Miyagi Prefecture
Template:Infobox Prefecture Japan Miyagi Prefecture (宮城県, Miyagi-ken) is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island.[1] The capital is Sendai.[2]
History
Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu.[3] Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the largest as it expanded northward. The ancient capital was in modern Miyagi Prefecture.
In the third month of second year of the Wadō era (709), there was an uprising against governmental authority in Mutsu Province and in nearby Echigo Province. Troops were promptly dispatched to subdue the revolt.[4]
In Wadō 5 (712), the land of Mutsu Province was administratively separated from Dewa Province. Empress Gemmei's Daijō-kan continued to organize other cadastral changes in the provincial map of the Nara period, as in the following year when Mimasaka Province was divided from Bizen Province; Hyūga Province was sundered from Osumi Province; and Tamba Province was severed from Tango Province.[4]
During the Sengoku period various clans ruled different parts of the province. The Uesugi clan had a castle town at Wakamatsu in the south, the Nambu clan at Morioka in the north, and Date Masamune, a close ally of the Tokugawa, established Sendai, which is now the largest town of the Tōhoku region.
In the Meiji period, four new provinces were created from parts of Mutsu: Rikuchū, Rikuzen, Iwaki, and Iwashiro.
The area that is now Aomori Prefecture continued to be part of Mutsu until the abolition of the han system and the nation-wide conversion to the prefectural structure of modern Japan.
Date Masamune built a castle at Sendai as his seat to rule Mutsu. In 1871, Sendai Prefecture was formed. It was renamed Miyagi prefecture the following year.
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a subsequent major tsunami hit Miyagi Prefecture, causing major damage to the area.[5] The tsunami was estimated to be approximately 10 meters high in Miyagi Prefecture.[6]
On April 7, 2011: 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes off coast of Miyagi, Japan, Japan's meteorological agency says. Workers were then evacuated from the nearby troubled Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear facility once again, as a tsunami warning was issued for the coastline. Residents were told to flee for inner land at this time.
Officials from the U.S. Geological Survey later downgraded the magnitude to 7.1 from 7.4.[7]
Geography
Miyagi Prefecture is in the central part of Tōhoku, facing the Pacific Ocean, and contains Tōhoku's largest city, Sendai. There are high mountains on the west and along the northeast coast, but the central plain around Sendai is fairly large.
Matsushima is known as one of the three most scenic views of Japan, with a bay full of 260 small islands covered in pine groves.
Oshika Peninsula projects from the northern coastline of the prefecture.
As of 31 March 2008, 23% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as Natural Parks, namely the Rikuchū Kaigan National Park; Kurikoma, Minami Sanriku Kinkasan, and Zaō Quasi-National Parks; and Abukuma Keikoku, Asahiyama, Funagata Renpō, Futakuchi Kyōkoku, Kenjōsan Mangokuura, Kesennuma, Matsushima, and Zaō Kōgen Prefectural Natural Parks.[8]
Cities
There are thirteen cities are in Miyagi Prefecture:
Towns and villages
These are the towns and villages in each district:
Mergers
Future mergers
- Both towns within Watari District are planning to merge and create a new city under the name of Watari. Watari District will dissolve if the city is created.[9]
Economy
Although Miyagi has a good deal of fishing and agriculture, producing a great deal of rice and livestock, it is dominated by the manufacturing industries around Sendai, particularly electronics, appliances, and food processing.
As of March 2011, the prefecture produced 4.7% of Japan's rice, 23% of oysters, and 15.9% of saury fish.[10]
In July 2011, the Japanese government decided to ban all shipments of beef cattle from northeast Miyagi Prefecture over fears of radioactive contamination.[11] This has since been rescinded.
Education
University
- Miyagi University
- Miyagi University of Education
- Miyagi Gakuin Women's University
- Sendai University
- Sendai Shirayuri Women's College
- Tohoku University
- Tohoku Gakuin University
- Tohoku Bunka Gakuen University
- Tohoku Institute of Technology
- Tohoku Fukushi University
- Tohoku Seikatsu Bunka College
- Tohoku Pharmaceutical University
- Shokei Gakuin University
- Ishinomaki Senshu University
Transportation
Train
- Sendai Municipal Subway Nanboku Line
- Abukuma Express Railway
- Sendai Airport Railway
Roads
Expressways and toll roads
- Tohoku Expressway
- Yamagata Expressway
- Sanriku Expressway
- Sendai East Road
- Sendai North Road
- Sendai South Road
National highways
- Route 4 (Nihonbashi of Tokyo–Kasukabe–Utsunomiya–Koriyama–Sendai–Furukawa–Ichinoseki–Morioka–Towada–Aomori)
- Route 6 (Nihonbashi of Tokyo–Mito–Iwaki–Soma–Sendai)
- Route 45 (Sendai–Ishinomaki–Ofunato–Kamaishi–Kuji–Hachinohe–Towada)
- Route 47 (Furukawa–Narugo–Shinjyo–Sakata)
- Route 48 (Sendai–Yamagata)
- Route 108
- Route 113
- Route 286
- Route 342
- Route 346
- Route 347
- Route 349
- Route 398
- Route 399
- Route 456
- Route 457
Ports
- Sendai Port – Ferry route to Tomakomai, Hokkaido and Nagoya, container hub port
- Ishinomaki Port – Ferry route to Mount Kinka, Tashiro Island and Tashiro Island. Many fishing boats base in Miyagi.
- Matsushima Bay
Airports
Sports
The sports teams listed below are based in Miyagi Prefecture.
Visitor attractions
Sendai was the castle town of the daimyo Date Masamune. The remains of Sendai Castle stand on a hill above the city.
Miyagi Prefecture boasts one of Japan's three greatest sights. Matsushima, the pine-clad islands, dot the waters off the coast of the prefecture.
The following are also noted as attractions:
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Famous festivals and events
- Sendai New Year's traditional Sale on January 2
- Shiroishi Kokeshi Exhibition, May 3–5
- Aoba Festival, Suzume Dancing event in May
- Shiogama Port Festival in July
- Sendai Tanabata Festival, August 6–8
- Narugo Kokeshi Festival in September [citation needed]
- Sendai Pageant of Starlight in December
Notes
- ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Miyagi prefecture" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 648, p. 648, at Google Books; "Tōhoku" in p. 970, p. 970, at Google Books.
- ^ Nussbaum, "Sendai" in p. 841, p. 841, at Google Books.
- ^ Nussbaum, "Provinces and prefectures" in p. 780, p. 780, at Google Books
- ^ a b Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, p. 64.
- ^ "Japan earthquake: Tsunami hits north-east". BBC News. March 11, 2011.
- ^ http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Devastating-Tsunami-Strikes-Northeastern-Japan-117803999.html
- ^ "CBS News World". April 7, 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
- ^ "General overview of area figures for Natural Parks by prefecture" (PDF). Ministry of the Environment. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
- ^ "カーシェアリングがわかった！". Retrieved 2008-06-14.
- ^ Schreiber, Mark, "Japan's food crisis goes beyond recent panic buying", Japan Times, 17 April 2011, p. 9.
- ^ http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=710867&publicationSubCategoryId=200
References
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
- Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691
External links
- Official Miyagi Prefecture homepage Template:Ja icon
- Official Miyagi Prefecture homepage last accessed on March 25, 2007
- Official information of each merger in Miyagi Prefecture last accessed on March 25, 2007
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