Kyowa's farmland lies between the Sea of Japan and the Niseko–Yōtei area. The town grew up as a crossroads between the Sapporo–Otaru area and the Shakotan Peninsula.¹ The main river is the Horikappu (堀株川).⁵
• Mountains: in the south the town reaches into the Niseko volcanic group. Its highest peak is Chisenupuri (チセヌプリ, 1,134.2 m), followed by Waisuhorun (ワイスホルン, 1,045.8 m). To the north are Hachinai-dake (八内岳, 943.6 m) and Inaho-mine (稲穂嶺, 564.4 m).⁵
• Shinsen-numa: a marsh 765 m above sea level on the Chisenupuri lava plateau, in Niseko-Shakotan-Otaru Kaigan Quasi-National Park, which took in the town's southern mountains in 1963.¹⁹¹² The high moor was formed by volcanic activity at Chisenupuri that began about 150,000 years ago.²⁹
• Land use: forests cover 20,592 ha, 68% of the town.⁴ Rice paddies cover 29.27 km² and fields 26.06 km².³⁰
• Climate: the Kyowa weather station (15 m above sea level) was called "Iwanai" until 2008.³¹ Its 1991–2020 normals are a mean temperature of 8.5°C (−3.4°C in January, 21.4°C in August), 948.7 mm of precipitation and 643 cm of snowfall a year.³² The records are 35.0°C (10 August 2023), −17.8°C (25 January 1985) and 177 cm of lying snow (1991).³³

• Farming: the town's 2021 overview puts yearly farm output at ¥5.55 billion, with rice as the main crop.⁴ In 2020 there were 318 farm households, down from 934 in 1980, working 3,787.94 ha. Farms are growing larger: 44 of those households worked 20 ha or more.³⁴ In 2015, 915 of the town's 3,496 workers were in farming.³⁵
• The Raiden brand: melons and watermelons are grown in more than 1,000 greenhouses. Growing began in Hattari in the 1960s with trials under plastic tunnels. The Raiden growers' group grows more than any other single growers' group in Hokkaido. It won a Minister of Agriculture award in 1998. Leeks are planted among the watermelons to prevent the soil problems that come from growing the same crop every year. Melons have been exported to Hong Kong since the late 2010s.² In 1997 the melon sorting plant became the first in Japan to measure sweetness by laser.¹²
• Manufacturing: Sumiko Kunitomi Denshi (住鉱国富電子) grew out of the old Sumitomo copper mine at Kunitomi. It makes crystal material for surface-acoustic-wave filters used in phones and cars. The town says it has about 30% of the world market and about 270 employees.⁴
• Energy: the Tomari nuclear plant is just over the border in Tomari. In April 2025 the Nuclear Regulation Authority said it would approve the restart of Unit 3.²⁶ The Hokkaido Nuclear Environment Center, which monitors radiation, has been in Kyowa since 1986.¹²³⁶
• Tourism and population: the town counted 136,300 visits in fiscal 2020, of which 5,900 were overnight guests.³⁷³⁵ The highest figure in the town's five-yearly series is 272,512 in fiscal 1995.³⁷ People aged 65 and over made up 29.3% of residents in 2015, up from 5.3% in 1960.⁷ The local company Tomonoba (株式会社とものば) develops new products and will run the planned roadside station.³⁸²⁸

Furusato nozei: Kyowa takes donations through seven portals, including Furusato Choice and Rakuten.⁴⁸ Rice is the largest category. Ice cream, vegetables, melons and cheese are also offered.⁴⁹

• Scarecrow town: the festival grew out of a scarecrow parade at the town's 1983 industry festival (産業まつり). It took its present name in 1986.³
• Performing arts: Hōnen Daiko (豊稔太鼓) drumming was created in 1975. Its children's group is called "Suika" (粋花), a pun on the watermelon.³ Kyowa Ondo (共和音頭) is the town's folk dance song.⁵⁴
• Museums and temples: the Nishimura Keiyū museum holds about 3,000 works and has a copy of the painter's studio.⁵⁴ Meizenji (明善寺), opposite the Kakashi Furusatokan, is known as the "hydrangea temple of the north".⁴⁵¹

The Ainu past survives mostly in place names such as Hattari, Horoni, Horikappu and Rinomai. Matsuura Takeshirō's 1857 travel diary described the Horoni area as a salmon spawning ground.²²²³ No Ainu cultural facility or living tradition in Kyowa was found. The Jōmon-era Riyamunai site shows how long people have lived here.¹

None found.

• Nishimura Keiyū (西村計雄, 1909–2000): born in Kozawa Village, a painter who moved to France in 1951 at 42. The French state and the city of Paris bought his work.⁵⁶ He was made an honorary citizen of Kyowa in 1991.¹²
• Sakai Katsutarō (境勝太郎, 1920–2009): born in Kozawa Village, a jockey and later a trainer. His horses included the 1988 Japanese Derby winner Sakura Chiyono O and Sakura Laurel.⁷²
• Sasaki Kenshō (佐々木憲昭, born 1945): born in Kyowa, a Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2014.⁷³