Shido district Sanuki city center area Aerial photograph

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 ...

Kagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kagawa Prefecture has a population of 949,358 (as of 2020) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, smallest prefecture by geographic area at . Kagawa Pr ...

, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 46,016 in 20847 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 and a population density of 290 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Sanuki is located in northeast Kagawa Prefecture, on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

, facing 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 north, and the

Sanuki Mountains The are a mountain range running along the southern border of Kagawa and the northern border of Tokushima prefectures on the island of Shikoku, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northe ...

to the south. The city lies just east of the prefecture capital, Takamatsu.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kagawa Prefecture * Higashikagawa * Miki *

Takamatsu file:Takamatsu City Hall.jpg, 270px, Takamatsu City Hall file:Takamatsu city center area Aerial photograph.2007.jpg, 270px, Aerial view of Takamatsu city center file:Takamatsu200910cut.JPG, 270px, View from Yashima to Takashima port is a capital ...

Tokushima Prefecture * Awa * Mima

Climate

Sanuki 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 ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sanuki is 15.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1606 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in January, at around 26.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Sanuki has been relatively steady since the 1960s.

History

The area of Sanuki was part of ancient

Sanuki Province was a province of Japan in the area of northeastern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Sanuki''" in . Sanuki bordered on Awa to the south, and Iyo to the west. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō system, ...

and has been inhabited since ancient times, with many

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumulus, tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞 ...

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

s found within the city limits. 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 ...

, the area was part of the territories of

Takamatsu Domain 270px, Matsudaira Yoritoshi. pre-1903 270px, Takamatsu Castle Tsukimi Yagura was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Takamatsu C ...

. 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 ...

, out became part of Sangawa District, Ehime Prefecture in 1878, which became part of Kagawa Prefecture in 1888. The village of Shido was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on February 15,1890, and was elevated to town status on February 11, 1898. The area became part of

Ōkawa District, Kagawa was a former district in Kagawa 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 ...

in 1899. The city of Sanuki was created in 2002 by merging Shido with the neighboring town of Tsuda, Nagao, Sangawa and Ōkawa.Topics
Sanuki-shi Official website in Japanese

Government

Sanuki 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 20 members. Sanuki contributes two members to the Ehime Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is in the Kagawa 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

Sanuki has a mixed economy centered on agriculture and manufacturing, with a number of

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 .

Education

Sanuki has seven public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government, and three public high schools operated by the Kagawa Prefectural Board of Education. In addition, there is one private high school.

Transportation

Railways

JR Shikoku The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four Prefectures of Japan, prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Jap ...

Kōtoku Line The is a railway line in northeastern Shikoku, Japan that connects the prefectural capitals Takamatsu ( Kagawa) and Tokushima (Tokushima). Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku) owns and operates the line, whose name comes from the characters in ...

* - - - - - Kotoden Logo V

Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railroad , officially for short, is a transportation company in Kagawa Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, Japan. With headquarters in Takamatsu, the company operates three passenger railway lines, as well as bus subsidiaries. It was established on 1 No ...

- Nagao Line * Kotoden Logo V

- Shido Line *

Highways

Takamatsu Expressway The is an expressway in the Shikoku region of Japan. The expressway is numbered E11. Overview The expressway is an important route connecting the greater Osaka area with Takamatsu, the capital of Kagawa Prefecture. Beyond Takamatsu, the route ...

* *

Sister cities

Eisenstadt Eisenstadt (; ; ; or ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Austria, Austrian state of Burgenland. With a population of 15,074 (as of 2023), it is the smallest state capital and the 38th-largest city in Austria overall. It lies at the foot o ...

, Austria, since October 11, 1993

Local attractions

* Dolphin Center * Kagawa Prefectural Kikaku park * Nagao-ji, 87th temple in the Shikoku Pilgrimage, which holds ''Shamisen-mochitsuki'', an annual New Year's event on January 2. * Ōkubo-ji, 88th and final temple in the Shikoku Pilgrimage *

Shido-ji Shido-ji (志度寺) is a Buddhist temple in Sanuki, Kagawa, Japan. It is the 86th site of the Shikoku Pilgrimage. History The temple was founded in 625, when Chikako, a member of a marine group, sculpted a statue of Ekādaśamukha on a sacred t ...

, 86th temple in the

Shikoku Pilgrimage The or is a multi-site pilgrimage of 88 temples associated with the Buddhist monk Kūkai (''Kōbō Daishi'') on the island of Shikoku, Japan. A popular and distinctive feature of the island's cultural landscape, and with a long history, ...

* Tomida Chausuyama Kofun, National Historic Site * Tsuda Kofun Cluster, National Historic Site * Tsukahara no karafuro, the oldest sauna in Japan.

Gallery

References

External links

* * Cities in Kagawa Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan {{Kagawa-geo-stub