is a small peninsula

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Nishiuwa District,

Ehime Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,334,841 and a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...

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 town 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 8,497 in 15638 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 90 persons per km². The total area of the town is Following a recent

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with the neighboring towns of

Misaki Misaki (, "misaki") are a collective term for spirit-like existences in Japan like gods, demons and spirits, among other supernatural entities. Their name comes from a kannushi's vanguard. Summary Misaki are subordinate to the high-ranking di ...

and

Seto Seto may refer to: Places *Seto, Aichi, production place of Japanese pottery and venue of Expo 2005 * Seto, Ehime, facing the Seto Inland Sea * Seto, Okayama, adjacent to Okayama, in Okayama Prefecture *Seto Inland Sea of Japan *Setomaa (''Seto ...

, the town now spans the mountainous Sadamisaki Peninsula, the narrowest peninsula in Japan and the westernmost point 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 ...

. This unique geography has greatly influenced Ikata's growth. On the one hand, it has presented significant challenges to urban development that were not overcome until recently in the town's long history. On the other, the peninsula is what gives the town its beautiful mountain and ocean scenery which, bolstered by significant investments in infrastructure and tourist facilities, has formed the basis for a burgeoning tourism industry. In addition to the beauty of its rugged, natural landscape, Ikata has long been known for fishing and

mikan ''Citrus unshiu'' is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as the satsuma mandarin or Japanese mandarin. During the Edo period of Japan, kishu mikans were more popular because there was a popular superstition that eating '' ...

orange farming. In recent years Ikata has also become a hotspot of modern energy production—the

Ikata Nuclear Power Plant The is a nuclear power plant in the town of Ikata in the Nishiuwa District of Ehime Prefecture, Japan. It is the only nuclear plant on the island of Shikoku. It is owned and operated by the Shikoku Electric Power Company. The plant was shu ...

produced much of Shikoku's electricity until it was shut down in 2012 following the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

(before being reactivated in 2018), and the town's windy mountains are dotted by dozens of windmills.

Geography

Ikata is on the Sadamisaki Peninsula, Japan's narrowest peninsula and the westernmost point on the island of

. The peninsula is extremely mountainous, with steep cliffs and precious little usable flat land. To combat this, the town's bays and ponds have seen vigorous coastal reclamation efforts dating back to the early

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 ...

(late 1800s). Ikata's mountainsides are covered with terraced

fields, and natural forest in the undeveloped areas. The various neighborhoods of Ikata are found nestled among the foothills of the mountains, connected only by winding coastal roads and a single highway, Route 197. The biggest of the neighborhoods and the administrative center of Ikata is Minatoura, near the eastern edge of the town. Ikata is surrounded on three sides by ocean—the Iyo Sea (part of the

Inland Sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large in area and is either completely surrounded by dry land (landlocked), or connected to an ocean by a river, strait or " arm of ...

) to the north, the Uwa Sea (

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 south, and the

Hōyo Strait The is the strait at the narrowest part of the Bungo Channel in 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 ...

(separating

from

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

) to the west.

Neighbouring municipalities

Yawatahama is a Cities of Japan, city located in of Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 31,385 in 15,638 households and a population density of 240 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Yawatahama i ...

Climate

The climate in Ikata is warm, with an average year-round temperature of and 1,500 ml of yearly rain. The coldest parts of winter remain above freezing (5 °C or 41 °F on average), with snowfall seen only once or twice per year. Rain is concentrated in the

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

in June and July, and also in September. The length of the peninsula makes accurate weather prediction difficult for the town; when driving down Melody Line, it is not uncommon to find it sunny between one set of tunnels, rainy between another, and foggy between yet another. Ikata's position, stretching out into the ocean, also makes it a frequent target for

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 ...

