was 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 Sakai District,

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 ...

. In the 1870s, the Meiji government constructed a harbor at Mikuni, under supervision of the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

engineer

George Arnold Escher George Arnold Escher (10 May 1843 – 14 June 1939) was a Dutch civil engineer and a foreign advisor to the Japanese government during the Meiji period.Louman, Johannes. (2007). He was the father of the graphic artist M. C. Escher and the geolog ...

. As of 2003, 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 23,207 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 499.94 persons per km². The total area was 46.42 km². On March 20, 2006, Mikuni, along with the towns of

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...

(former), Harue and Maruoka (all from Sakai District), was merged to create the city of

. Every August there is a fireworks display at Sunset Beach in Mikuni. Many of the fireworks are floating charges distributed by boat. These explode on the water's surface, creating unique effects.

External links

Sakai official website
Dissolved municipalities of Fukui Prefecture Sakai, Fukui {{Fukui-geo-stub