260px, Ichinomiya town hall 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

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

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 12,494 in 5643 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 540 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Ichinomiya is located in the eastern part of Chiba prefecture, about 35 kilometers from the prefectural capital at

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

and 60 to 70 kilometers from central Tokyo. Facing the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coast of central

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

, the eastern part of the town includes a section of the popular

Kujūkuri Beach is a sandy beach that occupies much of the northeast coast of the Bōsō Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The beach is approximately long, making it the second longest beach in Japan. Kujūkuri Beach is a popular swimming and surfing dest ...

, whereas the western part is in the

Bōsō Hill Range The is a mountain range on the Bōsō Peninsula of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The highest point in the Bōsō Mountain Range is at Mount Atago, with an altitude of . The hill range runs from roughly in a line from Mobara or Ōamishirasato to Kisa ...

with long and deep valleys extend into the forest, and there are scattered ponds for agricultural water.The Ichinomiya River crosses the north from east to west and flows into the Pacific Ocean. The highest elevations in the town are at Mount Shiroyama , a former castle site, Mount Takafuji , and Mount Gundari .

Neighboring municipalities

Chiba Prefecture *

Isumi is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 37,206 in 17,004 households and a population density of 240 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Isumi is located on the east coast ...

Chōsei is a village located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 14,028 in 6096 households and a population density of 500 persons per km². The total area of the village is . It is the only remaining municipality cl ...

* Mutsuzawa

Climate

Ichinomiya has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ichinomiya is 15.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1717 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Ichinomiya population statistics
/ref> the population of Ichinomiya remained relatively steady over the past 70 years.

History

The area of present-day Ichinomiya has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The area takes its name from the

Tamasaki Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the Ichinomiya neighborhood of the town of Ichinomiya in Chōsei District, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is the ''ichinomiya'' of former Kazusa Province. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on September 13, and ...

, 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 ...

,'' or first shrine of

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

. 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

Satomi clan The was a Japanese samurai clan of the Sengoku period (1467–1573) and early Edo period (1603–1868). The clan ruled Awa Province as a ''Sengoku daimyō'' and was a major military power in the Kantō region during the wars of the Nanboku-c ...

, the virtually independent rulers of the Bōsō Peninsula, established a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

at Ichinomiya. The area was devastated by the 1703 Genroku earthquake, during which a

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 ...

extended 1.5 kilometers inland from the coast. 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 ...

, a 13,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

feudal domain A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

called

Ichinomiya Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kazusa Province (modern-day Chiba Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Ichinomiya ''jin'ya'' in what is now the town of Ichinomiya, Chiba. History Ich ...

ruled the area. After the start of the

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 ...

, the area rapidly developed as a summer health resort, with many noted politicians, military figures, artists and writers establishing summer residences. Ichinomiya Town was created within Chōsei District with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Ichinomiya merged with the neighboring village of Torami on November 3, 1953.

Government

Ichinomiya 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 ...

town council of 13 members. Together with the other municipalities in Chōsei District, Ichinomiya contributes one member to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of

Chiba 11th district Chiba 11th district (千葉県第11区, ''Chiba-ken dai-jūikku'' or simply 千葉11区, ''Chiba-jūikku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan. It is located in the eastern portion of Chi ...

of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

Economy

The primary industry of Ichinomiya is specialized agriculture, with concentration on

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". The ...

s and fruits. The tourist and resort industry is also a major component of the local economy. The town is also located within the Minami Kantō gas field, and extraction of

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

contributes to the local economy.

Education

Ichinomiya has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town has one public high school operated by the Chiba Prefecture Board of Education. The prefectural also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

JR East 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 ...

– Sotobo Line * -

Highway

*Kujukuri Toll Road * to Togane or

Tateyama Tateyama may refer to: People with the surname * Midori Tateyama, Japanese writer * Shohei Tateyama (born 1981), Japanese baseball player * Yoshinori Tateyama (born 1975), Japanese baseball player * Homarefuji Yoshiyuki (born 1985), Japanese su ...

Local attractions

* Tamasaki Jinja

References

External links

Official Website

ichinomiya Tourism Association Visit Ichinomiya
{{Authority control Towns in Chiba Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Populated places established in 1953 1953 establishments in Japan Ichinomiya, Chiba