Demographics

Ikata is a small town, with a population of 8,196 as of June 30, 2023. The total land area of the town is 94.37 km², making the

113 persons per km². However, much of the land on the peninsula is quite mountainous and not suited for development; the population density of the individual settlements, which are squeezed into the small bay areas in the foothills of the mountains, is much higher. Extrapolating from data based on the most recent land survey, only 3.21% of the town's land is inhabited; this puts the population density at a much higher 3,510 persons/kilometer-squared. Like much of rural Japan, Ikata faces a rapidly declining and aging population. According to the Ikata website, roughly 40% of the town's population is 65 or older. Furthermore, many elementary and middle schools have closed since the 1970s. Those that remain have very small student populations. For example, Ikata Elementary School is Ikata's largest elementary school; there were 303 students in 1987, 162 in 2006, and 128 in 2014; Toyonoura Elementary was Old Ikata's smallest school; it had 51 students in 1987, and only 14 in 2007. before it closed in 2010. Currently, Futami Elementary is Ikata's smallest Elementary school with 21 students. However, plans are in effect to close the school at the end of the current fiscal year (April, 2015). This population issue was a significant part of the impetus for the recent merger of Old Ikata with

and

. While Old Ikata is geographically more accessible, and has enjoyed the economic benefits of the

, Seto and Misaki have experienced even more severe aging and decline of their populations. In 2000, Seto's working-age population dipped below 50% of its total. Ethnically Ikata is extremely homogeneous with only a handful of non-Japanese residents, most of whom are either temporary farm laborers from China, or English educators on the

JET Programme The , shortly as , is a teaching program sponsored by the Japanese government that brings university graduates to Japan as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs), Sports Education Advisors (SEAs) or as Coordinators for International Relations (CI ...

. Per Japanese census data, the population of Ikata has been decreasing steadily since the 1950s, and is now less than third of what it was a century ago.

History

Prehistory

The Sadamisaki Peninsula area has been inhabited 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 ...

(10,000–300 BC), as evidenced by the discovery of stone tools and

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

pots in the Misaki and Kushi neighborhoods. In 1963 a local man discovered a stone ax dating to the mid-

Yayoi period The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...

(300 BC–250 AD) in his farm plot in the Kawachi neighborhood. Upon further investigation by the Japan Archaeological Society in 1986, the area was recognized as containing the remains of a . This is a type of settlement usually located several tens of meters above the surrounding area on mountainsides, and is peculiar to the Yayoi period.

Classical era

After the

Taika Reform The were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 ''Kōtoku tennō'') in the year 645. They were written shortly after the death of Prince Shōtoku and the defeat of the Soga clan (蘇我氏 ''Soga no uji''), uniting Jap ...

of 646, Ikata and the greater surrounding area became known as the Uwa District in 701. The Uwa District covered the entire Nanyo region (

map A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

) until it was split in two in 866. Since districts were defined by population, one can infer that the area was underdeveloped and sparsely populated at the time.

Feudal era

Towards the end of the

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 ...

, the

and Ikata area became known as . As ownership of farmlands became increasingly concentrated in the hands of local ruling families, control of the Yano area was given to Taira no Tadamitsu, a member of the Heike clan. Some members of the Heike family secretly settled in the Seto area in 1185 after being defeated in the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira clan, Taira and Minamoto clan, Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yori ...

s.Ikata-Seto-Misaki Merger Conference No. 9 Reference Material
September 29, 2005 (PDF). Entering 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 ...

and 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 ...

, the Uwa District came under control of the . From 1610 to 1612, the first Uwajima feudal lord,

Tomita Nobutaka is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese politician *, Japanese gymnast *, Japanese electronic music composer *, Japanese swimmer who participated in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome *, Japanese musician * Kishti ...

, gathered farmers from the local area to dig a canal through the thinnest part of the Sadamisaki Peninsula, Seto's Mitsukue neighborhood. The project was soon canceled due to insufficient funds. By this time, the name can be seen in records of taxes paid to the feudal lords.The Mitsukue neighborhood prospered as a port town during the feudal period, as it was used as a port of rest for ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' on their way to and from the capital as part of the ''

sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' (, now commonly written as ) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period, created to control the daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan, politically, and to keep them from attempting to overthrow the regi ...

'' system. This traffic was likely the source of the demand for Nobutaka's abortive attempt to create a shortcut through the peninsula.

