290px, Makurazaki City Hall 290px, Makurazaki Osakana Center 290px, Tategami Rock 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

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

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 19,006 in 10,377 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 250 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Makurazaki is located at the southern tip of the

Satsuma Peninsula The Satsuma Peninsula (薩摩半島 ''Satsuma-hantō'') is a peninsula which projects south from the southwest part of Kyūshū Island, Japan. To the west lies the East China Sea, while to the east it faces the Ōsumi Peninsula across Kagoshima ...

, and faces the

East China Sea The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...

to the south. The main urban area is near the mouth of the Kedagawa River. The north is forested, the west is a plateau that continues to the Noma Peninsula, and the east is also a plateau called the Minamisatsuma Plateau.

Surrounding municipalities

Kagoshima Prefecture * Minamikyushu * Minamisatsuma

Climate

Makurazaki 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 hot summers and mild winters. Precipitation is high throughout the year, and is especially high from May to July. The highest record temperature was on August 18, 2020 while the lowest recorded temperature was on February 19, 1977. The Japanese know the city as the "Typhoon Ginza" (after

Ginza Ginza ( ; ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

). Each summer many

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

s strike the Japanese main islands land first in the area of Makurazaki.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Makurazaki in 2020 is 20,033 people. Makurazaki has been conducting a census since 1920, and the city's population peaked in the 1950s at more than 35,000 people; the population has declined slowly since then. The population of Makurazaki in 2020 is only 70% of the 1955 census.

History

The area of Makurazaki is part of ancient

Satsuma Province was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Satsuma" in . Its abbreviation was . History Satsuma's provincial capital was Satsumasendai. Dur ...

and was part of the holdings of

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

in 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 ...

. The village of Tonangata in Kawabe District was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Tonangata was raised to town status on July 1, 1923 and renamed Makurazaki. On September 17, 1945 the Makurazaki Typhoon made landfall at Makurazaki and killed 12 people, destroying 2,339 houses. (Nationwide, 2,473 people were killed, 1,283 were missing, 89,839 houses were damaged, and 273,888 houses were flooded.) Makurazaki was raised to city status on September 1, 1949. Plans to merge Makurazaki and neighboring

Chiran, Kagoshima was a town located in Kawanabe District, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Chiran is famous for producing Japanese tea. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 13,667 and the density of 113.71 persons per km2. The total area was 120.19 ...

were defeated in 2004, with Chiran subsequently becoming part of Minamikyushu.

Government

Makurazaka 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 14 members. Makurazaka contributes one member to the Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Kagoshima 2nd 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

Minamisatsuma has a rural economy based on commercial fishing and food processing. It is famous for its ''

katsuobushi is simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'', sometimes referred to as bonito). It is also known as bonito flakes or broadly as . Shaved ''katsuobushi'' and dried kelp—''kombu''—are the main ingredients of ...

'' processing plants, which produce the chief flavoring ingredient—dried fish flakes—found in Japanese

miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji (the fungus ''Aspergillus oryzae''), and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spreads; p ...

soup. About 70 small family businesses year-round boil, cut, dry and smoke the pungent fish, often sending a unique odor of steam, smoke and fish scent across the downtown area and out to sea.

Education

Makurazaka has four public elementary schools and four public junior high schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Kagoshima Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railways

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan. It formerly operated the Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait be ...

Ibusuki Makurazaki Line The is a railway line in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). It connects Kagoshima-Chūō Station in Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Kagoshima, to Makurazaki Station in Makurazaki, Kagoshima, Makurazaki, paral ...

: - -

Highways

* * *

References

External links

Makurazaki City official website

Makurazaki Katsuobushi official website
* {{Authority control Cities in Kagoshima Prefecture Makurazaki, Kagoshima Populated coastal places in Japan