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 eastern
Shizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...
,
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 ...
. , 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 189,486 in 91,986 households, 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 1,014 persons per km
2. The total area of the city is .
Geography
Numazu is at the northwestern end of the
Izu Peninsula, which is a leisure destination known for its numerous
hot springs
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
.
Mount Fuji
, or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...
, Japan's tallest mountain, may also be seen from Numazu on clear days. Numazu is located west of
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
and is on the
Tōkaidō Main Line
The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...
, the main railway line from
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
to Tokyo. Warmed by the
Kuroshio Current
The , also known as the Black or or the is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...
, the area enjoys a warm maritime climate with hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters. The
Kano River
The is an A class river in Shizuoka Prefecture of central Japan. It is long and has a watershed of .
The Kano River originates from Mount Amagi in central Izu Peninsula and follows a generally northern path into Suruga Bay at Numazu
is ...
runs through the middle of the city. Mount Ashitaka (1188 meters) is the highest point in the city
Neighboring municipalities
Shizuoka Prefecture
*
Mishima Mishima may refer to:
Places
* Mishima, Fukushima, a town in Fukushima Prefecture
* Mishima, Kagoshima, a village in Kagoshima Prefecture
* Mishima, Niigata, a town in Niigata Prefecture
* Mishima, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
...
*
Fuji Fuji may refer to:
Places China
* Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan
Japan
* Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan
* Fuji River
* Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture
* Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefec ...
*
Izu Izu may refer to:
Places
*Izu Province, a part of modern-day Shizuoka prefecture in Japan
**Izu, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka prefecture
**Izu Peninsula, near Tokyo
**Izu Islands, located off the Izu Peninsula
People with the surname
*, Japane ...
*
Izunokuni
270px, Izunokuni City Hall
is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 48,579 in 21,257 households and a population density of 506 persons per km2. The total area of the city is .
Geography
Izuno ...
*
Shimizu
*
Nagaizumi
270px, Nagaizumi Town Hall
is a town located in Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 43,568 in 18154 households and a population density of 1,600 persons per km². The total area of the town wa ...
*
Kannami
is a town located in Tagata District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 37,782 in 16,401 households and a population density of 580 persons per km². The total area of the town was .
Geography
Kannami is l ...
Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Numazu has been in slow decline over the past 30 years.
Climate
The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Numazu is 15.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1938 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.9 °C.
Numazu climate data
/ref>
History
Numazu is an ancient settlement, mentioned in Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...
records as the original provincial capital
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the g ...
of Suruga Province
was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrevia ...
before the separation of Izu Province
was a province of Japan in the area of Shizuoka Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Izu''" in . Izu bordered on Sagami and Suruga Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was .
The mainland portion of Izu Province, comprising th ...
from Suruga in 680 AD, and subsequent transfer of the provincial capital to the banks of the Abe River in what is now Shizuoka city
is the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, and the prefecture's second-largest city in both population and area. It has been populated since prehistoric times. the city had an estimated population of 690,881 in 106,087 households, an ...
. During the early part of 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 ...
, Numazu was ruled as part of Odawara Domain
250px, Odawara Castle, Headquarters of the Odawara Domain
was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located primarily in western Sagami Province (modern-day Kanagawa Prefecture). It was centered on Odawara Castle in what is now the city of Oda ...
, but with the construction of Numazu Castle
was a Japanese castle located in the city of Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was a ''hirayama-jō'', a castle built on a plains rather than a hill or mountain. During the Edo period, Numazu castle was home to the Mizuno clan, ''daimyō'' ...
in 1777, it became the separate Numazu Domain
was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan located in Suruga Province. It was centered on Numazu Castle in what is now the city of Numazu, in modern-day Shizuoka Prefecture.
History
In 1601, Ōkubo Tadasuke, a 5000 ...
. Numazu prospered in 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 ...
from its location on the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
, with Numazu-juku and Hara-juku as two of the 53 post stations.
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 ...
, Numazu Station
is an interchange railway station on the Tōkaidō Main Line in the city of Numazu, Shizuoka, Japan, operated by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). The station is also a freight terminal and rail yard for the Japan Freight Railway Com ...
was opened on the Tōkaidō Main Line
The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...
on February 1, 1889. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system of the early Meiji period
The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.
The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
in 1889, the area was reorganized into Numazu Town within Suntō District, Shizuoka
is a rural district located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of July 2012, the district has an estimated population of 94,229 and a population density of 550 persons per km2. The total area was 171.4856 km2.
Towns and villages
Suntō Distr ...
From its seaside location, Numazu gained a reputation as a health resort, which was further enhanced by its selection as the location of an imperial villa built for Emperor Meiji in 1893. The area become popular with other members of the nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...
, statesmen (including Inoue Kaoru
Marquess Inoue Kaoru (井上 馨, January 16, 1836 – September 1, 1915) was a Japanese politician and a prominent member of the Meiji oligarchy during the Meiji period of the Empire of Japan. As one of the senior statesmen ('' Genrō'') in J ...
