was a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

located in Nishitsugaru District in western

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

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 village was situated on the west coast of

Tsugaru Peninsula The is a peninsula in Aomori Prefecture, at the northern end of Honshū island, Japan. The peninsula projects north into the Tsugaru Strait separating Honshū from Hokkaidō. The western coast is on the Sea of Japan, while on its eastern coast ...

, facing the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

History

The area was part of

Hirosaki Domain Hirosaki Castle, the seat of the Hirosaki Domain , also known as , was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period JapanRavina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 It is located in Mutsu Province, in northern Honshū ...

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 characteriz ...

. 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 ...

, Shariki Village was created in 1889. On 30 October 1889, the ''

Cheseborough The ''Cheseborough'' was a 19th-century American merchant ship which wrecked off the coast of Japan in 1889. Ship history The full-rigged ship ''Cheseborough'' was built and owned by E. & A. Sewall in Bath, Maine, U.S.A. She was named after And ...

'', an American merchant ship from

Bath, Maine Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 8,766 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County, which includes one city and 10 towns. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its ...

, wrecked a mile from the coast of the village. The villagers made a great effort to save the sailors, unfortunately nineteen of them did not survive the incident. After the remainder of the sailors recovered, they returned to the United States but maintained their relationship with the people of Shariki. This relationship eventually resulted in the village establishing a sister-city agreement with Bath, Maine. On 11 February 2005, Shariki, along with the town of Kizukuri, and the villages of

Inagaki is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Inagaki Chusei (1897–1922), Japanese painter * Goro Inagaki (born 1973), Japanese singer and musician *Hiroshi Inagaki (1905–1980), Japanese filmmaker * Jitsuo Inagaki (1928–2 ...

Kashiwa is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 433,436 in 194,216 households and a population density of 3800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The name of the city is written with a si ...

and Morita (all from Nishitsugaru District), was

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

to create the city of

Tsugaru Tsugaru (津軽) may refer to: * Tsugaru, Aomori, a city of Aomori Prefecture, Japan * Tsugaru Peninsula * Tsugaru Strait, between Honshū and Hokkaidō ** Tsugaru Kaikyō Ferry, a ferry crossing this strait * Tsugaru-jamisen, a traditional style of ...

, and thus no longer exists as an independent municipality, however, the city inherited Shariki's relationship with Bath. At the time of its merger, Shariki 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 5,730 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 92.16 persons per km². The total area was 62.17 km². The village economy was dominated by agriculture and commercial fishing.

References

External links

Official website of Tsugaru

Local business and sightseeing guide
Dissolved municipalities of Aomori Prefecture {{aomori-geo-stub