260px, Ichinomiya town hall is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, 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 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the town had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 12,494 in 5643 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...

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 and 60 to 70 kilometers from central Tokyo. Facing the

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

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, 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 ...

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 * Chōsei *

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 o ...

Mutsuzawa is a town located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 6,928 in 2796 households and a population density of 190 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Located in the mountainous area that d ...

Climate

Ichinomiya has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(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, the ''

Ichinomiya is a Japanese language, Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a Provinces of Japan, province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth.''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retr ...

,'' 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 the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, 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 fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

at Ichinomiya. The area was devastated by the

1703 Genroku earthquake The occurred at 02:00 local time on December 31 (17:00 December 30 UTC). The epicenter was near Edo, the forerunner of present-day Tokyo, in the southern part of the Kantō region, Japan. An estimated 2,300 people were killed by the destruction ...

, during which a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) 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 underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

extended 1.5 kilometers inland from the coast. During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, a 13,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'' feudal domain called Ichinomiya Domain ruled the area. After the start of the

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

, 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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

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 located in the eastern portion of Chiba Pre ...

of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

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

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. It can also specifically refer to ''Cucumis melo'', commonly known as the "true melon" or simply "melon". The term "melon" can apply to both the p ...

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 fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

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 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 in ...

– Sotobo Line * -

Highway

*Kujukuri Toll Road * to Togane or Tateyama

Local attractions

* Kujūkuri Beach * 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