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 ...
in
Kyoto Prefecture,
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 n ...
. , 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 usi ...
of 78,644 in 34817 households and a
population density of 230 persons per km².
The total area of the city is .
Geography
Maizuru is located in northern Kyoto Prefecture, facing scenic
Maizuru Bay on the
Sea of Japan to the north and Fukui Prefecture to the east.
Neighboring municipalities
Kyoto Prefecture
*
Ayabe
*
Miyazu
*
Fukuchiyama
250px, Fukuchiyama Castle
250px, Fukuchiyama city center
is a city in northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 76,037 in 36412 households and a population density of 140 persons per km². The total area ...
Fukui Prefecture
*
Takahama
Climate
Like
Toyooka in
Hyōgo Prefecture, Maizuru has a climate resembling the
Hokuriku region rather than the rest of Kansai, though it is less wet than other Hokuriku towns during the late autumn and winter because its location on a deep inlet means the northerly winds driven by the
Siberian High and
Aleutian Low do not produce as much rain and/or snow. In the summer, however, Maizuru can be extremely oppressive as the intense radiation creates extreme humidity around the bay: on August 13, 1994 the town recorded a ''minimum'' temperature of .
Demographics
Per Japanese census data,
[ the population of Maizuru has declined gradually over the past 30 years.
]
History
The area of Maizuru has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and numerous traces of Jomon and Yayoi period settlements have been discovered by archaeologists. The Yura River valley in particular was densely populated, and many '' kofun'' burial mounds have been found. The area became part of Tango Province in the Nara period. During the Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by ...
, the Isshiki clan ruled as ''shugo
, commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...
'' of the province, but were replaced in 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 ...
Hosokawa clan, who constructed Tanabe Castle, whose nickname "Maizuru Castle" was later adopted as the name of the city.Following the Following the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu awarded the entire province of Tango to Kyōgoku Takatomo, who established Miyazu Domain. To ensure the succession of his line, Kyōgoku Takatomo gave 35,000 ''koku'' of his holdings to his third son, Kyōgoku Takamitsu, and established a cadet branch of the clan at Tango-Tanabe Domain
was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Tango Province in what is now the northern portion of modern-day Kyoto Prefecture. It was centered around Tanabe Castle, also known as Maizuru Castle which was ...
, based at Maizuru Castle. The Kyōgoku were replaced b a cadet branch of the Makino clan,who ruled until 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 ...
in 1871. The town of Maizuru was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The same year, the Maizuru Naval District was created and the associated Maizuru Naval Arsenal for ship basing, construction, and repair was created in 1901. In the Russo-Japanese War, many warships were based there, due to its proximity to the Sea of Japan. Maizuru was raised to city status on August 1, 1938.
After the Second World War, Maizuru was a key port for returning Japanese servicemen and detainees from continental Asia for over 13 years. Today, JMSDF Maizuru Naval Base is a key district headquarters for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Government
Maizuru has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 26 members. Maizuru contributes two members to the Kyoto Prefectural Assembly
The is the prefectural parliament of Kyoto Prefecture.
Overview
Kyoto Prefecture is a stronghold of the Japanese Communist Party, which continued with the revolutionary government of Torazō Ninagawa over the seventh term over 28 years. The tw ...
. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Kyoto 5th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.
Economy
Maizuru has a mixed economy, with commerce, agriculture, forestry, tourism and commercial fishing all playing major roles. Industry, centered on wood processing and shipbuilding, have declined severely due to overseas competition, but Japan Marine United
(informally JMU) is a Japanese ship building marine engineering and service company headquartered in Yokohama, Japan.
It's Japan’s second largest shipbuilder after Imabari Shipbuilding, with shipyard facilities in Kure, Hiroshima, Yokohama ...
, a large shipbuilding corporation, has one of its main shipyards in Maizuru.
Education
Colleges and universities
* National Institute of Technology, Maizuru campus
* Kyoto University - Maizuru Fisheries Research Station
* Japan Coast Guard School
Primary and secondary education
Maizuru has 20 public elementary schools and seven public middle schools operated by the town government and two public high schools operated by the Kyoto Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one private high school.
