Gumma

(2002 est. pop. 2 million). Gumma Prefecture is situated in the central region of Japan's island of Honshu. Essentially a satellite of Tokyo, it occupies an area of 6,356 square kilometers. Gumma's main geographical features are a mostly mountainous terrain and a section of the Kanto Plain in the southeast. The Tonegawa, the nation's second longest river (322 kilometers), intersects the prefecture. Gumma is bordered by Saitama, Nagano, Niigata, Fukushima, and Tochigi Prefectures. Once known as Kozuke province, it assumed its present name and borders in 1876.

Gumma's capital is Maebashi, an important provincial town since the eighth century. In the Edo period (1600/1603–1868) it became a castle town and a market center for silk production. Recent decades have seen a greater reliance on lumber production and the development of factories for transportation machinery and electrical appliances. The prefecture's other important cities are Ota, Takasaki, and Shibukawa.

Today Gumma's extensive truck farms produce vegetables for the Tokyo market. The textile industry continues in Kiryu, Isesaki, and Tatebayashi, while the northward encroachment of the Keihin Industrial Zone has fostered chemical, electrical, and machine plants. Visitors are drawn to the Iwajuku archeological site; to the hot spring resorts of Minakami, Ikaho, and Kusatsu; and to skiing and hiking in Nikko and Joshin'etsu Kogen National Parks.

"Gumma Prefecture." (1993) In Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Tokyo: Kodansha.