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 Yoshida District,

Fukui Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, G ...

, 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 18,746 in 6,262 households and the

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 200 persons per km². The total area of the town was . The town is named for the famous temple of Eihei-ji.

Geography

Eiheiji is located in Yoshida District in northern Fukui Prefecture, in the river valley of the

Kuzuryū River The is a river flowing through Fukui Prefecture, Japan. It has its source at the Aburasaka Pass (油坂峠 ''Aburasaka-tōge'') in the city of Ōno and empties into the Sea of Japan near the city of Sakai. River system Some of the main river ...

Neighbouring municipalities

*Fukui Prefecture ** Awara ** Fukui ** Katsuyama

Climate

Eiheiji has a Humid climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Eiheiji is 14.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2459 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.6 °C.

Demographics

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

History

Eiheiji is part of ancient

Echizen Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Echizen bordered on Kaga, Wakasa, Hida, and Ōmi Provinces. It was part of Hokurikudō Circuit. Its abbreviated for ...

, and has been populated since the Japanese Paleolithic period. Numerous Kofun period remains have been found in the area, which was part of a large '' shōen'' in the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

. During the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

, in 1244, the monk

Dōgen Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 26 January 1200 – 22 September 1253), also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a J ...

established the

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngsh� ...

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

monastery of Eihei-ji, and the present town developed as a ''monzen-machi'' town attached to the temple. 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 ...

, the area was part of the holdings of Fukui Domain. Following 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 ...

, it was organised into part of Yoshida District in Fukui Prefecture. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, the villages of Shihidani, Shimoshihi and Jōhō-ji were established. These villages were merged to form the village of Shihi on March 1, 1954. On September 1, 1962 Shihi was raised to town status, and was renamed Eiheiji. On February 13, 2006 the town of Matsuoka and the village of Kamishihi, both from Yoshida District, were merged into the town of Eiheiji.

Economy

The economy of Eiheiji is heavily dependent on tourist and pilgrim traffic to the temple of Eihei-ji, which is a large seminary for the Sōtō Zen faith.

Aoyama Harp is a Japanese manufacturer of pedal (concert) harps and folk (lever) harps. Founded as the Aoyama Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company by Jitarō Aoyama in 1897 in Fukui, later generations of the family began the commercial manufacture of ...

, the only harp manufacturer in Japan,こども記者　国内唯一のメーカー（永平寺町）取材　「世界のハープ」誇り　精巧彫刻、曲線美に感動　手ほどき受け演奏も on 2016-08-28
Fukui Shimbun (in Japanese), retrieved on 2018-03-04 is located in Eiheiji.

Education

Eiheiji has seven public elementary schools and three middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school. Fukui Prefectural University has a campus at Eiheiji, and the medical school of the

University of Fukui The is a national university of Japan located in the city of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. History University of Fukui was established in 1949 by integrating three national colleges in Fukui Prefecture: , and . The university at first had two facul ...

is also located in the town.

Transportation

Railway

Echizen Railway Katsuyama Eiheiji Line ** - - - - - - - - - -

Highway

* Chubu-Jukan Expressway * *

International relations

* -

Zhangjiagang Zhangjiagang (), formerly Shazhou County (), is a county-level city under the administration of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China and one of the many ports along the Yangtze river. With 1,246,762 inhabitants as of the 2010 census, the city is now ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

, China, friendship city to former Matsuoka Town since August 1997

Local attractions

* Eihei-ji, head temple and seminary of the Sōtō Zen sect * Matsuoka Kofun Cluster, National Historic Site

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Towns in Fukui Prefecture