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 ...

in Iburi Subprefecture,

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

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 ...

. Date was established around 1869, and became a city on April 1, 1972.

History

Remains of settlements from the

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

have been found in the Date area. The Ainu, the native inhabitants of Hokkaido, also maintained a settlement at another location nearby until the beginning of the 20th century, when the Ainu were mostly assimilated into Japanese society. The name of the area comes from the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date fam ...

, who rose to power in the 12th century in Fukushima, on the mainland. Before 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 ...

, their home castle was the Yanagawa castle in Date District, Fukushima. Later, it became the

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

castle. The Date clan ruled the whole of

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

as well as the southern part of

Iwate Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture (behind Hokkaido) at , with a population of 1,165,886 (as of July 1, 2023). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Pre ...

, and was one of the most influential ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

s''. During the

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 ...

, many samurai, including the Date clan, lost their territories due to the political changes of 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 ...

. In 1869, a branch family of the Date clan from Watari-Date moved to and settled at the south coast of the then-uncultivated Hokkaido. This was the foundation of Date. On March 1, 2006, the village of Ōtaki, from Usu District, was merged into Date.

Geography

Date is home to Mount Usu () and the Osaru River. As a result of city and village merges, Date can essentially be divided into two sections: the Otaki Forest area and the Date Historic City area. Otaki Forest is home to Sankaidaki Falls and the Shirakinu River Bed. Date Historic City contains buildings that were built by the samurai, the most famous of which is the Usu-Zenkou temple.

Climate

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Date has remained relatively steady over the pats half-century.

Education

High schools

* Hokkaido Date High School * Hokkaido Date Midorigaoka High School

Transportation

Date lies at the conjunction of National Highway Route 37 and Route 453. Date can be accessed via the Date Interchange from the expressway or via Date-Mombetsu Station operated by

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to by its official abbreviation: . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a smart c ...

. * Muroran Main Line: Usu - Nagawa - Date-Mombetsu - Kita-Funaoka - Mareppu - Kogane * Hokkaido Expressway: Usuzan SA - Date IC

Sister cities

* Watari, Miyagi (sister town) * Shinchi, Fukushima (sister town) * Yamamoto, Miyagi (sister town) * Shibata, Miyagi (friendship town) * Lake Cowichan,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

(sister town) *

Hirakata, Osaka 260px, Hirakata Park is a city in northeastern Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 397,681 in 183075 households and a population density of 6100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Hirakat ...

(cultural exchanges) * Zhangzhou,

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(sister city)

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Date, Hokkaido Cities in Hokkaido