was a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

located in Nishikanbara District,

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

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 area is famous for

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

near Yahiko mountain. Farming remains the predominant industry in the area. It is served by National Route 116 and Niigata Route 55. On April 1, 2007, Iwamuro became part of Nishikan-ku ward (西蒲区, Nishikan-ku?) of

Niigata city may refer to: * Niigata Prefecture, Japan **Niigata (city), the capital of the prefecture * Albirex Niigata, the city's professional football club * Niigata Transys, a Japanese railway vehicle manufacturer * Niigata Stadium, an athletic stadium in ...

History

Iwamuro, which means 'stone' and 'room' in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

, lies at the foot of . It was originally surrounded by lagoons and marshes before major irrigation work was undertaken in the late 19th and early 20th century. Nevertheless, people have been coming to the area since the Edo period to bathe in naturally-created geothermal waters. Currently there are more than 20

s which range in price from cheap (500 yen) to expensive (+20,000 yen). Iwamuro's fame stems from its waters 'perceived' healing properties. An apocryphal tale tells of a farmer's wife who found a goose with a broken leg. She put it in a hot

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

-smelling pool near her home. The goose's leg got better. The farmer and his wife then became very rich by opening the first onsen in Iwamuro. Behind Yahiko mountain lies the fishing village of . During 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 ...

copper mining flourished in the foothills north west of Maze. At its peak, 60 tons of copper were being extracted each month. Output decreased in the 1920s but in 1943, mining was temporarily revived. Work ended at the end of the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. During the period of 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 ...

, Maze was one of the ferry points to the banishment island of Sado. A small watch tower was sited just of north of the village.

Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

were tasked with guarding the shore and questioning all who landed from boats. South of the harbour is Maze Beach, which is popular with surfers. North of the village is the Nihonkai Maze Circuit which holds regular weekend meetings throughout the summer months, attracting sports car drivers from across Japan.

Geography

The sulphurous waters in Iwamuro rise from depths of up to . They have an average surface temperature of 24.3 °C and are highly saturated in mineral salts. Iwamuro lies on a

fault zone In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

between Yahiko mountain and the bedrock beneath the Niigata Plain. In 2006, due to the number of onsens in the area, additional bore holes were drilled to a depth of .

Rice farming Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

is predominant throughout the area although there are several dairy and pig-rearing farms. As the village is on the Niigata plain, the rich

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

deposited by the Shinano and

Agano River The is a river in the Hokuriku region of Honshu, Japan. It is also called the Aga River or the Ōkawa River in Fukushima. The source of the river is Mount Arakai on the border of Fukushima and Tochigi. It flows to the north and meets the Nip ...

make it ideal for agriculture.

Demographics

As of 2005, the village 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 9,917 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...

of 274.63 persons per km². Its total area was 36.11 km². On March 21, 2005, Iwamuro, along with the cities of

Niitsu was a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The city itself was founded on January 1, 1951, but the area had already been opened to railway traffic as early as November 20, 1897. As of 2003, the city had an estimated population of 66,058 an ...

, Shirone and Toyosaka, the towns of Kameda, Kosudo and Yokogoshi (all from Nakakanbara District), the town of Nishikawa, and the villages of Ajikata, Katahigashi, Nakanokuchi and Tsukigata (all from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Niigata. Since Iwamuro became part of there have been several changes in the area. For instance local government services have moved to

Maki Maki may refer to: People *Mäki, a Finnish surname (includes a list of people with the name) *Maki (name), a Japanese given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) Places *Maki, Ravar, Kerman Province, Iran *Maki, Rigan, Ke ...

, Iwamuro's farming cooperative opened a new rice storage centre centralising grain collection for the entire area In April 2008 after closing six independent silos and the fishing cooperatives of Maze and Niigata city have both merged, although the fish market and boat repair yard both remain open. Iwamuro also has two independent

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 ...

makers both located in the heart of the old district at Iwamuro-onsen. Products are sold locally and are of a higher quality than commercially-made rice wine. There are two

elementary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

and one

Junior High School A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

within Iwamuro. Iwamuro, as an area, incorporates more than 20 hamlets, villages and townships: *Hiso *Sakai *Hashimoto *Iwamuro-onsen *Ishize *Kubota *Saragase *Kanaike *Minami-yachi *Kitano *Shitatori *Nishinagashima *Tokozone *Araya *Oburajima *Takabatake *Nishifunakoshi *Katakami *Nishinaka *Natsui *Wano *Maze *Kami-Wano

External links

Niigata official website

Niigata Nishikan-ku website

岩室甚句(新潟民謡)
Iwamuro Folk Song
Iwamuro Onsen Information page
{{Authority control Dissolved municipalities of Niigata Prefecture

History

Geography

Demographics

See also

External links