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 o ...

located in

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to t ...

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 town is known for its association with

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 character ...

general

Honda Tadakatsu , also called Honda Heihachirō (本多平八郎) was a Japanese samurai, general and daimyo of the late Sengoku through early Edo periods, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings along with Ii ...

, and its prominent

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

. , 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 usi ...

of 8,982 in 3820 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 RosenberPopu ...

of 69 persons per km². The total area of the town is , making it the largest of

's towns and villages.

Etymology

The name of the town of Ōtaki in the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

is composed of three ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

'' characters: the first, ō (大), meaning "large", the second, ta (多), meaning "many", and the third, ki (喜), meaning "happiness".

Geography

Ōtaki is a landlocked town in the center of the

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

, about 35 kilometers from the prefectural capital at Chiba and 60 to 70 kilometers from central Tokyo. The southwest area of Ōtaki is mountainous, with elevations gradually lowering towards the northeast of the town. Approximately 70% of Ōtaki is covered by forest. The Isumi River flows through the town to the northeast, and in the western part of the town the Yōrō River flows to the north. The town extends for about 12 kilometers east to west by about 19 kilometers north to south.

Surrounding municipalities

Chiba Prefecture * Ichihara * Kimitsu * Katsuura * Kamogawa * Isumi *

Mutsuzawa is a town located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 6,928 in 2796 households and a population density of 190 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Located in the mountainous area that ...

Chōnan 270px, Chōnan town hall is a town located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 7,743 in 3240 households and a population density of 120 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Located in ...

Climate

Ōtaki has a

Humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ōtaki is 14.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1828 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Ōtaki has been decreasing over the past 70 years and is now less than it was a century ago.

History

Early history

Ōtaki was settled in prehistoric times, as evidenced by the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

remains in Oikawa. In the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after ...

the Ōtaki region became part of Kazusa Province at the western end of the Tōkaidō region, which was formed as a result of the

Taika Reform The were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 ''Kōtoku tennō'') in the year 645. They were written shortly after the death of Prince Shōtoku and the defeat of the Soga clan (蘇我氏 ''Soga no uji''), uniting Jap ...

of 654. 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 ...

Ōtaki was established as a castle town, which successively controlled by different regional clans, most notably the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

and the Toki clan. The Ōtaki region ultimately came under the control of the powerful Awa Province-based Satomi clan in 1544.

Edo Period

In 1590 Tokugawa Ieyasu took control of all of Kazusa Province. Ieyasu granted Ōtaki to his famed general

, and established the

Ōtaki Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of the Edo period, located in Kazusa Province (modern-day Chiba Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Ōtaki Castle in what is now the town of Ōtaki, Chiba. History The original Ōtaki C ...

as a 100,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' feudal domain. Tadakatsu built Ōtaki Castle on the site of the earlier castle and laid out a large-scale castle town. Honda Tadakatsu's placement at Ōtaki was a strong buffer against the military power of the Satomi clan to the south. The ownership of the castle changed hands many times after Honda Tadakatsu's control, but from 1703 the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of t ...

held the castle for nine generations. Despite the Matsudaira clan's control of the castle, the majority of the Ōtaki region was controlled as ''

tenryō 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' ...

'' territory by ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as '' gokenin.'' Howev ...

'' in direct service to 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 ...

. In 1609 a Spanish galleon, the ''San Francisco'', ran aground near Ōtaki . The survivors were housed in Ōtaki Castle, and later, the sailors were given a ship by the shogunate to return to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. One of the survivors was

Governor General of the Philippines The Governor-General of the Philippines ( Spanish: ''Gobernador y Capitán General de Filipinas''; Filipino: ''Gobernador-Heneral ng Pilipinas/Kapitan Heneral ng Pilipinas''; Japanese: ) was the title of the government executive during the col ...

Rodrigo de Vivero, who was subsequently granted an audience with ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

Modern Period

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 ...

the administrative structure of the region changed frequently. Ōtaki was successively part of Ōtaki Prefecture, then Kisarazu Prefecture, before becoming part of the present-day Chiba Prefecture. On April 1, 1889, under the same administrative reforms, the four villages of Oikawa, Nishihata, Fusamoto, Kamitaki and the town of Ōtaki were formed. The five were brought together to become present-day town of Ōtaki on October 5, 1954.

