was 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 ...

in Watarai District,

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto 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 ...

. As of 2003, 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 9,008 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...

of 754.44 persons per km². The total area was 11.94 km². On November 1, 2005, Futami, along with the town of Obata, and the village of

Misono , publicly known mononymously as Misono (stylized as misono), is a Japanese singer-songwriter and TV personality. She was born in Kyoto, Japan, and is the younger sister of singer Koda Kumi. Career In 2000, Misono participated in the summer v ...

(all from Watarai District), was merged into the expanded city of

Ise Ise may refer to: Places *Ise, Mie, a city in Japan **Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie *Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria *Ise, Norway, a village in Norway *Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan *River Ise, a tributary of the R ...

and thus no longer exists as an independent

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. The

Meoto Iwa , or Married Couple Rocks, are a kind of rock formation seen as religiously significant in Shinto. They are a subtype of Iwakura rock According to Shinto, the rocks represent the union of the creator ''kami'', Izanagi and Izanami. The rocks, th ...

are two "wedded rocks", in the sea by the town. Futami is mentioned by

Matsuo Bashō born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest ma ...

in his haiku ''hamaguri no / futami ni wakare / yuku aki zo''. Literally, Hamaguri clams of Futami break apart in Autumn. Poetically,
As firmly cemented clam shells
Fall apart in Autumn
So too, I take to the road again

References

External links

Official website of Ise
{{Authority control Dissolved municipalities of Mie Prefecture Ise, Mie

See also

References

External links