Tsuwano, Shimane

Infobox City Japan
Name= Tsuwano
JapaneseName= 津和野町
Map

Region= Chūgoku (San'in)
Prefecture= Shimane
District= Kanoashi
Area_km2= 307.09
PopDate= January 2008
Population= 9,014
Density_km2= 29.4
Coords=
LatitudeDegrees= 34
LatitudeMinutes= 28
LatitudeSeconds=
LongtitudeDegrees= 131
LongtitudeMinutes= 46
LongtitudeSeconds=
Tree= Camphor Laurel
Flower= Farfugium japonicum
Bird= Ural owl
Symbol
!border
SymbolDescription= Flag
Mayor= Iwao Nakashima
CityHallPostalCode= 699-5292
CityHallAddress= 54-25 Nichihara, Tsuwano-chō, Kanoashi-gun, Shimane-ken
CityHallPhone= 0856-74-0021
CityHallLink= [http://www.town.tsuwano.lg.jp/ Town of Tsuwano]

Nihongo|Tsuwano|津和野町|Tsuwano-chō is a town in Kanoashi District, Shimane prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 8,878 and a density of 28.9 persons per km². The total area is 307.09 km².

Tsuwano is remotely located and surrounded by hills. Though geographically closer to Yamaguchi, the capital of Yamaguchi Prefecture, it is situated in Shimane Prefecture. A train trip to Matsue, Shimane’s capital, takes as long as four hours. Many tourists who come to Tsuwano also visit Hagi on the Sea of Japan and Yamaguchi at the same time, since the three are close to one another.

The Catholic church in Tsuwano is dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier, who visit Japan as a missionary in 1549–50.

Famous people

Novelist Mori Ōgai was born in Tsuwano into a family of doctors, and the house of his birth is preserved. Mori studied medicine in Germany and led the adoption of German medical practices into the Japanese military. In commemoration, Tsuwano became a sister city of Berlin's central ward under an agreement signed August 25, 1995.

Philosopher Nishi Amane, another leading light of Japan’s modernization in the Meiji periods, was also born in Tsuwano. His ancestors were doctors for the daimyo of the fief.

Tsuwano has two new art galleries to celebrate artistic sons. One, the Anno Art Museum (opened in 2001), is dedicated to Mitsumasa Anno, who was also born and raised in Tsuwano. The other is the Shisei Kuwabara Photographics Museum, the name since April 1, 2004 of what was previously the Tsuwano Documentary Photograph Gallery; this features photographs by and is named after Shisei Kuwabara, famous for his work in Minamata and Korea.

"Yamaguchi-gō" steam locomotive

A popular tourist destination, Tsuwano is served by the steam locomotive "Yamaguchi-gō", which runs once daily on weekends, national holidays, and certain other days between March and November (daily in August) on the Yamaguchi Line from Shin-Yamaguchi Station to Tsuwano and back. [http://www.c571.jp/jouhoukyoku/timetable/timetable.html] It stops for about three hours in Tsuwano before returning to Shin-Yamaguchi station. The train is usually pulled by a C57 locomotive, but a C56 does the job on several weekdays between July and September, and both engines are linked in a double-header configuration on weekends in August. Carriages are decorated in the styles of three Japanese eras—Meiji, Taisho, and Showa—as well as in European style, and the rear-most carriage has an outdoor observation deck.

A scene in director Masahiro Shinoda’s "Spy Sorge", a 2003 movie about Soviet spy Richard Sorge, was shot on the train for period effect.