is a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
located in
Miyagi Prefecture,
Japan. , the town 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 6,723, 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 62 persons per km² in 20961 households. The total area of the town is .
Geography
Shikama is located in west-central Miyagi Prefecture, bordered by the
Ōu Mountains
The are a mountain range in the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan. The range is the longest range in Japan and stretches south from the Natsudomari Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture to the Nasu volcanoes at the northern boundary of the Kantō ...
to the west. Parts of the town are within the borders of the
Funagata Renpō Prefectural Natural Park.
Neighboring municipalities
Miyagi Prefecture
*
Sendai
*
Ōsaki
*
Kami
are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...
*
Taiwa
*
Ōhira
Yamagata Prefecture
*
Obanazawa
Climate
The town has a climate characterized by cool summers and cold 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 Shikama is 11.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1342 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.2 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.2 °C.
Demographics
Per Japanese census data,
Shikama population statistics
/ref> the population of Shikama has declined over the past 60 years.
History
The area of present-day Shikama was part of ancient Mutsu Province, and has been settled since at least the Jōmon period by the Emishi people. Per the '' Shoku Nihongi'', following a huge earthquake in the year 715 AD, a large number of people migrated to this area from the southern Kantō region, forming numerous fortified settlements. The name of “Shikama-saku” appears 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 c ...
records dated 737 AD as one of these settlements. During 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 contested by various samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
clans before the area came under the control of the Date clan
The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5.
History
The Date family was founded ...
of Sendai Domain
The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.
The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of the i ...
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 characte ...
, under 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 ...
.
The village of Shikama was created on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. Shikama was raised to town status on April 1, 1978. A motion to merger with the neighboring three towns of Miyazaki, Nakaniida, and Onoda, all from Kami District, was defeated by a local referendum in April 2003.
Government
Shikama 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 multi ...
town council of 13 members. Shikama, together with the rest of Kami District collectively contributes one seat to the Miyagi Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Miyagi 4th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.
Economy
The economy of Shikama is largely based on agriculture, primarily the cultivation of rice and ''Egoma''.
Education
Shikama has one public elementary school and one public junior high school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Miyagi Prefectural Board of Education.
Transportation
Railway
* Shikama does not have any passenger railway service.
Highway
*
Noted people from Shikama
*Susumu Ojima
is a Japanese entrepreneur who was a founder and chairman of Huser Co., Ltd.
Biography
In 1953, he was born in Shikama, Kami District, Miyagi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture ...
, entrepreneur
References
External links
Official Website
{{Authority control
Towns in Miyagi Prefecture