270px, Monument to Matsura clan 270px, Ryuo Falls 270px, Matsuura coast is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Nagasaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan, mainly located on the island of Kyūshū, although it also includes a number of islands off Kyūshū's northwest coast - including Tsushima and Iki. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,246,4 ...

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 city 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 20,667 in 9936 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 160 people per km². The total area of the city is

Geography

Matsuura City is located in the northeastern part of the Kitamatsuura Peninsula in northwestern Nagasaki Prefecture, facing Imari Bay from the Genkai Sea to the north, and bordering Imari City in

Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of roughly 780,000 and has a geographic area of . Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasaki Prefect ...

to the east. The inland area to the south of the city is a hilly lava plateau with little flat land. Rivers such as the Sakase River, Tatsuo River, Sasa River, Chokawa River, and Imabuku River flow through the city, and at the mouth of the river is an area of

singing sand Singing sand, also called whistling sand, barking sand, booming sand or singing dune, is sand that produces sound. The sound emission may be caused by wind passing over dunes or by walking on the sand. Certain conditions have to come together ...

known as "Gigigahama". The administrative area includes the inhabited islands of Fukushima, Takashima, Kuroshima, Tobishima, and Aoshima, in Imari Bay. Of these islands Fukushima is connected to the neighboring Imari City by the Fukushima Ohashi Bridge and Takashima is connected to Karatsu City by the Takashima Hizen Ohashi Bridge. As such, the two islands have strong economic and geographical ties not only with the mainland of Matsuura City, but also with Saga Prefecture. Fukushima and Tsukinokawa are known for their cascading rice terraces.

Surrounding municipalities

Nagasaki Prefecture *

Hirado is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 28,172, and a population density of 120 people per km2. The total area of the city is Geography Hirado City occupies the northern part of Nagasaki P ...

* Sasebo Saga Prefecture * Imari * Karatsu

Climate

Matsuura 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 Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

:''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool winters. The average annual temperature in Matsuura is . The average annual rainfall is with August as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . Its record high is , reached on 6 August 2023, and its record low is , reached on 24 January 2016.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Matsuura in 2020 is 21,271 people. Matsuura has been conducting censuses since 1920. Matsuura's population peaked in 1960, when the population exceeded 60,000, and has since declined slowly; in 2020, the city's population is only 50% of what it was in the 1950s.

History

Mention of a "Matsuura County" appears in written records from the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, and this area was the home of the

Matsura clan The Matsura clan, also spelled Matsuura, was a medieval and early modern Japanese samurai family who ruled Hirado Domain in Hizen Province on the island of Kyushu. They started as a group of military families under the name Matsura-to. They were ...

, a local warrior clan. Takashima, within the borders of the modern town, is the location where the

Mongol invasions of Japan Major military efforts were taken by Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty in 1274 and 1281 to conquer the Japanese archipelago after the submission of the Korean kingdom of Goryeo to Vassal state, vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the invasion attemp ...

, floundered due to the winds of

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

s in 1274 and 1281, giving rise to the legend of the ''

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

''. In 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 ...

, the area was largely under the control of the

Hirado Domain 270px, Matsura Akira, final daimyo of Hirado Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was centered around Hirado Castle in what is now the city of Hirado, Nagasaki and was ruled by the ''tozama daimyō'' Matsura clan for all of it ...

. The villages of Sasa, Mikuriya, Hoshika, Chokawa, Imabuku, Fukushima, and Takashima were established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The discovery of coal in the early

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 ...

led to the rapid economic development of the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; however, the coal mines closed in the 1960s. On November 1, 1922 Sasa was raised to town status, followed by Imabuku on April 1, 1929. On January 1, 1941 Mikuriya and Hosika merged to form the town of Shin-Mikuriya. Chokawa was raised to town status on January 1, 1949, followed by Fukushima on January 21, 1951. On March 31, 1955 Sasa, Shin Mikuriya, and Chokawa merged to form the city of Matsuura. On April 15, 1955 Imafuku was annexed by Matsuura. On January 1, 1975 Takashima was raised to town status. On January 1, 2006, Matsuura absorbed the towns of Fukushima and Takashima (both from Kitamatsuura District) to become the current and expanded city of Matsuura.

Government

Matsuura 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 ...

city council of 17 members. Matsuura contributes one member to the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Nagasaki 3rd district 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 ...

. The city was previously part of Nagasaki 4th district, which was abolished in 2022.

Economy

In the

, the area was known for its

coal field Coal mining regions are significant resource extraction industries in many parts of the world. They provide a large amount of the fossil fuel energy in the world economy. The People's Republic of China is the largest producer of coal in the world ...

s; however, by the 1960s the last coal mines had been closed. Matsuura is located in a now primarily rural area, with several industrial companies located near the city center including a steel works, a commercial fish market, and a regional power plant. The amount of catch at Matsuura fish market is about 89,294 tons. (8th place in Japan)

Education

Matsuura has eight public elementary schools, six public junior high schools and one combined elementary/junior high school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Nagasaki Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railways

25px Matsuura Railway - Nishi-Kyūshū Line * - - - - - - -

Highways

Nishi-Kyūshū Expressway *

Sister cities

* Mackay,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, sister city since 1989 *

Khujirt Khujirt () is a sum (district) of Övörkhangai Province in central Mongolia. Established in 1931 under the name of Khaluun-Us under the jurisdiction of Arkhangai Province, it was transferred to its current province and renamed to Khujirt in 1 ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

, friendship city since 1991

References

External links

* *
Matsuura City official website
{{Authority control Cities in Nagasaki Prefecture Matsuura, Nagasaki Populated coastal places in Japan