Kunitachi

Sister cities

• Kitaakita

History

Kunitachi lies along the historical Kōshū Kaidō, a route that connected Edo with Kofu in the province of Kai (present-day Yamanashi Prefecture). The area was noted for its abundant spring water. The villages of Ishida, Aoyagi and Yabo were created within Tama District of Kanagawa Prefecture during the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The district was transferred from Kanagawa to Tokyo in 1893. In the 1920, much of the land was obtained by Kojiro Tsutsumi, the founder of Seibu, who began large-scale development of a planned community, which he intended to become a university town modeled after Göttingen in Germany. The Tokyo University of Commerce (Hitotsubashi University) was relocated from central Tokyo to this location, and a train station was opened on Chūō Main Line in 1926. The station was named "Kunitachi", taking one kanji from the names of the stations to either side, namely Kokubunji Station and Tachikawa Station. The three villages were merged to form Kunitachi town in 1951. Kunitachi was elevated to city status on January 1, 1967.

Geography

Kunitachi is located in the Musashino Terrace of central Tokyo Metropolis. Kunitachi is known for its broad main avenue, Daigaku Dori (University Avenue). This cherry-tree-lined boulevard stretches from Kunitachi Station on the Chūō Main Line toward the banks of the Tama River. Tokyo Metropolis *Fuchū *Hino *Kokubunji *Tachikawa Kunitachi has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kunitachi is 13.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1647 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.5 °C.