270px, Muroto city center aerial photograph 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

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...

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 11,633 in 6906 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 47 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Muroto is located in the southeastern tip of Kōchi Prefecture on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

. It occupies

Cape Muroto is a headland at the southeastern tip of the Japanese island of Shikoku, in the city of Muroto, Kōchi Prefecture. Extending into the Pacific Ocean and situated in within Muroto-Anan Kaigan Quasi-National Park, the cape has been designated ...

which juts out into the

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

. Parts of the city are within the borders of the Muroto-Anan Kaigan Quasi-National Park. The entire territory of Muroto is "Muroto Global

Geopark A geopark is a protected area with internationally significant geology within which Sustainability, sustainable development is sought and which includes tourism, conservation, education and research concerning not just geology but other relevant s ...

" which is a member of the Japanese Geoparks Network and

Global Geoparks Network UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGp) are geoparks certified by the UNESCO Global Geoparks Council as meeting all the requirements for belonging to the Global Geoparks Network (GGN). The GGN is both a network of geoparks and the agency of the United Nati ...

since 2011 on account of its outstanding geological heritage, educational programs and projects, and promotion of

geotourism Geotourism is tourism associated with geological attractions and destinations. Geotourism (tourism with a geological base) deals with the abiotic natural and built environments.Sadry, B.N.(2009)''Fundamentals of Geotourism: with special emphasis ...

.Muroto Global Geopark
/ref>

Geology

Cape Muroto is made up of

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

-aged

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

s and loose

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

-aged alluvial deposits. The rocks belong to the Shimanto Supergroup, represented in the peninsula as

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

, and the Tonohama Group made up of chiefly of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

. Several active, WNW-dipping,

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. I ...

s are exposed at the western coast and southern tip of the peninsula. Off-shore west of the Cape Muroto, tip of the peninsula, there faults dips to the west. There are uplifted

marine terrace A raised beach, coastal terrace,Pinter, N (2010): 'Coastal Terraces, Sealevel, and Active Tectonics' (educational exercise), from 2/04/2011or perched coastline is a relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of marine origin,Pir ...

s at Muroto. Dating of these terraces reveal that since their formation in an interval 123 to 96 thousand years ago (k B.P.), in an epoch corresponding to the

Eemian The Last Interglacial, also known as the Eemian, was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and ended about 115,000 years ago at the beginning of the Last Glacial Period. It cor ...

interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene i ...

. Since then land in the tip of the peninsula has risen 1.2–1.6 meters every thousand years (m/kyr). Closer to the mainland the uplift rate has been in the order of 0.3–0.7 m/kyr. While these are long-term averages individual large non- megathrust earthquakes are known to have uplifted the coast around one meter. These earthquakes are more rare than megathrust ones occurring every 1000 to 2000 years. Uplift of the coast has left fossil tube worm colonies attached to rocks on land.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture * Kitagawa * Nahari * Tōyō

Climate

Muroto 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 climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') with hot, humid summers and cool winters. There is significant precipitation throughout the year, especially during June and July. The average annual temperature in Muroto is . The average annual rainfall is with June as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Muroto was on 30 July 1942; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 26 February 1981.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Muroto in 2020 is 11,742 people. Muroto has been conducting censuses since 1920.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Muroto was part of ancient

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

. During 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 part of the holdings of

Tosa Domain The was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its ...

ruled by the Yamauchi clan from their seat at Kōchi Castle. Following 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, the village of Muroto was established within Aki District, Kōchi with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. In 1934, a

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 ...

caused tremendous devastation, killing 3,000 people. Muroto merged with the towns of Murotomisaki, Kiragawa, Sakihama and Hane and was elevated to city status on March 1, 1951.

Government

Muroto 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 12 members. Muroto, together with the town of Tōyō, contributes one member to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Kōchi 1st 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 ...

Economy

Commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

dominates the local economy of Muroto. The city is suffering from depopulation due to the decline of the fishery industry.

Education

Muroto has five public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government and one public middle school operated by the Kōchi Prefectural Department of Education.

Transportation

Railway

Muroto has no passenger railway service. The nearest train station is Nahari Station on the

Tosa Kuroshio Railway The is a third-sector railway company in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. The name comes from the former Tosa Province and the Kuroshio Current. The company was founded in 1986, and operates three lines: a former Japanese National Railways (JNR) line ...

s Asa Line. Plans to extend the line from Nahari to Muroto have been floated since 1971, but no action has been taken.

Highways

Local attractions

* Hotsumisaki-ji, 24th temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage * Kongōchō-ji, 26th temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage * Shinshō-ji, 25th temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage

References

External links

*
Muroto Global Geopark
in English

in English * {{DEFAULTSORT:Muroto, Kochi Cities in Kōchi Prefecture Global Geoparks Network members Geoparks in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan Muroto, Kōchi