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

Fukui Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, Gi ...

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 2,628 in 943 households and the

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 14 persons per km². The total area of the town was .

Geography

Ikeda is located in the Imadate District, of central Fukui Prefecture, bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the south,

Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the north ...

to the south and surrounded by mountains on all sides. Mount Kanmuri is the highest elevation at 1256 meters. The

Asuwa River The is a river in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. It stretches from Mount Kanmuri in the town of Ikeda to the Hino and the Kuzuryū rivers. Row of Sakura About 600 cherry trees are planted along the levees in the center of the city of Fukui. Many ...

flows through the town. Ikeda consists mostly of narrow agricultural plains and small villages between steep, 1000–1500 m mountains in a main north-south valley and several branch valleys. The setting of the town, the old shrine in the town center, and a beautiful waterfall on the lower road to Ono are all local landmarks and are praised for their beauty, and occasionally attract tour buses from as far away as Osaka. Ikeda endures heavy snowfall in the winter, and access to neighboring towns, over mountain passes except to the north, can be difficult. The mountain roads leading east to Ono and south from Ikeda to Imajo and the especially dramatic road to Kinomoto in neighboring

are officially closed from November to May.

Neighbouring municipalities

*Fukui Prefecture **

Fukui is a Japanese name meaning "fortunate" or sometimes "one who is from the Fukui prefecture". It may refer to: Places * Fukui Domain, a part of the Japanese han system during the Edo period * Fukui Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in ...

** Echizen **

Ōno ONO, Ono or Ōno may refer to: Places Fiji * Ono Island (Fiji) Israel * Kiryat Ono * Ono, Benjamin, ancient site Italy * Ono San Pietro Ivory Coast * Ono, Ivory Coast, a village in Comoé District Japan * Ōno Castle, Fukuoka * ...

** Echizen (town) **

Sabae is a city located in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 69,338 in 24,167 households and the population density of 820 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Geography Sabae is located in central Fuku ...

Climate

Ikeda has a Humid climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ikeda is 13.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2362 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.2 °C. Parts of the town are located within the extremely heavy snowfall area of Japan.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Ikeda population statistics
/ref> the population of Ikeda has declined by more than half over the past 50 years.

History

Ikeda is part of ancient

Echizen Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Echizen bordered on Kaga, Wakasa, Hida, and Ōmi Provinces. It was part of Hokurikudō Circuit. Its abbreviated for ...

. 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 characte ...

, the area was mostly part of the holdings of

Sabae Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003). It was based at Sabae ''Jin'ya'' in Echizen Province in what ...

under 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 ...

. 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 ...

, and the establishment of the modern municipalities it was organised into part of Imadate District in Fukui Prefecture. Ikeda was formed on March 31, 1955 by the merger of the two former villages of Kami-Ikeda and Shimo-Ikeda.

Education

Ikeda has one public elementary schools and one middle school operated by the city government. The town has one public high school operated by the Fukui Prefectural Board of Education, which is scheduled to close in 2019.

Transportation

Railway

Ikeda has no public passenger railway service.

Highway

* *

Local attractions

* Ryūsō Falls, one of "

Japan’s Top 100 Waterfalls is a list of waterfalls in Japan compiled by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment in 1990. Background According to the Japanese government, there are 517 named waterfalls in Japan. Many of these waterfalls are located in remote mountain lo ...

", * Asuwagawa Dam

References

External links

* * Towns in Fukui Prefecture {{Fukui-geo-stub