mä`mōtō), city (1990 pop. 579,306), capital of Kumamoto prefecture, W Kyushu, Japan. It was an important castle town in the 17th cent.; one of its castles (built 1651) still stands. There are also several shrines in the city. Kumamoto prefecture (1990 pop. 1,840,383), 2,872 sq mi (7,438 sq km), is noted for the Aso-san volcanic peaks and for its many islands. With a predominantly agricultural economy, Kumamoto has such crops as rice, silk, and tobacco. Forestry and fishing are also important, along with such industries as textiles, processed foods, chemicals, and paper.Kumamoto
Kumamoto
a prefecture in Japan, on the western part of the island of Kyushu; includes the Amakusa Islands (about 120 islands). Area, 7,400 sq km; population, 1.7 million (1970), of which 53 percent is urban. Its capital is the city of Kumamoto. Most of the terrain is a volcanic plateau (the highest point is the volcano Aso, 1,592 m); there are plains in the western part of the prefecture.
Kumamoto Prefecture is an important agricultural region of the country. There is rice growing (the rice harvest was 309,000 tons in 1970; one-third of the yield is taken from reclaimed lands of the shallow coastal area of Ariake Bay), tobacco growing, horticulture (37 percent of the harvest of mandarins in Japan), and apiculture. Fishing and the cultivation of pearls are important occupations in the coastal districts of the prefecture. Live-stock breeding is significant mainly in the mountain regions. More than 1 million cu m of timber are cut in the prefecture each year. The principal industries are food, chemicals, and paper. There is mining of coal and kaolin on the island of Amakusa and asbestos in Uchida. A heavy industry zone has been created in the coastal region.
Kumamoto
a city in Japan, on the island of Kyushu, on the Shirakawa River. It is the capital of Kumamoto Prefecture. Population, 440,000 (1970 census). The port of Mishumi on the Uto Peninsula is the seaport for Kumamoto. The city is a transportation junction and the commercial-distribution center for an important rice-growing region of the country. Kumamoto’s industries include major enterprises of the textile, electrical machine building, and food industries and factories producing agricultural implements, rubber articles, fertilizers, and office machines. The city is the site of a higher school of medicine and an industrial institute. A Buddhist temple (of the Hommyoji sect) and a 16th-century feudal castle are located in Kumamoto.
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