270px, Bizen City Hall 270px, Imbe neighborhood 270px, Hinase Bay 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

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 32,019 in 15,467 households and 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 120 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Bizen is located in southeastern Okayama Prefecture. It faces the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Ba ...

to the south, and the coastline is intricate and forms part of the

Setonaikai National Park is a Japanese national park, comprising areas of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, and of ten bordering Prefectures of Japan, prefectures. Designated a national park in 1934, it has since been expanded several times. It contains about 3,000 islands, know ...

. Katakami Bay extends into the center of the city. The Hinase area in the southeastern part of the country is dotted with islands. Overall, there are few flat areas and hilly areas, and about 80% of the city is forested. The Yoshinaga district in the northeastern part is a plateau area with an altitude of 300 to 500 meters. The southwestern edge of the city is the easternmost edge of the Okayama Plain, and the plain is slightly open, and the Yoshii River flows from the north to the south at the westernmost edge.

Adjoining municipalities

* Wake

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

* Ako * Kamigōri * Sayō

* Akaiwa * Mimasaka *

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

* Setouchi

Climate

Bizen has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

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'') with very warm summers and cool winters. The average annual temperature in Bizen is 15.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1460 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 27.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.5 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Bizen has been declining for then past 60 years.

History

The Bizen area is part of ancient

Bizen Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area that is eastern Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of western Japan.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mimasaka no Kuni''" in . Bizen bordered Bitchū Province, ...

and has been famous for its

Bizen ware is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally from Bizen province, presently a part of Okayama prefecture. History Bizen ware was traditionally produced in and around the village of Imbe, Okayama, Imbe in Bizen province, from where it received ...

pottery since the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

. During 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 ...

, it was part of the holdings of

Okayama Domain 270px, Ikeda Akimasa 270px, Auditorium of the Shizutani School 270px, Kōraku-en was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now eastern Okayama Prefecture on the island of Honshu. It controlled all of B ...

. 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, the village of

Imbe Multi-Band Excitation (MBE) is a series of proprietary speech coding standards developed by Digital Voice Systems, Inc. (DVSI). Overview In 1967 Osamu Fujimura (MIT) showed basic advantages of the multi-band representation of speech ("An App ...

was established within Wake District, Okayama with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to town status on April 1, 1912. On April 1, 1951, Imbe merged with the town of Kakakami to form the town of Bizen. On April 1, 1971, Bizen was raised to city status. On March 22, 2005, the towns of Hinase and Yoshinaga (both from Wake District) were merged into Bizen. ².

Government

Bizen 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 council of 16 members. Bizen, collectively with the town of Wake, contributes two members to the Okayama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Okayama 1st district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Bizen has long been associated with the pottery industry, and

workshops and pottery shops are concentrated in the Imbe district. The square brick chimneys that can be seen in large numbers in the city are from Bizen ware kilns. However, the core industry of the city is

refractory brick In materials science, a refractory (or refractory material) is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat or chemical attack and that retains its strength and rigidity at high temperatures. They are inorganic, non-metallic compound ...

s, which are made in the Mitsuishi area, as well as

activated carbon Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal, is a form of carbon commonly used to filter contaminants from water and air, among many other uses. It is processed (activated) to have small, low-volume pores that greatly increase the surface ar ...

Commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

is also important in coastal areas, especially the Hirase area which is noted for using

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

for oyster production.

Education

Bizen has ten public elementary schools, five public junior high schools and one public high school operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Okayama prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the disabled.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

(JR West) -

San'yō Main Line The is a major railway line owned by JR Group companies in western Japan, connecting Kōbe Station and Moji Station, largely paralleling the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, in other words, the southern coast of western Honshu. The San'yō Shi ...

* -

(JR West) -

Akō Line is a railway line owned by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) between Aioi, Hyōgo to Okayama, Okayama in Japan. A loop line off the Sanyō Main Line, the Akō Line commences at Aioi, is situated south of the main line approximately parallel ...

* - - - - -

Highways

San'yō Expressway The (Asian Highway Network ) is an expressway in Japan, running from Kobe through Hiroshima along the Inland Sea and terminating in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The entire length of the expressway was opened in 1997. The main line has a total length of ...

* * * *

Sister cities

Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council,

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, Australia since January 1990 Council of Local Authorities for International Relations
/ref>

Local attractions

* Bizen pottery kiln ruins, National Historic Site *

Hakuchō Masamune , born Tadao Masamune, was a noted Japanese critic and writer of fiction, and a leading member of the Japanese Naturalist school of literature. Biography Masamune was born in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, as the eldest (and sickly) son of an old a ...

's birthplace, which is now a museum. * Kōken-ji *former Shizutani School, a Special National Historic Site * Tsuruyama Maruyama Kofun, National Historic Site

Notable people from Bizen

* Masamune Atsuo, researcher of Japanese literature and a poet *

Genkei Masamune was a Japanese botanist. Biography Masamune Genkei worked on the island of Formosa and then, after World War II, at Kanazawa University. He was noted for his comprehensive botanical indexes of Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by a ...

, botanist *

, critic, novelist, and dramatist * Risa Shigetomo,

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance ru ...

Kaneshige Toyo (from Okayama, Japan 1896–1967) was a potter in Imbe, Japan. He helped to establish the Japan Kōgei Association in 1955,A prize honoring Kaneshige's contribution has been offered annually by the Chugoku branch, then East Chugoku branch, of th ...

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US *Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska *Potters, New Jerse ...

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Orix Buffaloes, where he became one of the most decorated pitchers in leag ...

, professional baseball pitcher for the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

References

External links

*
Bizen City official website

Bizen City official website
Cities in Okayama Prefecture Bizen, Okayama Populated coastal places in Japan {{Okayama-geo-stub