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270px, Shimada City Hall 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
Shizuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...
, Japan. The city, which covers an area of , had an estimated population in September 2023 of 93,724, giving 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 About 300 persons per km2.


Geography

Shimada is located in the Shida Plains of west-central Shizuoka Prefecture. It is located on both banks of the Ōi River. The area enjoys a warm maritime climate with hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters.


Surrounding municipalities

Shizuoka Prefecture * Aoi-ku, Shizuoka * Fujieda * Kakegawa * Kawanehon, Haibara District * Kikugawa * Makinohara * Mori, Shuchi District * Tenryū-ku, Hamamatsu * Yaizu * Yoshida, Haibara District


Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Shimada has remained steady over the past 50 years.


Climate

The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (
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''). The average annual temperature in Shimada is 15.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2142 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.2 °C.


History

Shimada (Kanaya) began as an outlying fortification to Kakegawa Castle erected by Yamauchi Kazutoyo in the
Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...
to control the crossing of the Ōi River. In 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 ...
, Kanaya-juku and Shimada-juku developed as
post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in t ...
s on the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
. The area was mostly ''
tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil war ...
'' territory under direct control of the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
with a '' daikansho'' based at a '' Jinya'' located within Shimada-juku. As the Tokugawa shogunate forbade the construction of any bridge or establishment of a ferry service on the Ōi River for defensive purposes, travellers were often detained at either Shimada or Kanaya for days, sometimes weeks, waiting for the river levels to fall to fordable levels. The first bridge (the Hōrai Bridge) across the river connected these two towns in 1879, 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system in the early
Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...
in 1889, Kanaya Town was created within Haibara District, and Shimada Town within Shida District. On April 16, 1889, the two towns were connected by rail, with the opening of Shimada Station on the Tōkaidō Main Line. Shimada was elevated to city status on January 1, 1948. On January 1, 1955, it annexed neighboring Rokugō Village, Ōtsu Village, Daichō Village and a portion of Ikumi Village. On June 1, 1961, it further expanded through annexation of Hatsukura Village. On May 1, 2005, the town of Kanaya (from Haibara District) was merged into Shimada. On April 1, 2008, the town of Kawane (also from Haibara District) was also merged into Shimada. On March 15, 2012, the city became the second municipality, after Tokyo, outside Tōhoku to accept debris from the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a  9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
for disposal in the town's incinerators. Other cities had been reluctant to accept debris from the disaster, in spite of being asked to help recovery efforts, because of fears that the debris were contaminated by radiation from the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which r ...
.


Government

Shimada 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 legislature of 20 members. The city contributes two members to the Shizuoka Prefectural Assembly.


Economy

The economy of Shimada is primarily agricultural, with
green tea Green tea is a type of tea made from the leaves and buds of the '' Camellia sinensis'' that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process that creates oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China in the late 1st millenn ...
as the main crop. Light industries of Shimada include factories for the production of automobile components.


Education

Shimada has 18 public elementary schools and seven middle schools operated by the city government and one middle school operated by the national government. The city has four public high schools operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education, and one private high school. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.


Transportation


Railway

*
Central Japan Railway Company is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and occasionally as JR Tokai (). The term ''Tōkai'' refers to the southern portion of Central Japan, ...
- Tōkaidō Main Line ** - - * Ōigawa Railway Ōigawa Main Line **


Highway

* Tōmei Expressway * Shin-Tōmei Expressway * *


Airport

* Shizuoka Airport


International relations

Shimada is twinned with the following cities: * Brienz, Switzerland, from August 10, 1996 * Himi, Toyama, Japan, from April 15, 1987 * Huzhou,
Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...
, China, from May 1987 *
Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 3, 1905, and has a Richmond, California, City Council, city council.
, United States, from December 1961. There is currently a student exchange program between Shimada and Richmond.


Local attractions

* Hōrai Bridge * Ōigawa Railway * Suwahara Castle ruins, a National Historic Site


Notable people from Shimada

* Masafumi Gotō, musician * Tarzan Goto, professional wrestler * Horiyoshi III, Irezumi
tattoo artist A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via an ...
* Hub, professional wrestler * Takahiro Kawamura, professional football player * Kayoko Kishimoto, actress * Hokuto Matsumura, member of idol group SixTONES * Sho Naruoka, professional football player * Minato Oike, BMX freestyle cyclist * Hirotoki Onozawa, professional rugby player * Masaki Yamamoto, professional football player


References


External links

* * * {{Authority control Cities in Shizuoka Prefecture