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 de ...

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. 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 ...

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: 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 geographical ...

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 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 feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Variou ...

, 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 Ta ...

, until they were annihilated by the rival Hojo clan. 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 character ...

, 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 Encyclopedi ...

'' 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 Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

. 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 r ...

, the town of Misaki within Miura District, Kanagawa 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 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 exp ...

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 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 ...

on the outskirts of the city. The line was extended to Misakiguchi Station 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, Joji Obara. Miura has been the arrival point of several trans-Pacific sailboat races, such as the 1969 San Francisco-Tokyo Transpacific Yacht Race. 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 Kama ...

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 contine ...

, 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 ...

to the west. To the south of the urban area and port is the island of Jōgashima, connected to the city by a bridge. It is a popular destination for weekend tourism. The Jōgashima Lighthouse was built by the French engineer Léonce Verny at the end of the 19th century.

Surrounding municipalities

*Kanagawa Prefecture ** Yokosuka

Climate

Economy

The economy of the city is dominated by commercial fishing, 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 le ...

, 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 var ...

and '' daikon''.

Transportation

Railway

* Keikyū Kurihama Line ** –

Highway

* Japan National Route 134

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 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, 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