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

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 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 22,052 in 8566 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 270 persons per km². The total area of the city was .

Geography

Hakui occupies the southwestern neck 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 ...

and is bordered by 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 west, and

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

to the east. Parts of the city are within the borders 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 ** Nakanoto ** Shika ** Hōdatsushimizu *Toyama Prefecture ** Himi

Climate

Hakui 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 Hakui is 13.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2452 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Hakui has declined over the past 40 years.

History

The area around Hakui has been settled since the pre-

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

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 ...

. The ''

ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise t ...

'' of Noto province, Keta Taisha is located in Hakui, and shrine legend asserts that this is the location at which

Ōkuninushi Ōkuninushi ( historical orthography: ''Ohokuninushi''), also known as Ō(a)namuchi (''Oho(a)namuchi'') or Ō(a)namochi (''Oho(a)namochi'') among other variants, is a ''kami'' in Japanese mythology. He is one of the central deities in the cycle ...

landed with 300 of his folders from

Izumo Izumo (出雲) may refer to: Locations * Izumo Province, an old province of Japan * Izumo, Shimane, a city located in Shimane Prefecture ** Izumo Airport * Izumo-taisha, one of Japan's most ancient and important Shinto shrines Ships * ''Izumo ...

to subdue the inhabitants of Noto Peninsula during the reign of the demi-legendary 8th

Emperor Kōgen , also known as was the eighth legendary emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Very little is known about this Emperor due to a lack of material available for further verification and study. Kōgen is known as a "le ...

or 10th

Emperor Sujin , also known as in the ''Kojiki'', and or in the '' Nihon Shoki'' was the tenth Emperor of Japan. While Sujin is the first emperor whose existence historians widely accept, he is still referred to as a "legendary emperor" due to a lack of info ...

. The name of "Hakui" is derived from the ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' 羽 (ha), meaning feathers, and 咋 (kui) meaning "to eat". This name comes from an ancient legend which tells of Prince Iwatsuku (the son of Emperor Kōgen) killing a monstrous bird which plagued the area. The Prince's dogs went to the beast's body and pulled away mouthfuls of feathers.Hakui
/ref> 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 ...

the area was contested by the

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 ...

. The area became part

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

Hakui District, Ishikawa is a district located in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 39,888 and a density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symb ...

. The town of Hakui was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to city status on July 1, 1958.

Government

Hakui 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 14 members.

Economy

Hakui is a regional commercial centre for the southern Noto area. Hakui is noted for its silk and artificial textile production. Agriculture is also a major contributor to the local economy.

Education

Hakui has six public elementary schools and two middle schools operated by the city government, and three public high school operated by the Ishikawa Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

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

: : : :

Sister city relations

* -

Tongzhou District, Nantong Tongzhou District (), formerly known as Tongzhou City (1993-2009) or Nantong County (1912-1993), is one of three urban districts of Nantong, Jiangsu province, China. It was a county-level city under the administration of Nantong until July 2009, w ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, China - friendship city since May 22, 2001

Local attractions

* Keta Taisha, ''ichinomiya'' of Noto province * Chirihama Nagisa Driveway *Space and UFO Museum Cosmo Isle Hakui (Hakui claims to be the

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

sighting capital of Japan. This is reflected in a number of places around the city, including a UFO shaped street light at the entrance to Hakui Station, and plaques depicting UFOs in the pavement outside the city hall)

References

External links

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