Modern era

A decade 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 ...

, in March 1878 the Uwa District was divided into the current Kitauwa, Minamiuwa, Higashiuwa, and Nishiuwa districts (North-, South-, East-, and West-Uwa, respectively). Ikata was designated a in 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system, and other neighborhoods along the peninsula soon followed suit, many merging to reduce the number of independent settlements from 26 to 6. More recently, Seto's Mitsukue Bay was used for

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

training operations by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

leading up to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, as the bay's shape is similar to that of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

. A monument named stands in Suka Park in Mitsukue as a memorial dedicated to the nine young men (ages 21–28) who were stationed in the Mitsukue area for these exercises. According to the plaque on the monument, the men were quite friendly with the locals, and stories are still told about them in the neighborhood to this day. The men died on December 8, 1941, during one of the initial attacks on Pearl Harbor. In 1955 another round of mergers corresponding to the Great Shōwa Merger reduced the number of municipal entities to three. In 1977 the

began operation as the first nuclear power plant on the island of Shikoku. On April 1, 2005, Ikata merged with the nearby towns of

and

to create the new town of Ikata, which spans the Sadamisaki Peninsula. The installation of many new windmills in 2006 and 2007 solicited a significant amount of noise complaints from nearby residents. On March 2014, national attention turned to Ikata as the towns elections near. Many wondered if Ikata would approve the restart of its nuclear power generators.

Timeline

*March 1878 — Meiji reforms create the Nishiuwa District *1889 — Ikata is designated a village. *March 31, 1955 — The villages of Ikata and Machimi merge, forming the old town of Ikata *September 30, 1977 — Reactor No. 1 of the

begins operation *April 1, 2005 — The towns of

and

were merged into Ikata to form the new and expanded town of Ikata

Government and politics

Ikata 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 13 members. Ikata together with Yawatahama, contributes two members to the Ehime Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, Ikata is part of Ehime 3rd 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 ...

. Prior to 2022, the town was part of Ehime 4th district. Ikata experienced significant political turbulence leading up to and immediately following the April 1, 2005

with

and

. To begin with, multiple potential merger plans were put forth, one of which was for all of the

contiguous Contiguity or contiguous may refer to: *Contiguous data storage, in computer science *Contiguity (probability theory) *Contiguity (psychology) *Contiguous distribution of species, in biogeography *Geographic contiguity Geographic contiguity is t ...

Nishiuwa District towns (Misaki, Seto, Old Ikata, and Honai) to merge. However, when Honai announced that it would merge with the nearby city of

, polls indicated that Misaki residents still preferred to merge with Honai and Yawatahama, rather than Seto and Old Ikata, despite their being discontiguous (a Misaki-Honai-Yawatahama merger would make Misaki an

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

). Ultimately this was found to be impractical, and the Misaki-Seto-Ikata merger was approved with some grumbling over the naming of the new town. Once the merger was decided upon, suggestions for the new town's name were solicited from the residents. Despite the many other reasonable suggestions and the seeming unfairness toward Seto and Misaki, the "new" name was chosen to be "Ikata." Following the merger a heated mayoral race was held, with 11 members of incumbent Kiyoyoshi Nakamoto's campaign arrested for electoral fraud. Challenger ''Yoshihisa Hatanaka'' ultimately won, only to be arrested in February 2006 for corruption relating to government construction contracts. He resigned soon thereafter. A second race was held in April 2006, with Kazuhiko Yamashita defeating rival Kiyohiko Takakado by only 90 votes. Voter turnout was 87.43%. There has been and remains political resistance among some Ikata residents to the nuclear power plant. The most recent mayoral election took place on April 13, 2014 which found incumbent Yamashita in seat for his third term as mayor. 85.33% of the total 9,190 eligible voters turning out to cast a ballot. Mr. Yamashita garnered a total of 3,266 of the electorate while a certain Mr. Yoshihisa Hatanaka (see above) came in second place with a total of 2,399 votes. A non-Ikata resident of the "People Who Don't Need Nukes" Party (原発いらない人々) managed to win slightly more than 1% of the electorate with 104 votes.

