is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

located in Hōsu District (formerly Fugeshi District),

Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,140,573 (31 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,186 km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. , the town had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 7,782 in 3,653 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of 42 persons per km². The total area of the town was .

Geography

Anamizu occupies the southeastern coastline of

Noto Peninsula The Noto Peninsula (能登半島, ''Noto-hantō'') is a peninsula that projects north into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. The main industries of the peninsula are agricultur ...

, facing the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

on the east and south. Anamizu has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Anamizu is 13.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2,352 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.9 °C. Parts of the town are within the limits of the

Noto Hantō Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park covering a portion of Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture and Toyama Prefecture in Japan. It is rated a protected landscape (category V) according to the IUCN. in the northern half of Ishikawa Prefecture, extends ab ...

Neighbouring municipalities

*Ishikawa Prefecture ** Nanao ** Wajima **

Noto Noto ( scn, Notu; la, Netum) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and i ...

** Shika

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Anamizu has declined over the past 50 years.

History

The area around Anamizu was part of ancient

Noto Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the northern part of Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, including the Noto Peninsula (''Noto-hantō'') which is surrounded by the Sea of Japan. Noto bordered on Etchū and Kaga provinces to the so ...

. During the

Sengoku Period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

(1467–1568), the area was contested between the

Hatakeyama clan The was a Japanese samurai clan. Originally a branch of the Taira clan and descended from Taira no Takamochi, they fell victim to political intrigue in 1205, when Hatakeyama Shigeyasu, first, and his father Shigetada later were killed in battle ...

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries). Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its height, the clan had three main branch ...

and

Maeda clan was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan of Sugawara no Kiyotomo and Suga ...

, with the area becoming part of

Kaga Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.

under the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

. Following the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the area was organised into

Fugeshi District, Ishikawa was a district located in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the district had an estimated population of 32,915 and a density of 58.73 persons per square kilometer. The total area was 560.42 km2. On March 1, 2005, the old town of Not ...

. The village of Anamizu was established on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to town status on August 10, 1903. Anamizu annexed the neighbouring villages of Shimazaki and Tobo on April 1, 1908; the villages of Kabuto and Sumiyoshi on March 31, 1954; and the village of Morohashi on March 10, 1955. Anamizu and its surrounding area experienced the

2007 Noto earthquake The occurred on March 25, 2007, in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Overview At 9:41:58 a.m. on March 25, 2007, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the Hokuriku region of Japan, near the Noto Peninsula. The earthquake shook the city of Wajima, ...

on March 25, 2007.

Economy

The economy of Anamizu is based on agriculture and

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

Education

Anamizu has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Ishikawa Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

Noto Railway is a Japanese railway company on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. It runs the Nanao Line with eight stops between Nanao and Anamizu, a distance of . There are 34 trains plus sightseeing trains on the line. It previously operated the ...

Nanao Line The is a railway line in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and the Noto Railway. It runs between Tsubata Station in Tsubata and Anamizu Station in Anamizu. JR West operates the section between Tsu ...

* -

Highway

: :

Local attractions

* Anamizu's symbol is the , a distinctive wooden fishing structure of which there is one in the Noto Bay on both the southern and northern borders of Anamizu town.

Events

*The last weekend in January is the Anamizu Oyster Festival (カキまつり). At this festival, guests can purchase oysters or other foods from stalls and cook them on grills near the center of the venue. The venue changes every year but was held at the Anamizu Harbour Asunaro (穴水港湾あすなろ広場) in 2010. *The third weekend in August is the celebration of

Percival Lowell Percival Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, and furthered theories of a ninth planet within the Solar System. ...

's contribution to astronomy and his time spent in the Noto peninsula. The main shopping street is lit with hundreds of candles and visitors can enjoy live music and food stalls. *In the last week in October, the Anamizu Harvest Festival is celebrated. A few small stalls line the main shopping street in the town and visitors can enjoy some speciality foods. *The Anamizu Town Festival (文化祭) is held the first weekend in November with events held all around the town, especially at the Noto Culture Centre.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Towns in Ishikawa Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan