Mine, Yamaguchi
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270px, Mine city hall 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
Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...
,
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 21,919 in 10661 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 46 persons per km2. The total area of the city is .


Geography

San'yō-Onoda is located in the southwestern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture. It is long in the north-south direction and has a fan shape that opens to 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 ...
. The Asa River flows from the north to the central area, and the Ariho River flows from the northeast to the east, flowing south into the Seto Inland Sea. The city hall is located on the west bank of the Ariho River mouth.


Neighbouring municipalities

Yamaguchi Prefecture * Hagi *
San'yō-Onoda 270px, street in San'yō-Onoda is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,867 in 29,122 households and a population density of 530 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography S ...
*
Shimonoseki file:141122 Shimonoseki City Hall Yamaguchi pref Japan01s3.jpg, 260px, Shimonoseki city hall is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 248,193 in 128,762 households and a pop ...
* Ube * Yamaguchi


Climate

Mine 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 cool winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, but is much higher in summer than in winter. The average annual temperature in Mine is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Mine was on 26 July 2018; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 3 February 2012.


Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Mine in 2020 is 23,247 people. Mine has been conducting censuses since 1920.


Geology

The plateau consists of uplifted reef
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
s of
Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...
age, which were thickened by overfolding during the Akiyoshidai orogenic movement. Subsequent erosion has created an undulating
karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...
landscape dimpled with many dolines and countless limestone pinnacles up to two meters in height. Beneath the surface lie hundreds of caves, a few of them quite significant geologically. Numerous fossils of
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
age have been found in these caves, including those of the Japanese
rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...
,
Stegodon ''Stegodon'' (from the Ancient Greek στέγω (''stégō''), meaning "to cover", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth", named for the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants ...
t elephant,
Naumann elephant ''Palaeoloxodon naumanni'' is an extinct species of elephant belonging to the genus ''Palaeoloxodon'' that was native to the Japanese archipelago during the Middle to Late Pleistocene around 330,000 to 24,000 years ago. It is named after the Germa ...
, Young
tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
, and numerous other animals from the last interglacial period. The area around Akiyoshidai was once heavily forested about 500,000 years ago. In 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 ...
, the area served as a hunting ground and the bottoms of
sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
s as vegetable fields. Numerous
Japanese Paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC, with recent authors suggesting that there is good evi ...
artifacts have been recovered. As farming began in Japan, the local people eventually replaced the forested landscape with
Japanese pampas grass ''Miscanthus sinensis'', the eulalia or Chinese silver grass, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to most of East Asia (China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea) and Southeast Asia (the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, Malay ...
for feeding their animals and thatching houses. Repeated cycles of burning the grass have kept trees from growing back since.


History

The area of Mine was part of ancient
Nagato Province , often called , was a province of Japan. It was at the extreme western end of Honshū, in the area that is today Yamaguchi Prefecture. Nagato bordered on Iwami and Suō Provinces. History Although the ancient capital of the province was Shimono ...
and was part of
Chōshū Domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was based ...
under 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 ...
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
. 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
, the area was divided into 13 villages within
Mine District, Yamaguchi was a district located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. On March 20, 2008, the day before its dissolution, the district consisted solely of the towns of Mitō (美東町) and Shūhō (秋芳町). History * April 1, 1889 - Due to the municipal ...
with the creation of the modern municipalities system. The village of Ota was raised to village status on August 1, 1923, followed by Isa on January 1, 1924 and Omine on May 1, 1939. The city of Mine was created by the merger of Isa and Omine with the villages of Ofuku, Nishiatsu and Higashiatsu on March 31, 1954. On October 1 of the same year, the town of Ota merged with the villages of Ayagi, Managata Agago to form the town of Mitō. The remainder of the district was consolidated into the town of Shūhō on April 1, 1955. On March 21, 2008, Mine absorbed Mitō and Shūhō, and the newly merged city retained the name, Mine.


Government

Mine 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. Mine contributes one member to the Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the
Yamaguchi 3rd district Yamaguchi 3rd district (山口県第3区) is a single-member electoral district for the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. It is located in Western Yamaguchi Prefecture and in ...
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

Mine was noted from ancient times for its copper mines with the Naganobori Copper Mine supplying the copper used in the construction of the Nara Daibutsu and
Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...
''
Wadōkaichin , also romanized as ''Wadō-kaichin'' or called ''Wadō-kaihō'', is the oldest official Japanese currency, Japanese coinage, first mentioned for 29 August 708 on order of Empress Genmei. It was long considered to be the first type of coin prod ...
'' coins. Mine developed as an industrial city due to the production of
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...
and
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
from the Ōmine Coal Field 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
. After the mines were closed, the population decreased sharply and the city has been active in attracting
industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...
s. Tourism centered on Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park is also a major component of the local economy.


Education

Mine has 12 public elementary school and six public junior high schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Yamaguchi Prefectural Board of Education. There are also one private high school.


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) -
Mine Line The is a railway line owned and operated by the West Japan Railway Company. It connects San'yō-Onoda to Nagato, both in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. History The Sanyo Railway Company opened the Asa to Minami-Omine section in 1905 to haul coal ...
* - - - - -


Highways

* Chugoku Expressway * * *


Local attractions

*
Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on 1 November 1955 and has an area of 45.02 km². It includes part of the , a 130 square kilometre area of karst topography, as well as over 400 limestone caves. The ...
, which includes the and Japan's longest cave, the , the latter of which is designated a Special Natural Monument. Akiyoshidai is served by a natural history museum, visitor center, rest house, youth hostel and park headquarters building, and is traversed by a scenic roadway and several walking trails. Events include a fireworks festival in July, a “Karst Walk” in November, and an annual burning off of dry grasses in February called “Yamayaki”. Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park is situated within the Mine-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark. * Akiyoshido, . Towards the southern end of Akiyoshidai is the Akiyoshido
cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
, named by emperor
Hirohito , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...
on May 30, 1926 when he was still
crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...
. This spacious cave is up to 100 meters wide and has 8.79 kilometers of passages, making it the longest in Japan and one of the longest in Asia. At the present time an approximately one-kilometer-long section of the cave is open to the public as a sightseeing course, with a walkway and bridge system, entering at the cave's lowest point and exiting via an artificial elevator. This portion of the cave is also well decorated with a variety of large and colorful
speleothem A speleothem (; ) is a geological formation made by mineral deposits that accumulate over time in natural caves. Speleothems most commonly form in calcareous caves due to carbonate dissolution reactions. They can take a variety of forms, depen ...
s. * Mine-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark File:Akiyoshi-do-entrance.jpg, Akiyoshi-do cave File:Gold Column at Akiyoshi Cave.jpg, Stalactite called "Gold Column" File:Akiyoshidai 001.jpg, View of Karst landscape


Notable people from Mine

*
Mayu Iwatani (born February 19, 1993) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Dream Star Fighting Marigold, where she is the current Marigold Super Fly Champion in her first reign. She is best known for her tenure with World Wonder Ring Sta ...
, acclaimed professional wrestler with
World Wonder Ring Stardom , is a Japanese ''joshi puroresu'' or women's professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan. Stardom was founded in September 2010 by former All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) co-producer Ross ...
and
Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011; the promotion was subs ...
* Sekinari Nii, former
governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
of Yamaguchi Prefecture *
Kazuaki Okazaki was a Japanese convicted multiple murderer and former member of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo who co-perpetrated the Sakamoto family murder and another murder in 1989. Immediately after the Sakamoto murders, he abandoned the cult and turned hi ...
, executed convicted murderer and former member of
Aum Shinrikyo , better known by their former name , is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religious movement and doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been respo ...
(
Sakamoto family murder On November 5, 1989, Tsutsumi Sakamoto (坂本 堤 ''Sakamoto Tsutsumi'' April 6, 1956 – November 5, 1989), a lawyer working on a class action lawsuit against Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday cult in Japan, was murdered, along with his wife Satoko a ...
and
Tokyo subway sarin attack The was a Chemical terrorism, chemical domestic terrorism, domestic terrorist attack perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three line ...
)


References


External links

*
Mine City official website


{{Authority control Cities in Yamaguchi Prefecture Mine, Yamaguchi