![Atami Museum of Modern Art](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Atami_Museum_of_Modern_Art.jpg)
is a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
located in
Shizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...
,
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 city 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 36,865 in 21,593 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 600 persons per km
2. The total area of the city is .
Geography
Atami is located in the far eastern corner of Shizuoka Prefecture at the northern end of
Izu Peninsula
The is a large mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The peninsul ...
. The city is on the steep slopes of a partially submerged
volcanic caldera on the edge of
Sagami Bay. The name "Atami" literally means "hot ocean," a reference to the town's famous ''
onsen
In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...
''
hot springs
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
. The city boundaries include the offshore island of
Hatsushima
is an island in Sagami Bay, Japan. Administratively, it is part of the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, from which it can be reached by ferry. The island is approximately 10 kilometers from the ferry landing in downtown Atami. The island is i ...
. Most of Atami is located within the
Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. Warmed by the
Kuroshio Current offshore, the area is known for its moderate maritime climate with hot, humid summers, and short winters.
Surrounding municipalities
*
Shizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...
**
Kannami
is a town located in Tagata District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 37,782 in 16,401 households and a population density of 580 persons per km². The total area of the town was .
Geography
Kannami is l ...
**
Izunokuni
270px, Izunokuni City Hall
is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 48,579 in 21,257 households and a population density of 506 persons per km2. The total area of the city is .
Geography
Izuno ...
**
Itō
*
Kanagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...
**
Yugawara
Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Atami has been in slow decline over the past 25 years.
Climate
The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Atami is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .
[
]
History
Atami has been known as a resort town
A resort town, often called a resort city or resort destination, is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding ...
centered on its hot springs
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
since the 8th century AD. In the Kamakura period
The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...
, Minamoto no Yoritomo and Hōjō Masako were notable visitors. During 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 ...
, all of Izu Province was '' tenryō'' territory under direct control of the 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 ...
. During the cadastral reform of the early Meiji period
The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.
The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
in 1889, Atami village was organized within Kamo District, Shizuoka. It was elevated to town status on June 11, 1894, and was transferred to the administrative control of Tagata District in 1896.
The epicenter of the Great Kantō earthquake
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements
* Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size
* Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent
People
* List of people known as "the Great"
*Artel Great (born ...
in 1923 was deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay, close to Atami, which suffered considerable damage, as did other municipalities throughout the surrounding Kantō region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...
. The tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...
wave height reached 11 meters (35 feet) at Atami, swamping the town and drowning three hundred people.
The modern city of Atami was founded on April 10, 1937, through the merger of Atami Town with neighboring Taga Village. After the proclamation of Atami as an "International Tourism and Culture City" by the Japanese government in 1950, the area experienced rapid growth in large resort hotel development. This growth increased after Atami station became a stop on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen
The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 1964, ...
high-speed train line in 1964. In concert with its famous onsen, Atami was known for its onsen geisha. Atami experienced a considerable decline in popularity as a vacation destination due to the Japanese economic crisis in the 1990s and the associated fall in large group company-sponsored vacations, but is currently experiencing a revival as a commuter town
A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
due to its proximity to Tokyo and Yokohama.
The Inagawa-kai
The is the third largest of Japan's yakuza groups, with approximately 3,100 members. It is based in the Kantō region, and was one of the first yakuza organizations to begin operating overseas.
History
The Inagawa-kai was founded in Atami, Shiz ...
, third largest of Japan's Yakuza groups, was founded in Atami in 1949 as the by Kakuji Inagawa
Kakuji Inagawa (稲川 角二 ''Inagawa Kakuji''), also known as Seijō Inagawa (稲川 聖城 ''Inagawa Seijō''; November 1914 – December 22, 2007) was a Japanese yakuza boss best known for founding the Inagawa-kai, Japan's third-largest yakuz ...
.["1993 Police White Paper Chapter 1 : The Actual Condition of the Boryokudan"](_blank)
1993, '' National Police Agency''
The Izu Study and Research Center is a study facility of the Japanese Communist Party
The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world.
The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...
, where they hold its annual congress.
2021 landslide
Following torrential rainfall a landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
was triggered which swept through part of the city on 3 July 2021, with 20 people missing and 2 feared dead.
Government
Atami has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
city legislature of 15 members.
Economy
The economy of Atami is heavily dependent on the tourist industry, mostly centered on its hot spring resorts. 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 ...
is a major secondary industry.
Education
Atami has eight public elementary schools and four public junior high schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education. The International University of Health and Welfare
is a private university in Ōtawara, Tochigi, Japan, established in 1995.
Campuses
Ohtawara Campus in Tochigi Prefecture
* School of Health Sciences
* School of Health and Welfare
* School of Pharmacy
Narita, Chiba, Narita Campus in Chiba Prefe ...
, based in Ōtawara, Tochigi, has a campus in Atami.
Transport
Railway
*
Central Japan Railway Company
is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical ...
- Tōkaidō Shinkansen
The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 1964, ...
** Atami Station
*
East Japan Railway Company
The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...