) and writers. Numazu town expanded in 1923 by merger with Yanagihara village, becoming Numazu City on July 1, 1923.
Central Numazu was destroyed by a fire in 1926. In 1944, the city further expanded through merger with neighboring Katahama, Kanaoka, Ooka and Shizuura villages. The city was a target for American air raids in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and was largely destroyed by bombing on July 17, 1945.
In 1955, the villages of Ashitaka, Oohira, Uchiura, and Nishiura merged with Numazu, and in 1968 Hara Town also merged with Numazu. In the year 2000, Numazu was designated a by the central government with increased local autonomy. In April 2005, the village of Heda (from Tagata District) was merged into Numazu. In 2007, Numazu hosted the 29th WorldSkills
WorldSkills organizes the world championships of vocational skills and is held every two years in different parts of the world. The organization, which also hosts conferences about vocational skills, describes itself as the global hub for skills.
...
International Championship.
Government
Numazu 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, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
city legislature of 28 members.
Economy
Numazu is an industrial city and regional financial center, and its port is a major center of Shizuoka prefecture's 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 ...
industry. Numazu produces more dried Japanese horse mackerel
The Japanese jack mackerel (''Trachurus japonicus''), also known as the Japanese horse mackerel or Japanese scad, is a species named after its resemblance to mackerel but which is in the family Carangidae, the jacks, pompanos, trevallies and sca ...
than any other region in Japan. The city accounts for about half of Japan's total production. Agriculture is dominated by production of mandarin oranges
The mandarin orange (''Citrus reticulata''), also known as the mandarin or mandarine, is a small citrus tree fruit. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. Tangerines are a group of orange-coloured ...
and green tea
Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since the ...
, with Brussels sprouts
The Brussels sprout is a member of the Gemmifera cultivar group of cabbages (''Brassica oleracea''), grown for its edible buds. The leaf vegetables are typically 1.5–4.0 cm (0.6–1.6 in) in diameter and resemble miniature cabbag ...
, dairy products and rice as secondary products. Numazu is the location of the head office of Suruga Bank, Shizuoka Chuo Bank and Numazu Shinkin Bank.
Education
Numazu has 24 public elementary schools, 17 public middle schools one public combined middle/high school operated by the city government. The city has four public high schools operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education. There are also one private elementary school, one private combined middle/high school and five private high schools. The prefecture also operates three special education schools in Numazu for the handicapped.
Transportation
Railway
*
Central Japan Railway Company - Tōkaidō Main Line
The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...
** - -
*
Central Japan Railway Company - Gotemba Line
The is a railway line in Japan operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). It connects Kōzu Station in Odawara to Numazu via Gotemba.
The '' Mt. Fuji'' limited express service runs between Tokyo's Shinjuku Station and Gotemb ...
** -
Highway
*
Tomei Expressway Tomei may refer to:
People with the surname Tomei, which is an Italian version of Thomas
*Concetta Tomei, (born 1945), American actress
*Louis Tomei (1910–1955), American racecar driver
*Marisa Tomei, (born 1964), American actress
Other:
*Tōmei ...
*
Shin-Tōmei Expressway
The , literally meaning New Tōmei, is a national expressway in Japan running parallel to the Tomei Expressway as an alternate route. It is operated by Central Nippon Expressway Company. The expressway is also numbered E1A under the "2016 Proposa ...
*
Izu-Jūkan Expressway
The is an incomplete two-lane national expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture. It is owned and operated primarily by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), but has a short section maintained and tolled by the Central N ...
*
*
*
Local attractions
Numazu is a gateway to Mount Fuji, Hakone
is a List of towns in Japan, town in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had a population of 11,293 and a population density of 122 persons per km². The total area of the town is . The town is a popular tourist destination due to its many o ...
, and Izu Peninsula, which are major tourist attractions. The harbour area has seafood restaurants and features an anti-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 ...
barrier with an observation floor on top that offers a panoramic view of the city and the surrounding area. There is a shopping street close to the main train station.
Numazu has the longest coastline of any municipality in the prefecture. The ''Senbonhama'' ("Thousand Tree Beach") seaside is considered one of the best places to view Osezaki, Nihondaira
is a scenic area located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Japan.
A plateau at the centre of Shizuoka city, with a maximum altitude of , Nihondaira is famous for its views of Mount Fuji, the Izu Peninsula, the Japanese Southern Alps, Shimizu Por ...
, or the southern Japan Alps
The is a series of mountain ranges in Japan which bisect the main island of Honshu. The peaks that tower over central Honshu have long been the object of veneration and pilgrimage. These mountains had long been exploited by local people for raw m ...
against the background of Sembonmatsubara and Mount Fuji. Three aquariums are located in Numazu: Mito Sea Paradise, Awashima Marine Park and Numazu Deepblue Aquarium.