Government

Ōtaki 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 12 members. Ōtaki, together with the city of Katsuura, contributes one member to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of

Chiba 11th district Chiba 11th district (千葉県第11区, ''Chiba-ken dai-jūikku'' or simply 千葉11区, ''Chiba-jūikku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan. It is located in the eastern portion of Chi ...

of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...

Economy

The economy of Ōtaki was based largely on

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

production,

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...

, and traditional

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ...

production, but after

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

all three industries have declined. The town produces

shiitake The shiitake (alternate form shitake) (; ''Lentinula edodes'') is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is now cultivated and consumed around the globe. It is considered a Medicinal fungi, medicinal mushroom in some forms of tradition ...

mushrooms A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

and

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

shoots as special agricultural products. Tourism has increased as a result of visits to Ōtaki Castle, the

Ōtaki Prefectural Forest Otaki or Ōtaki may refer to: Places *Ōtaki (New Zealand electorate), a parliamentary electorate in New Zealand *Ōtaki, New Zealand, a town in New Zealand *Ōtaki River, a river in New Zealand *Ōtaki, Chiba, a town in Japan *Ōtaki, Saitama, a fo ...

, and various scenic spots.

Golf courses A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

were developed in Ōtaki, but have caused problems with flooding and

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

Education

Saniku Gakuin College is a co-educational, Christian, private university in Japan. The main campus is located in Ōtaki, Chiba, Japan. The college is a part of the world-wide network of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) institutions of higher education, the world's second ...

* Ōtaki has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education. The town also has one private middle school.

Community institutions

* Ōtaki Central Community Center * Ōtaki Public Library * Marine Center * Ōtaki Sports Park * Ōtaki Elderly Welfare Center * Ōtaki Elderly Nursing Home

Transportation

Railways

Isumi Railway -

Isumi Line The is a railway line in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by the third-sector railway operating company Isumi Railway Company. It extends through the central eastern section of the Bōsō Peninsula, linking Ōhara Station in the city of Isum ...

* - - - - - - - KTK logomark

Kominato Railway - Kominato Line *

Roads and highways

* , to Ichihara or Tateyama * , to

Mobara is a city located in Chiba Prefecture. , the city had an estimated population of 88,330 in 40,869 households and a population density of 880 persons per km². The total area of the city is Geography Mobara is located in an inland area of north-c ...

Futtsu 260px, Futtsu City Hall is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 42,476 in 18,115 households and a population density of 210 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Futtsu is l ...

*Prefectural Route 27,

-Ōtaki *Prefectural Route 32, Ōtaki- Kimitsu *Prefectural Route 81, Ichihara- Amatsukominato *Prefectural Route 150, Ōtaki-

Ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise ...

*Prefectural Route 172, Ōtaki-Ichihara Satomi *Prefectural Route 177, Katsuura-Ōtaki *Prefectural Route 178, Ōtaki Odashiro- Katsuura *Prefectural Route 231,

Isumi Railroad The is a railway line in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by the third-sector railway operating company Isumi Railway Company. It extends through the central eastern section of the Bōsō Peninsula, linking Ōhara Station in the city of Isum ...

Ōtaki Station-Ōtaki Koyamatsu

Local attractions

Yōrō Ravine * Ōtaki Castle, built in 1521 and demolished in 1871. While the stone base of the current structure is the base of the original castle's ''

tenshu is an architectural typology found in Japanese castle complexes. They are easily identifiable as the highest tower within the castle. Common translations of ''tenshu'' include keep, main keep, or ''donjon''. ''Tenshu'' are characterized as ty ...

'', the present building is a reproduction of the original castle tower. It houses the Ōtaki Branch of the Chiba Prefectural Museum. *Herb Island *Ōtaki Prefectural Forest * Yōrō Ravine *Awamata Waterfall * Ryōgen-ji * Myōhōshō-ji *Watanabe Historical Residence *Central Bōsō Railroad Center

Castle Festival

Ōtaki hosts the ''Oshiro-

matsuri Japanese festivals are traditional festive occasions often celebrated with dance and music in Japan. Many festivals have their roots in traditional Chinese festivals, but have undergone extensive changes over time to have little resemblance ...

'', or castle festival, in September, which involves a parade and various plays and demonstrations on the grounds of one of the town's elementary schools. Representatives from Ōtaki's sister city,

Cuernavaca Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D. The na ...

, often visit to attend the festival.

Sister city relations

* –

, since August 3, 1978

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otaki, Chiba Towns in Chiba Prefecture Ōtaki, Chiba