- Tōkaidō Main Line
The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...
** Atami Station
*
East Japan Railway Company
The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...
- Itō Line
** Atami Station – Kinomiya Station – Izu-Taga Station – Ajiro Station
270px, Ajiro Station platform
is a railway station on the Itō Line of the East Japan Railway Company, located in the southern part of the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is also a stop for the limited express ''Odoriko''.
Lines
A ...
Highway
*
* Atami Beach Line
* Izu Skyline
International relations
Twin towns – Sister cities
Atami is twinned with:
* Beppu, Ōita
is a city in Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. As of March 31, 2017, the city had a population of 122,643 , Japan (since August 1966)
* Sanremo, Italy (since November 1976)
* Cascais
Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Portugal, tourist de ...
, Portugal[ (since July 1990)
* ]Zhuhai
Zhuhai (, ; Yale: ''Jyūhói''), also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of Pearl ...
, China, (friendship city, since July 2004)
Notable people
* Yū Hayami, singer, actress
* Yuka Imai, voice actress
* Yuji Ohno, jazz musician
*Mitsuko Uchida
is a classical pianist and conductor, born in Japan and naturalised in Britain, particularly noted for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert.
She has appeared with many notable orchestras, recorded a wide repertory with several labels, w ...
, classical pianist
Local attractions
* MOA Museum of Art, housing the extensive art collection of eccentric multimillionaire and religious leader Mokichi Okada
Mokichi Okada (岡田茂吉 ''Okada Mokichi'', 23 December 1882
He founded the World Church of Messiah, that later became the Church of World Messianity, and also is the spiritual leader of Shumei and the Johrei Fellowship. He is known by his fo ...
* Izusan Jinja, an ancient Shinto shrine
A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion.
Overview
Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings.
The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...
* Peace Pagoda
A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa; a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most, though not all, peace pagodas built since World War II ...
, built by Nipponzan-Myōhōji in 1961.
In popular culture
*In the 1951 film ''Tokyo File 212
''Tokyo File 212'' (Japanese: ) is a 1951 spy film directed by and . George Breakston wrote the film's script and co-produced it with Dorrell McGowan jointly under the banner of their newly formed Breakston–McGowan Productions and Japanese ...
'', a key scene takes place at a resort in Atami.
*In the 1953 film ''Tokyo Story
is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. Upon release, it did not immediately gain international recogniti ...
'' the parents visit the hot springs in Atami.
* Much of the 1953 film ''A Japanese Tragedy
, also known as ''Tragedy of Japan'', is a 1953 Japanese drama film written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. The film tells the story of a mother who has to raise two children during and after World War II, but whose children reject her. Ki ...
'' is set in Atami.
*Atami is also the setting of the TV drama ''Atami no Sousakan''.
*Atami also appears in the 1954 film ''Golden Demon'' (Konjiki Yasha), based on the novel of the same name by Kōyō Ozaki
Kōyō, Koyo or Kouyou (written: 光洋, 光陽, 紅葉, 紅陽, 晃洋, 浩陽 or 昂洋) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese baseball player
*, Japanese photographer
*, Japanese astronomer
*, Ame ...
, as the place where two main characters become engaged to be married.
* In the 1962 film ''King Kong vs. Godzilla
is a 1962 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd, it is the third film in both the ''Godzilla'' and ''King Kong'' franchises, as well as the first T ...
'', the final battle ends with Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...
and King Kong descending Mount Fuji
, or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...
into the outskirts of Atami, where they destroy Atami Castle, then plunge into the ocean, with Kong emerging victorious.
* In the 1967 film '' Gappa, the Triphibian Monster'', the two adult Gappa creatures make landfall in Atami, destroying much of it in the process.
*In the Studio Ghibli anime drama '' Only Yesterday'', the main character Taeko goes to Atami at age 10, visiting some of the onsen
In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...
, but she passes out in the Roman bath from dizziness.
*In the 2016 anime Prince of Stride
is a Japanese multimedia series by ASCII Media Works. The project was unveiled in April 2012 in '' Dengeki Girl's Style''. It spawned into Light novel, otome game adaptation developed by Kadokawa Games and Vridge for the PlayStation Vita. A ...
, Atami is the first stop in the End of Summer Trial Tour.Prince of Stride: Alternative Episode 4 English Sub
*In the 89th episode of the anime " Urusei Yatsura", Mrs. Moroboshi wins a 2-day trip to Atami with her husband, leaving her son Ataru, the main character, at home alone with Lum.
*In the 2019 video game AI: The Somnium Files, protagonist Kaname Date is a detective solving a murder mystery. In one of the game's endings, he quits the case and goes with a woman to Atami. In the 2022 sequel, AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative, protagonist Kuruto Ryuki can have a similar ending with the same woman.
Notes
References
* Hammer, Joshua. (2006)
''Yokohama Burning: The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II''
New York: Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
. ; (cloth).
External links
*
Official Website
{{Authority control
*
Cities in Shizuoka Prefecture
Populated coastal places in Japan