The community previously had a North Korean school, Maizuru Korean Elementary and Junior High School ( 舞鶴朝鮮初中級学校).[ウリハッキョ一覧]
(). Chongryon. November 6, 2005. Retrieved on October 15, 2015.
Transportation
Railways
JR West
, also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and i ...
– Maizuru Line
* - -
JR West
, also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and i ...
– Obama Line
* -
Kyoto Tango Railway
The , or , is a railway system in Kyoto Prefecture and Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan operated by Willer Trains Inc. headquartered in Miyazu, Kyoto.
Company
The operating company Willer Trains Inc. is a subsidiary of Willer Alliance Inc. Willer Trains ...
– Miyazu Line
* - - -
Highways
* Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway
The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and operated by West Nippon Expressway Company. It is signed as E27 under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's "2016 Proposal for Realization of Expressway Numbering. ...
* Kyoto Jūkan Expressway
The is a national expressway in Kyoto Prefecture. It is owned and operated primarily by the West Nippon Expressway Company (NEXCO West Japan) and the Kyoto Prefecture Road Corporation. The route is signed E9 under Ministry of Land, Infrastructur ...
*
*
*
*
International town twinnings and exchange partnership
* - Nakhodka
Nakhodka ( rus, Нахо́дка, p=nɐˈxotkə) is a port city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on the Trudny Peninsula jutting into the Nakhodka Bay of the Sea of Japan, about east of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the kra ...
, Primorsky Krai, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
in June 1961, the first Russian - Japanese sister towns in history.Sister City and Friendly City
/ref>
* - Dalian, Liaoning, China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
since 1982
* - Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most d ...
, Hampshire, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
since 1998.
* - Rishtan
Rishton ( uz, Rishton, tg, Рештон, russian: Риштан, alternative spellings ''Rishtan'', ''Rishdan'', ''Roshidon'', previously called also ''Kyubishev'' by Russians) is a city in Fergana Region, in Uzbekistan. It is the administrativ ...
, Fergana region, Uzbekistan since 2019.
Local attractions
Maizuru is dotted with sightseeing spots. There is Maizuru Repatriation Memorial Museum, a commemorative hall which documents the return of half a million servicemen and detainees from Soviet internment, and an observatory which overlooks the Rias seashore of the Maizuru Bay.
Notable people from Maizuru
* Arisa Inoue
is a Japanese volleyball player who plays for the Hisamitsu Springs. She also plays for the Japan women's national volleyball team.
Inoue won a silver medal with the Japan U20 national team at the 2013 FIVB Women's Junior World Championship. ...
, Japanese volleyball player ( Hisamitsu Springs and Japan women's national volleyball team)
* Tatsuya Ishihara, Japanese television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
and film director ( Kyoto Animation)
* Hatsuho Matsuzawa, Japanese swimmer
* Kengo Mashimo, Japanese professional wrestler (Kaientai Dojo
Active Advance Pro Wrestling (2AW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion and training facility originally owned and promoted by Taka Michinoku. The promotion places emphasis on a style of puroresu that combines high-flying, technical wr ...
)
* Mamoru Nagano, Japanese manga artist, animator, and mecha and character designer
In visual arts, a model sheet, also known as a character board, character sheet, character study or simply a study, is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of a character in arts such as animation, comics, and ...
* Mai Ohara, Japanese politician
Politics of Japan are conducted in a framework of a dominant-party bicameral parliamentary constitutional monarchy, in which the Emperor is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government and the head of the Cabinet, which ...
who served in the House of Representatives of Japan
The is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors is the upper house.
The composition of the House is established by and of the Constitution of Japan. The House of Representatives ha ...
* Jin Ueda, Japanese table tennis player
* Yuki Yamaguchi, former Japanese sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres
References
External links
Maizuru City
— official website – some English can be accessed.
— official website
{{Authority control
Cities in Kyoto Prefecture
Port settlements in Japan
Populated coastal places in Japan
Maizuru