Economy

Ikata's main industries are farming (largely citrus fruits such as

s), fishing, and electrical power. Ikata produces a substantial fraction of Shikoku's electricity. There are two main power production methods currently in use.

Wind power

The former town of Seto erected eleven Mitsubishi MWT-1000 wind generators in January 2002. The Old Ikata installed two Vestas V52-850 kW generators in March 2005. Together they have an expected yearly energy output of 34,700 MWh. Ikata is investing heavily in wind power infrastructure, with 45 additional towers currently under construction. The town plans to have a total of 60 generators within the next few years.

Nuclear power

Ikata is the site of Shikoku's only nuclear power plant. The Ikata Nuclear Power Plant has two Mitsubishi 538 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor units with the Two Reactor Coolant Loop design (similar to the original Westinghouse design at Prairie Island, Kewaunee, and Point Beach plants) and one Mitsubishi Pressurized Water Reactor unit with the Three Reactor Coolant Loop design (similar to the Westinghouse Surry, North Anna, and

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

plants). Units 1 and 2 started up on September 30, 1977 and March 19, 1981 respectively. Unit 3 is a three loop PWR rated at 846 MWe that started up on December 15, 1994. April 1, 2007, marked a milestone for the Ikata plant as it reached a total of 300 million

kilowatt-hours A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...

of energy generated since beginning operations in 1977.

Education

Ikata has six public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government. The city has one public high school operated by the Ehime Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railways

Ikata has no passenger rail service. The closest station is the

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 ...

Yawatahama Station on the

Yosan Line The is the principal railway line on the island of Shikoku in Japan, connecting the major cities of Shikoku, and via the Honshi-Bisan Line, with Honshu. It is operated by the Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku), and is aligned approximately p ...

Highways

Background

Due to Ikata's length and mountainous terrain, regular bus service did not reach the tip of the peninsula until the 1960s. Until then, the only public transportation available was local ferries that connected the bays of each neighborhood. In 1963, the original Japan National Route 197 was completed. It follows the coastline, and is thus extremely winding and narrow, with very little room for cars to pass. Traversing the peninsula by this route takes hours and can be quite nerve-wracking; this earned it the ire of the locals, who came up with a disparaging nickname that is a pun on the actual name: .

Modern day

The Ikata leg of the new National Route 197 was completed in 1987 and is the heart of transportation in modern Ikata, affectionately nicknamed "Melody Line". This nickname later spawned a

musical road A musical road is a road, or section of a road, which when driven over causes a Somatosensory system, tactile vibration and Hearing, audible rumbling that can be felt through the wheels and body of the vehicle. This rumbling is heard within the ...

portion of the road built to celebrate its anniversary that was completed and added in 2011, so the road could literally have a "melody". The road "plays" parts of two Japanese songs when certain sections of the road are driven over. Unlike the old roads, Melody Line boasts two full lanes and runs relatively straight down the peninsula. Seated high in the mountains, drivers can enjoy views of both the Pacific Ocean and Inland Sea. The route terminates at Misaki and continues over to

by ferries that connect Misaki Port with Saganoseki ( Ōita, Ōita) and

Beppu, Ōita file:Beppu City Hall.jpg, 270px, Beppu City Hall is a city in Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. As of November 30, 2023, the city had a population of 113,045 in 62,702 households, and a population density of 900 persons per km2. ...

. Melody Line is such an improvement over the old roads that it has become a significant Ehime sightseeing attraction in itself, with many tourists coming to see cherry blossoms in the spring. Together with the city of Iyo's seaside Route 378, Melody Line makes one of the prefecture's recommended sightseeing routes, and one of JTB's .

Iyo Railway The , commonly known as Iyotetsu, is the main transport provider in Matsuyama, Ehime, Shikoku, Japan. The company operates railway, tram, and bus lines, and also has many subsidiaries, which include a bank, department stores, travel agencies, a ...

bus service runs up and down the peninsula, to and from

, and offers express buses from Misaki to

Matsuyama 270px, Matsuyama City Hall 270px, Ehime Prefectural Capital Building is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, in Japan and is also Shikoku's largest city. , the city had an estimated population of 505,948 in 243,541 h ...

. However, commuter buses run infrequently and, due to the length of the peninsula and the scattered nature of the town's neighborhoods, bus travel remains more expensive and less convenient than in denser areas. Some tour buses also come across the strait from Kyūshū by ferry.

International relations

Relations with Ikata's only overseas sister city, Red Wing,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

, originally began as an exchange of technical knowledge and skills between engineers at the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant and Red Wing's Prairie Island plant. The two towns became official sister cities in August 1995. Since then, Ikata has put much effort into expanding the horizons of its residents through English language education via the

, and an annual international student exchange with Red Wing. Beginning in 1995, Ikata middle school students have traveled almost yearly to Red Wing for home stays of one to two weeks, and students from Red Wing likewise come to Ikata to learn about life in rural Japan. Ikata's high school, Misaki High School, maintains an exchange program with Australia. Ikata has two

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there ar ...

, both of which also have nuclear power plants: * Tomari, Hokkaidō, Japan, since February 1998 *

Red Wing, Minnesota Red Wing is a city in and the county seat of Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States, along the upper Mississippi River. The population was 16,547 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropo ...

, United States, since August 1995

Local attractions

;Sadamisaki Lighthouse :This lighthouse stands at the tip of the peninsula, overlooking the Hōyo Strait. On clear days you can see across to Kyūshū. Almost two kilometers of hiking trails and observation decks make up part of the

Setonaikai National Park is a Japanese national park, comprising areas of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, and of ten bordering Prefectures of Japan, prefectures. Designated a national park in 1934, it has since been expanded several times. It contains about 3,000 islands, know ...

. ;Seto Wind Hill Park :Located atop a mountain in the Gongen Mountain Park, Seto Wind Hill Park is located in the center of the peninsula and is free and open to the public. From it you can see dozens of Ikata's 29.5-meter, 4.3-ton windmills, and get up close to 11 of them. An actual wing of one of the windmills is on display in the park so visitors can get a better idea of the actual size. Benches and observation decks dot the park and

Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

s about the windmills, submitted for Ikata's Windmill Festival, are on display year-round. Public restrooms are available and powered by solar energy. ;Ikata Visitors House :This hands-on science museum teaches all about nuclear power with beautiful interactive displays and fun activities for all ages. The building is connected to the Kirara-kan, ;Kirara-kan :Opened in 1994, Kirara-kan houses an aquarium and sells souvenirs and local agricultural products. There are also several exhibits on display such as an Ikata Toji (Brew Master) exhibit and an International Relations exhibit with items on display from Ikata's sister city of Red Wing. Necklaces and pendants using pearls harvested from Uwa Sea to the south are also on sale. The second floor is a folk museum with scale-model fishing boat, and other tools and items of cultural significance to Ikata on display year-round. The third floor is a rest area offering a panorama view of the peninsula. Kirara-kan is connected to the Ikata Visitors House. ;Red Wing Park :This park was constructed to commemorate the official joining of Ikata to her Sister City of Red Wing, Minnesota, after which it is named. Of note is the 21-meter stainless-steel monument located at the entrance of the park, a twin sister of the one in Bay Point Park, Red Wing. Beneath the monument lies a commemorative stone plaque bearing the signatures of each of the mayors at the time. It is home to Adventure Hill—a playground full of climbing nets, roller slides, and other children's play equipment. The park is free and open to the public. Tennis courts and a gravel field are available in the Community Grounds adjacent to the park. Reservations for use are made at the town office. ; Kamegaike

Onsen In Japan, are hot springs and the bathing facilities and Ryokan (inn), traditional inns around them. There are approximately 25,000 hot spring sources throughout Japan, and approximately 3,000 ''onsen'' establishments use naturally hot water ...

:A hot spring bathing facility and park opened to the public in August 2007. Hot spring water is sourced from a well at a depth of 1,500 meters. The bath is divided into two large bathing areas "Misaki" and "Toji" that are male or female only. Which area is designated as male and which is designated as female switches weekly. The Onsen is wheelchair-friendly and offers bathing options to fit every need. A local-goods shop and a restaurant are located in the onsen. Overnight stays are not available. Public transportation is available daily. A bus stop is located directly in front of the entrance. Parking is free. According to legend, a giant crab lives in the adjacent Kamegaike Pond.

Roadside stations

Ikata has two roadside stations along National Route 197. These are highway rest stops that offer refreshments, travel information, recreation facilities, and local goods for sale. ;Ikata Kirara-kan :Features an aquarium, an exhibit chronicling Ikata's relations with its American sister city, Red Wing,

, and a small museum of Old Ikata historical artifacts. Attached to the Ikata Visitors House. ;Seto Agriculture Park :Gelateria DanDan offers travelers unique ice cream and

sorbet Sorbet (, ) is a frozen dessert made using ice combined with fruit juice, fruit purée, or other ingredients, such as wine, liqueur, or honey. Sorbet does not contain dairy products. Sherbet is similar to sorbet, but contains dairy. Etymolog ...

flavors like ''

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

'', ''kintarō'' potato, black sesame, and more. A Christmas tree decorated with mikan orange peels, a monument to Ikata explorer

Hyōichi Kōno was a Japanese adventurer, best known for circling Japan on bicycle, and traveling to the North Pole. He was born in the town of Ikata, Ehime, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast ...

, and the Windmill Restaurant can also be found here.

Culture

Etymology of name

The origin of the name ''Ikata'' is unclear and there are several competing theories. *It may have come from or , meaning "a place with small houses or shacks". *''Ika'' can be found in the names of places surrounded by mountains or located in foothills; ''ta'' can mean "land". ''Ikata'' could therefore be "a place by the mountains". *In the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isola ...

, ''ika'' means "to pass through the mountains and cross the land". However, the Ainu are thought to have had little influence as far south as Shikoku.

Food

Ikata is known for its

s and mikan juice. More than 20 different varieties of mikan are grown in Ikata. Old Ikata also has a very old

brewing tradition that dates back to the

, with several tōji brewmasters in the local area. There is even a museum dedicated to the Ikata Tōji. The Seto area produces vegetables such as the bright-purple ''kintarō'' potato, and also catches baby sardines called . Misaki has a strong fishing tradition, producing many and . Four Misaki Fishing Co-op products are part of the Ehime brand: Horse mackerel, mackerel, , and . One Ikata specialty cuisine is , a

tempura is a typical Japanese dish that usually consists of seafood and vegetables that have been coated in a thin batter and deep-fried. Tempura originated in the 16th century, when Portuguese Jesuits brought the Western-style cooking method of ...

-fried patty of pressed white fish meat and vegetables. Other variations include , which is the same but fried and breaded like

tonkatsu is a Japanese dish that consists of a breaded, Deep frying, deep-fried pork cutlet. It involves coating slices of pork with Bread crumbs#Panko, panko (bread crumbs), and then frying them in oil. The two main types are fillet and loin. Tonkatsu ...

, and which is prepared like a

croquette A croquette (; ) is a deep-fried roll originating in French cuisine, consisting of a thick binder combined with a filling, which is then breaded. It is served as a side dish, a snack, or fast food worldwide. The binder is typically a thick b� ...

Language

Residents of Ikata speak the

Iyo dialect The of Japanese is spoken by people from Ehime Prefecture in Japan. The name is a remnant of the Ehime area's historical name, Iyo Province. Accents vary somewhat by geography within the prefecture. The southern area is particularly influenc ...

of Japanese, which is similar in many respects to the Hiroshima dialect. One feature particular to the Nanyo (southern Ehime) region is the use of the sentence-final particle ''ga'' (が) as a replacement for ''no'' (の) in some contexts. For example, ''Nani shiteru no?'' (何してるの？ "What are you doing?" in standard Japanese) becomes ''Nani shiyoru ga?'' (何しよるが？) in Iyo dialect. Ikata's largest town celebration in late summer, the Kinahaiya Ikata Festival, is another example of the Iyo dialect—''kinahai ya'' (来なはいや) literally means "come on over" (''kinasai yo'' 来なさいよ in standard Japanese).

Festivals and events

Ikata has a wide variety of festivals and attractions the year around. February *Misaki :Men and women of receive the blessings of local Buddhist priests in the form of a set of ceremonial dances. Afterwards, lucky decorative ornaments and free

are offered to the crowd.Town of Ikata: Misaki Events
(English) April * :Held on Seto's Kōmo Highland atop Mt. Miharashi, the main event of this festival is an outdoor

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

featuring locally-raised beef. May *Seto *Misaki June * July * August * :This is Ikata's largest summer festival. Attractions include film and dance competitions, a

taiko are a broad range of Traditional Japanese musical instruments, Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese language, Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various J ...

performance, children's

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

, and bare-handed fish catching, all concluded with a fireworks display in the evening. *Seto :Local single women put on a wedding dress fashion show, followed by fireworks in the evening. An outdoor barbecue and bare-handed fish wrangling are held in the nearby Suka Park.Town of Ikata: Seto Events
(English) September *Ōku :Every September a handful of local men and women gather along the Ōku beach to sing and perform this dance, with the purpose of placating the dead spirit of a woman who is said to have been washed ashore in Ōku long, long ago. October * :Each main region of Ikata holds its own separate Autumn Festival. Misaki's is perhaps the most spectacular of the three. The main attraction is the battle between the and the 4-meter tall , which are two ceremonial

mikoshi A is a sacred religious palanquin (also translated as portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when ...

floats carried by the young local men and women. Participants compete in repeatedly pulling the floats up along a giant 10-meter scaffold, then trying to drop theirs on top of the other. :3 important deities and demons make their appearance at most of Ikata's autumn festivals. 1. :The tradition of the Ox Demon and festivals in Ikata dates back to the middle of Edo Japan (1800s). It is said that that Ox Demon and the voices of the men yelling keeps away the evil spirits from the as they make their way through the center of town. 2. :The Karashishi is most notably found in Japan at the entrance of Shinto Shrines and are used to either ward-off bad spirits or welcome good spirits. The Karashishi dance in Ikata involves two persons dancing under a single guardian lion costume to the beat of the drum of a young boy. Ikata's performers are especially well-known throughout most of the prefecture for their dedication to the dance. 3. :Although the origins of the five-deer dance are unknown, it is said that its traditions were brought over from Uwajima during the period. (1624-1644) Especially popular at the time, many believe that it first made its appearance in Ikata at then Kawanagata-ura (川永田浦).

Folklore

The rats of Kuroshima

There are two small, uninhabited islands in the Uwa Sea near

that belong to Ikata: Kuroshima and Karasushima. A legend written in the 13th century text tells the following story:

The giant crab of Kamegaike

Local legend tells of a giant crab, eight

tatami are soft mats used as flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. They are made in standard sizes, twice as long as wide, about , depending on the region. In martial arts, tatami are used for training in a dojo and for competition. ...

mats in size, that lives in the Kamegaike Pond in Old Ikata's Futami neighborhood.

In popular culture

The Ikata Power Plant was referenced in the 1995 movie Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...

attempts to attack the power plant, but meets resistance from the Self Defense Force's "Super-X III" weapon.

Notable people from Ikata

*Adventurer

successfully reached the North Pole in 1997.M&G Women's Polar Team North Pole Expedition 2002
. He died in 2001 while attempting to walk from the North Pole back to his birthplace, the former town of Seto. * Shūji Nakamura, 2014

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

winner, inventor of the blue LED, hails from the former town of

Gallery

Image:Kuchō, Ikata at sunset.jpg, The Kuchō neighborhood at sunset Image:Minatoura Port.jpg, A view of the Minatoura Port Image:Shores of Misaki.jpg, The shores of Misaki Image:Misaki Hachiman Temple.jpg, Misaki's

References

External links

Ikata official website
in English
Town of Ikata Sightseeing Map
*

in English {{Authority control Towns in Ehime Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Ikata, Ehime