Iwamatsu is the center in the historic port town of Tsushima (Tsushima-cho) in

Ehime Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,342,011 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...

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 ...

. Iwamatsu is located near the Iwamatsu River

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

that debouches into

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka ...

. In 2005, Tsushima along with

Yoshida Yoshida (written: 吉田 lit. "lucky ricefield") is the 11th most common Japanese surname. A less common variant is 芳田 (lit. "fragrant ricefield"). Notable people with the surname include: *Ai Yoshida, Japanese sailor *, Japanese idol, singer ...

and Mima were absorbed into the city of

Uwajima 270px, Uwajma City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Uwajma city center 270px, Japan National Route 320 in Uwajma city center is a city located in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 70,440 in 35429 households and a pop ...

History

Iwamatsu started from a small settlement in the 17th century and quickly grew. With a port access, the

Sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

brewing industry became the main economic engine that propelled it in to a flourishing port town. As the shipping industry changed in the 20th century, the historical port hubs like Iwamatsu became obsolete. The population in Iwamatsu has been in constant decline and the area is heading toward becoming largely abandoned.

Tourism

Iwamatsu Machinami is a historic street that is promoted by Uwajima City as a tourist attraction with a reference to

Shishi Bunroku Bunroku Shishi (a pen name for ''Toyoo Iwata''; b. July 1, 1893, Yokohama; d. Dec. 13, 1969) was a Japanese writer and director of the Bungakuza Theater in Tokyo. In 1922 he traveled to France to study modern French theater, and worked in the ate ...

's novel "Ten'ya Wan'ya". There are approximately 20 historic houses from the

Meiji era 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 b ...

(1868–1911) and additional 30 other historic buildings. Iwamatsu was listed as one of 25 sites of the

2020 World Monuments Watch The World Monuments Watch is a flagship advocacy program of the New York-based private non-profit organization World Monuments Fund (WMF) that calls international attention to cultural heritage around the world that is threatened by neglect, vandali ...

published by

World Monuments Fund World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and trainin ...

(WMF) for preservation efforts.

References

{{Ehime-geo-stub Uwajima, Ehime