is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

located in

Hiroshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama Prefecture to the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. The city was founded on November 3, 1958. As of 2016, the city has an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 26,035 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

of 220 persons per km². The total area is 118.30 km².

Ōkunoshima is a small island in the Inland Sea of Japan. It is considered to be part of the city of Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture. It is accessible by ferry from Tadanoumi and Ōmishima. There are campsites, walking trails and places of historical inte ...

, the island where a poison gas plant of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

was located, belongs to Takehara. Occupying a strategic location on the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, 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 ...

, it became renowned as a port city in the

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

and then flourished as a centre of the

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

industry in the latter days of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

. More recently, it has styled itself as "The Little

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

of Aki" and the Special Historical District of old warehouses was selected as one of Japan's "100 Most Scenic Towns".

Geography

Climate

Takehara has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Cfa'') characterized by cool to mild winters and hot, humid summers. The average annual temperature in Takehara 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 Takehara was on 6 August 2017; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 26 February 1981.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Takehara in 2020 is 23,993 people. Takehara has been conducting censuses since 1960.

Tourism

Museums

* Takehara Museum * Kaguyahime Bamboo Princess Museum * Masayuki Imai (Ceramic Artist) Museum * History of Takehara Museum * Ozasaya Sake Museum

Mountains and Island

* Mount Asahi (Otake) * Mount Kurotaki *

Island

Little Kyoto of Aki Province

* Takehara Historical Heritage * Okakae Jizo Statue * Chosei-ji Temple * Saihō-ji (Takehara) Temple * Shoren-ji Temple * Kodo Ebisu-do Shrine

Hot spring and Sakura (Cherry Blossom Tree) Park

* Yusaka Onsen-kyo * Comprehensive Park Bamboo Joy Highland

Festivals and Running Races

* Miyatoko Children's Festival at Tadanoumi (April) * Nika Village Renge (Lotus) Festival (April) * Takehara Take (Bamboo) Festival in the Conserved Townscape (May) * Tadanoumi Gion (Purification Ritual) Festival (July) * Takehara Tanabata Festival (July) * Tadanoumi Tenjin Yoichi Summer Festival (July) * Takehara Sumiyoshi Shrine Sea Festival (August) * Takehara Summer Festival Fireworks (August) * Fukuda Shishimai Lion Dance (October) * Bamboo Candle Light Festival Shokei no Michi (October) * Takehara Ekiden (October) * Rabbit Cross Country Short Running Race on Ōkunoshima Island (November) * Shinmeisai Fire Festival at Futamado,Tadanoumi (February)

Transportation

Railways

There are two main lines running through Takehara Station. There is the

West Japan Railway Company , 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, and ...

and the

Kure Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) within Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. It begins at Mihara Station in Mihara and terminates at Kaitaichi Station in Kaita. It is one of the main lines of JR West. The secti ...

Sister cities

Takehara has a sister city relationship with

Damyang Damyang County (''Damyang-gun'') is a county in Jeollanam-do, South Korea. Tourism is a major local industry. Notable local products include bamboo goods and strawberries. Damyang is not to be confused with Danyang, which is located in eastern ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Notable people

* Shōgo Hamada, singer-songwriter *

Hayato Ikeda was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years. Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.- ...

, Prime Minister from 1960 - 1964 * Naganori Ito, Chief development engineer of

Nissan Skyline The is a brand of automobile originally produced by the Prince Motor Company starting in 1957, and then by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1967. After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold i ...

Masataka Taketsuru was a Japanese chemist and businessman. He is known as the founder of Japan's whisky industry and Nikka Whisky Distilling. Born to a family that had owned a sake brewery since 1733, he traveled to Scotland in 1918 to study organic chemistry and ...

, founder of Japan's whisky industry

In popular culture

Takehara is the setting for the slice-of-life anime series '' Tamayura''. *''

Massan is a Japanese television drama series, the 91st Asadora (morning drama) broadcast daily on NHK from September 29, 2014, until March 28, 2015. ''Massan'' is based on the lives of Masataka Taketsuru and his Scottish wife Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowa ...

'' -

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

Asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Take ...

(morning drama) television series inspired by the life of Taketsuru and his wife Rita

References

External links

Takehara City official website
{{Authority control Cities in Hiroshima Prefecture Port settlements in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan