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

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 ...

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 51,150, 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 41 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Miyako is located in central Iwate Prefecture, bordered by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the east, with the main urban area fronting on Miyako Bay. It is located at the northern end of the rias coastal area of the Sanriku Coast, east of the prefectural capital of Morioka. The city area is the largest in Iwate Prefecture and the second largest in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

(after Tsuruoka, Yamagata). However, around 90% of the city area is covered by mountains and forest, so the habitable area is only about 9% of the total area, and therefore although the population density per total area is low, but the population density per habitable area exceeds the prefecture average. Miyako is connected to Morioka by an east–west train line and highway and the coastal highway also goes through the town. The city has a small port but much of the shipping traffic is taken by larger cities along the coast. Parts of the coastal area of the city are within the borders of the Sanriku Fukkō National Park, and part of the mountainous interior is within Hayachine Quasi-National Park. The easternmost point of

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

island is at in Miyako. Miyako 20160505

Neighboring municipalities

Iwate Prefecture * Hanamaki * Iwaizumi * Morioka *

Ōtsuchi An is a large wooden war mallet used by the samurai class of feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord- ...

* Tōno * Yamada

Climate

Miyako straddles between a

warm-summer humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

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 ...

''Dfb'') and a hot-summer humid continental climate (''Dfa''), characterized by warm summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Miyako is 10.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1282 mm with September as the wettest month and February as the driest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 0.5 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Miyako peaked in around the year 1960 and has declined steadily over the past 60 years.

History

The area of present-day Miyako was part of ancient Mutsu Province, and has been settled since at least 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 was inhabited by the Emishi people, and came under the control of the

imperial dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

during the early

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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

with the construction a fortified settlement on the coast. During the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

, the area came under the control of the Nambu clan, and was the main seaport for Morioka Domain 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 ...

under the

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 ...

. On 27 January 1700, the coast of Miyako was hit by a tsunami that was a product of the 1700 Cascadia earthquake, destroying 20 homes. The record from Miyako helped provide an exact date for the earthquake. During the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

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 ...

, the Battle of Miyako Bay was one of the major naval engagements of the war. Under 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 ...

establishment of the modern municipalities system, the towns of Miyako and Kuwagasaki were established within Higashihei District. The area was devastated by a tsunami in 1896, which killed 1,859 inhabitants. Higashihei District became part of Shimohei District on 1 April 1897. Miyako and Kuwagasaki merged on 1 April 1924. On 3 March 1933, much of the town was destroyed by the 1933 Sanriku earthquake, which killed 911 people and destroyed over 98% of the buildings in the town. Miyako attained city status on 20 June 1940. On 6 June 2005, Miyako absorbed the town of Tarō, and village of Niisato, more than doubling the old city's size. On 1 January 2010, Miyako absorbed the village of Kawai (also from Shimohei District).

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

On 11 March 2011, Miyako was devastated by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. Only about 30–60 boats survived from the town's 960 ship fishing fleet. A subsequent field study by the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute revealed that the waters had reached at least above sea level, almost equaling the record of the tsunami created by the 1896 Sanriku earthquake. The final reported death toll from the disaster was 420 confirmed dead, 92 missing, and 4,005 buildings destroyed. Some of the most iconic footage of the tsunami, repeatedly broadcast worldwide, was shot in Miyako. It shows a dark black wave cresting and overflowing a floodwall and tossing cars, followed by a fishing ship capsizing as it hit the submerged floodwall and then crushed as it was forced beneath a bridge. At . At .

Government

Miyako 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 legislature of 28 members. Miyako, together with the town of Iwaizumi and the villages of Fudai, Tanohata, and Yamada, collectively contributes three seats to the Iwate Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the village is part of Iwate 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

The local economy of Miyako is based heavily on

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 ...

and food processing.

Education

Colleges

* Miyako Junior College

Primary and secondary education

*Miyako has 21 public elementary schools and 11 public junior high schools operated by the city government. The city has five public high schools operated by the Iwate Prefectural Board of Education and one private high school. Iwate Prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

(JR East) - Yamada Line * - - - - - - - - - - - Sanriku Railway – Rias Line * - - - - - - - - -

Highway

* * * * *

Port

* Port of Miyako

Local attractions

* Cape Todo * Jōdogahama, National Place of Scenic Beauty * Mount Hayachine, one of the

100 Famous Japanese Mountains is a book written in 1964 by Mountaineering, mountaineer and author Kyūya Fukada.Hyakumeizan, Hiking Japan ...

* Sakiyama Shell Mound, a Jōmon-period National Historic Site * Sanriku Fukkō National Park

International relations

* Yantai, Shandong province, China, friendship city since April 1, 1966 * La Trinidad,

Benguet Benguet (), officially the Province of Benguet ('';'' ; ; ; ), is a landlocked Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital cit ...

, Philippines, friendship city since August 7, 1992

Noted people from Miyako

* Toshio Fujiwara, kick-boxer * Nobutoshi Hikage, judoka * Mirai Maiumi, professional wrestler * Tokuichiro Tamazawa, politician

In popular media

*Miyako was a filming location for '' Times of Joy and Sorrow'' starring

Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) a ...

and Keiji Sada in 1957. * Miyako was the hometown of the heroine from the 2022

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

film '' Suzume''. A door similar to one featured in the film was set up as a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

destination for fans.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Iwate Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Port settlements in Japan