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 Yosa District, Kyoto Prefecture,

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 1984 in 899 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 32 persons per km².The total area of the town is .

Geography

Ine is located in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture at the northeastern end of the Tango Peninsula. Located on the coast of 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 ...

, the town faces

Wakasa Bay is a bay located in the Chūbu region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Kyoto Prefecture, and Fukui Prefecture. Geography Wakasa Bay is the area south of the straight line from Cape Kyoga on the west of Tango Peninsula to Cape Echizen on the ...

from the northeast to the southeast.

Neighboring municipalities

Kyoto Prefecture * Miyazu *

Kyōtango is a city located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 52,683 in 22,886 households and a population density of 110 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kyōtango is located on the coast o ...

Climate

Ine 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 cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ine is 14.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1912 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 4.1 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Ine population statistics
/ref> Ine has suffered greatly from rural depopulation over the past 70 years.

History

The area of the modern town of Ine was within ancient

Tango Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba to the south, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name was . It was also referred to as or . In terms of the Gokishichi ...

, and ports along this coast had trade connections with mainland Asia in ancient times. The town has connections with the

Urashima Tarō is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who in a typical modern version is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There he is entertained ...

legend (Tsutsukawa district and Honjo-Hama district ) and with the

Xu Fu Xu Fu (Hsu Fu; ) was a Chinese alchemist and explorer. He was born in 255 BC in Qi, an ancient Chinese state, and disappeared at sea in 210 BC. He served as a court sorcerer in Qin Dynasty China. Later, he was sent by Qin Shi Huang to the eas ...

legend (Nii district) . In 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 ...

, it was part of the area was controlled by

Miyazu Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Tango Province in what is now the northern portion of modern-day Kyoto Prefecture. It was centered around the Miyazu Castle which was located in what ...

. The town of Ine was established within Yosa District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The village was bombed by the United States Navy in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. On November 3, 1954 Ine merged with the neighboring villages of Tsutsukawa, Asadsuma, and Honjo and was raised to town status. In October 2008, Ine was designated one of

The Most Beautiful Villages in Japan is a Japanese nonprofit organization of listing some of the most beautiful villages and towns in Japan. The association is active on enhancement and protection of Japanese rural heritage, cultural fairs & branding and promotion of regional, nat ...

Government

Ine 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 9 members. Ine, together with the city of Miyazu and town of Yosano, contributes one member to the

Kyoto Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Kyoto Prefecture. Overview Kyoto Prefecture is a stronghold of the Japanese Communist Party, which continued with the revolutionary government of Torazō Ninagawa over the seventh term over 28 years. The t ...

. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Kyoto 5th district 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

Ine has a mixed economy of commercial and tourism. The town is famous for wooden fishing houses called "Funaya", selected as a National Preservation District for traditional buildings.

Education

Ine has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town's one public high school closed in 2020.

Transportation

Railway

Ine has no railway service. The nearest passenger train stations are Miyazu Station or Amanohashidate Station on the

Kyoto Tango Railway The , or , is a railway system in Kyoto Prefecture and Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan operated by Willer Trains Inc. headquartered in Miyazu, Kyoto. Company The operating company Willer Trains Inc. is a subsidiary of Willer Alliance Inc. Willer Train ...

in neighboring Miyazu.

Highway

Local attractions

*Ine Funaya (designated National Preservation District for traditional buildings) * Urashima Park * Ura Shrine

In Popular Culture

*1982, Hearts and Flowers for Tora-san *1993, Eenyobo(ええにょぼ) (

Asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Take ...

) TV drama was set in a Funaya in Ine.

References

External links

* Towns in Kyoto Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan {{Kyoto-geo-stub