is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

located in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

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 ...

. As of April 1, 2017, the city 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 44,132, with 17,473

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s, 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 . The total area is .

History

The area of modern Miura has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Archaeologists have uncovered numerous remains from the

Japanese paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC; although any date of human presence before 35,000 BC ...

, Jōmon and

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

s. From the late

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 Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

through the end of the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

, the area was ruled by the

Miura clan Miura may refer to: Places *Miura, Kanagawa *Miurakaigan Station *Miura District, Kanagawa *Miura Peninsula * Ganadería Miura, the home of the Miura fighting bull line People * Miura (surname) *Miura clan, Japanese descended clan of the Taira ...

, until they were annihilated by the rival

Hojo clan Hojo or Hōjō may refer to: Hojo or HoJo: *Howard Johnson's, a U.S. chain of restaurants and hotels *A nickname for Howard Johnson *A nickname for Howard Jones *A nickname for Howard Jones *MGR-1 Honest John, the first nuclear-capable missile ...

. The local inlet of Aburatsubo is said to be named for this event. During 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 ''

tenryō 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 ...

'' territory ruled directly by 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 ...

. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the town of Misaki within

Miura District, Kanagawa is a district located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2009, the district has an estimated population of 32,333 and a density of 1,900 persons per km2. The total area is 17.06 km2. It currently consists of only one town, Hayama. The ci ...

was created on April 1, 1889. The town was electrified in 1913, but did not have running water until 1934. The area was badly shaken during the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

, which had its epicenter in Sagami Bay just a few kilometers offshore from the city. The whole geographical area around the city was lifted by about 10 meters by

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents k ...

movement, before subsiding to its original level during the next few days. No major

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

was recorded. On January 1, 1955, Misaki absorbed neighboring Minami-Shitaura Town and Hasse Village to create the city of Miura. The city was connected to the

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

by rail on July 7, 1966 with the opening of

Miurakaigan Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway company Keikyū. Lines Miurakaigan Station is served by the Keikyū Kurihama Line and is located 11.2 rail kilometers fro ...

on the outskirts of the city. The line was extended to

Misakiguchi Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Miura, Kanagawa, Japan, operated by the private railway company Keikyū. Lines Misakiguchi Station is the southern terminus of the Keikyū Kurihama Line, and is located 13.4 km from t ...

on April 26, 1975, but plans to further extend the line to the city center have been abandoned. Miura came to some infamy in 2001 after the dismembered body of Lucie Blackman was found in a seaside cave a few hundred meters from the apartment of

serial rapist A serial rapist is someone who commits multiple rapes, whether with multiple victims or a single victim repeatedly over a period of time. Some serial rapists target children. The terms ''sexual predator'', ''repeat rape'' and ''multiple offending ...

Joji Obara , born Kim Sung-jong () is a Korean-Japanese serial rapist who may have raped between 150 and 400 women. In October 2000, he was charged with drugging, raping and killing the British woman Lucie Blackman, the rape and manslaughter of the Australian ...

. Miura has been the arrival point of several trans-Pacific sailboat races, such as the 1969 San Francisco-Tokyo

Transpacific Yacht Race The Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) is a biennial offshore yacht race held in odd-numbered years starting off the Pt. Fermin buoy in San Pedro, California and ending off Diamond Head in Hawaii, a distance of around . In even-numbered years the P ...

. Misaki was also the arrival point of the record solo circumnavigation of 71-year-old

Minoru Saito Minoru is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *Minoru Arakawa (荒川實, born 1946), Japanese former president of Nintendo of America *Minoru Chiaki (千秋実, 1917–1999), Japanese actor *Minoru Fujita (� ...

, on June 6, 2005.

Geography

Miura is located on the very southern end of

Miura Peninsula is a peninsula located in Kanagawa, Japan. It lies south of Yokohama and Tokyo and divides Tokyo Bay, to the east, from Sagami Bay, to the west. Cities and towns on the Miura Peninsula include Yokosuka, Miura, Hayama, Zushi, and Kamakura. ...

in southeast Kanagawa Prefecture, surrounded on three sides by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, with

Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the ...

to the west. To the south of the urban area and port is the island of

Jōgashima is an island in the municipality of Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, off the southernmost and western tip of Miura Peninsula, facing Sagami Bay. It is home to the Jōgashima Lighthouse, the fourth oldest western style lighthouse to be built ...

, connected to the city by a bridge. It is a popular destination for weekend tourism. The

Jōgashima Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the island of Jōgashima () in the city of Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, off the southernmost and western tip of Miura Peninsula, facing Sagami Bay. It is the fourth oldest western style lighthouse to be built i ...

was built by the French engineer

Léonce Verny François Léonce Verny, (2 December 1837 – 2 May 1908) was a French officer and naval engineerSims, Richard. (1998) ''French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-95: A Case of Misjudgement and Missed Opportunities,'' p. 246./ref> ...

at the end of the 19th century.

Surrounding municipalities

*Kanagawa Prefecture **

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

Climate

Economy

The economy of the city is dominated by

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

, centered on the harbor of Misaki, Japan's 18th most important fishing harbor, and the 2nd for its catch of

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...

, which the local mascot of Miura Tunanosuke is named and designed after. Misaki is an important fishing harbor, mainly specializing in the processing of tuna. The harbor also has a quay which can accommodate sailboats from neighboring marinas. Agriculture remains important to the local economy, especially

watermelon Watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varieti ...

and ''

daikon Daikon or mooli, ''Radish, Raphanus sativus'' Variety (botany), var. ''longipinnatus,'' is a mild-flavored winter radish usually characterized by fast-growing leaves and a long, white, root. Originally native to continental East Asia, daikon ...

''.

Transportation

Railway

Keikyū Kurihama Line The is a commuter rail line operated by the private railway operator Keikyu in Japan. Keikyu Main Line trains from and in Tokyo connect to the Miura Peninsula on the Keikyu Kurihama Line. Service types Three different types of service opera ...

** –

Highway

Japan National Route 134 is a national highway connecting the city of Yokosuka and the town of Ōiso in Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan ...

Education

Miura is home to Misaki Fisheries High School, a specialist fishery high school. The school trains students in one of four commercial fisheries skills: radio communications, engineering, food processing, and ocean fishing. The school maintains two fishing vessels, one of which is the ocean-going tuna fishing ship ''Shōnan Maru'', launched in 2005. The ''Shōnan Maru'' is a frequent visitor to the

port of Honolulu Honolulu Harbor, also called ''Kulolia'' and ''Ke Awa O Kou'' and the Port of Honolulu , is the principal seaport of Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu and the Hawaii, State of Hawaii in the United States. From the harbor, the Honolulu County, Hawaii, Cit ...

as part of the training programme.

Local events

Miura is well known for the Miura Marathon which is normally held in the first week of March. The race consists of three events: 5 kilometer, 10 kilometer, and a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

Sister city relations

* Suzaka, Nagano, Japan *

Warrnambool, Victoria Warrnambool (Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (All ...

, Australia.

Notes

References

Info about Kitesurfing on the beach

External links

Official Website
* {{Authority control Cities in Kanagawa Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Port settlements in Japan