National Historic Sites
*Nagahama Castle
is a ''hirashiro'' (castle on a plain) located in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
History
Nagahama Castle was built in 1575-1576 by Hashiba Hideyoshi (later known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi) in the village then called Imahama, renaming the area ...
ruins
*Kōkokuji Castle
was a Sengoku period ''yamashiro''-style Japanese castle located in the Negoya neighborhood of the city of Numazu, Shizuoka, Numazu, Shizuoka prefecture. The ruins have been protected as a Historic Sites of Japan, National Historic Site since 197 ...
ruins
* Yasumiba ruins
Sister city relations
* – Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...
, Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, United States (since 1963)
* – Yueyang
Yueyang, formerly known as Yuezhou or Yochow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern shores of Dongting Lake and Yangtze in the northeastern corner of Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China.
Yueyang has an administrative area of a ...
, Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
, China (since 1985)
* – Ueda, Nagano
is a city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 157,480 in 67,783 households, and a population density of 290 persons per km2. The total area of the city is , which makes it the fifth largest city in Nag ...
, Japan
Notable people from Numazu
* Tomita Tsunejirō
, born , was the earliest disciple of judo. His name appears in the first line of the enrollment book of the Kōdōkan.
. Tomita, together with Saigō Shirō, became the first in the history of judo to be awarded the rank of Shodan by the foun ...
(1865–1937) – the earliest disciple of judo
is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...
* Yasushi Inoue
was a Japanese writer of novels, short stories, poetry and essays, noted for his historical and autobiographical fiction. His most acclaimed works include '' The Bullfight'' (''Tōgyū'', 1949), ''The Roof Tile of Tempyō'' (''Tenpyō no iraka' ...
– novelist
* Nobutaka Machimura
was a Japanese politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.[Shinji Ono
is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for J1 League club Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.
Career Urawa Reds
Ono grew up in the Shizuoka Prefecture and began his professional career with Urawa Reds in the J1 League in 1998. ...]
– professional soccer player
* Masakuni Yamamoto – professional soccer player
* Kento Sugiyama
is a retired Japanese professional baseball player from Numazu, Shizuoka, Japan. He played for the Seibu Lions, Hanshin Tigers, Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, and Yokohama BayStars during his 10-year career in the Japanese professional leagues.
Su ...
– professional baseball player
* Kyoko Iwasaki
is a Japanese swimming coach and retired Olympic swimmer from Numazu, Shizuoka. She won the gold medal in the 200 metres breaststroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeaster ...
– Olympic medalist swimmer
* Koji Murofushi
is a former Japanese-Romanian hammer thrower and sports scientist. He has been among the world elite since the 2001 World Championships, where he won the silver medal. He was the 2004 Olympic champion. In 2011, he was crowned world champion.
...
– Olympic medalist in hammer-throw
* Miu Hirano
(born 14 April 2000) is a Japanese table tennis player. She won Women's World Cup in 2016 as the youngest ever winner. She won the women's singles at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships by sweeping away three top Chinese players. She comp ...
– Table Tennis player
* Yamada Nagamasa
was a Japanese adventurer who gained considerable influence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century and became the governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat province, which is on the Malay Peninsula in present-day Southern Thailand.
...
– 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 ...
merchant-adventurer
* Norio Ohga
, otherwise spelled ''Norio Oga'' (January 29, 1930 – April 23, 2011), was the former president and chairman of Sony Corporation, credited with spurring the development of the compact disc as a commercially viable audio format.
Biography
Earl ...
– former CEO of Sony
* Tomoyoshi Murayama
was a Japanese artist, play writer, novelist and drama producer active during the Shōwa period in Japan.
Early life
Murayama was born in the Kanda Suehiro district of Tokyo. His father, who was a medic in the Imperial Japanese Navy, died when h ...
– artist and playwright
* Masato Harada
is a Japanese film director, film critic, and sometimes an actor; he is best known to foreign audiences as Omura in ''The Last Samurai'' and as Mr Mita in ''Fearless''. In both his acting roles he portrayed the villain who wants Japan to westerni ...
– movie director
* Ulka Sasaki Ulka may refer to:
* Ulka Gupta (born 1997), Indian film and television actress
* Ulka Sasaki (born 1989), Japanese mixed martial artist
* DRDO Ulka
Ulka (Sanskrit: meteor or firebrand) is an air-launched expendable target drone of India.
Desc ...
— mixed martial artist
Popular culture
Numazu is the main setting of the anime ''Love Live! Sunshine!!
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. The project is the second series of the ''Love Live!'' franchise and is a spin-off sequel of ''L ...
'', and several characters live in Uchiura and Awashima Island. As such, many tourists come to Numazu because of the anime, and various things in the city, such as taxicabs, buses, ferries, and manhole covers, have special ''Love Live''-themed designs.
References
External links
*
*
Travel guide to Numazu for tourists and foreign residents
{{Authority control
Cities in Shizuoka Prefecture
Populated coastal places in Japan
Port settlements in Japan
Numazu, Shizuoka