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

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

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 ...

. As of April 1, 2017, 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 44,132, with 17,473

household A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s, 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 . The total area is .

History

The area of modern Miura has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Archaeologists have uncovered numerous remains from the

Japanese paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC, with recent authors suggesting that there is good evi ...

, Jōmon and

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 ...

s. From the late

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 ...

through the end of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, the area was ruled by the

Miura clan The was one of the branch families descended from the Taira clan. They held large fiefs, and retained great political influence. They were one of the primary opponents of the Hōjō clan, Hōjō family of Shikken, regents in the mid-13th ce ...

, until they were annihilated by the rival

Hojo clan Hojo or Hōjō may refer to: Hojo or HoJo: *Howard Johnson's, a U.S. chain of restaurants and hotels *A nickname for a number of people named Howard Johnson *A nickname for Howard Jones (British musician), an synthpop singer, musician and songwr ...

. The local inlet of

Aburatsubo is an inlet on the west side of the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa, Japan, facing Sagami Bay on the Pacific Ocean. It exits into neighbouring Moroiso inlet. History During historic times, the Aburatsubo inlet was selected by ...

is said to be named for this event. 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 ...

, it was ''

tenryō 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 war ...

'' territory ruled directly by 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 ...

. 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 ...

, the town of Misaki within Miura District, Kanagawa was created on April 1, 1889. The town was electrified in 1913, but did not have running water until 1934. The area was badly shaken during the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake (, or ) was a major earthquake that struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshu at 11:58:32 JST (02:58:32 UTC) on Saturday, 1 September 1923. It had an approximate magnitude of 8.0 on the mom ...

, which had its epicenter in Sagami Bay just a few kilometers offshore from the city. The whole geographical area around the city was lifted by about 10 meters by

tectonic Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons. These processes ...

movement, before subsiding to its original level during the next few days. No major

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, ...

was recorded. On January 1, 1955, Misaki absorbed neighboring Minami-Shitaura Town and Hasse Village to create the city of Miura. The city was connected to the

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

by rail on July 7, 1966 with the opening of

Miurakaigan Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Miura, Kanagawa, Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway company Keihin Electric Express Railway, Keikyū. Lines Miurakaigan Station is served by the Keikyū Kurih ...

on the outskirts of the city. The line was extended to

Misakiguchi Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Miura, Kanagawa, Japan, operated by the private railway company Keikyū. Lines Misakiguchi Station is the southern terminus of the Keikyū Kurihama Line, and is located 13.4 km from ...

on April 26, 1975, but plans to further extend the line to the city center have been abandoned. Miura came to some infamy in 2001 after the dismembered body of Lucie Blackman was found in a seaside cave a few hundred meters from the apartment of

serial rapist A serial rapist is someone who commits multiple rapes, whether with multiple victims or a single victim repeatedly over a period of time. Some serial rapists target children. The terms ''sexual predator'', ''repeat rape'' and ''multiple offending' ...

Joji Obara , born Kim Sung-jong () (born on 10 August 1952) is a Korean-Japanese serial rapist who raped between 150 and 400 women between 1992 and 2000. He had a predilection for white women. Obara was charged with drugging, raping and killing an English wo ...

. Miura has been the arrival point of several trans-Pacific sailboat races, such as the 1969 San Francisco-Tokyo

Transpacific Yacht Race The Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) is a biennial offshore yacht race held in odd-numbered years starting off the Pt. Fermin buoy in San Pedro, California and ending off Diamond Head in Hawaii, a distance of around . In even-numbered years the ...

. Misaki was also the arrival point of the record solo circumnavigation of 71-year-old Minoru Saito, on June 6, 2005.

Geography

Miura is located on the very southern end of

Miura Peninsula is a peninsula located in Kanagawa, Japan. It lies south of Yokohama and Tokyo and divides Tokyo Bay, to the east, from Sagami Bay, to the west. Cities and towns on the Miura Peninsula include Yokosuka, Miura, Hayama, Zushi, and Kamak ...

in southeast Kanagawa Prefecture, surrounded on three sides 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 ...

, with

Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the i ...

to the west. To the south of the urban area and port is the island of

Jōgashima is an island in the municipality of Miura, Kanagawa, Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, off the southernmost tip of Miura Peninsula, facing Sagami Bay. It is home to the Jōgashima Lighthouse, the fourth oldest western style lighthouse to be bu ...

, connected to the city by a bridge. It is a popular destination for weekend tourism. The

Jōgashima Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the island of Jōgashima () in the city of Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, off the southernmost and western tip of Miura Peninsula, facing Sagami Bay. It is the fourth oldest western style lighthouse to be built i ...

was built by the French engineer

Léonce Verny François Léonce Verny, (2 December 1837 – 2 May 1908) was a French officer and naval engineerSims, Richard. (1998) ''French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-95: A Case of Misjudgement and Missed Opportunities,'' p. 246./ref> ...

at the end of the 19th century.

Surrounding municipalities

*Kanagawa Prefecture **

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 373,797, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th-most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city i ...

Climate

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Miura peaked in the 1990s and has declined since.

Economy

The economy of the city is dominated by

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 ...

, centered on the harbor of Misaki, Japan's 18th most important fishing harbor, and the 2nd for its catch of

tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...

, which the local mascot of Miura Tunanosuke is named and designed after. Misaki is an important fishing harbor, mainly specializing in the processing of tuna. The harbor also has a quay which can accommodate sailboats from neighboring marinas. Agriculture remains important to the local economy, especially

watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

and ''

daikon Daikon 大根 (だいこん) or mooli, (مولی) ''Raphanus sativus'' var. ''longipinnatus,'' is a mild-flavored winter radish usually characterized by fast-growing leaves and a long, white, root. Originally native to continental East Asia ...

''.

Transportation

Railway

Keikyū Kurihama Line The is a commuter rail line operated by the private railway operator Keikyu in Japan. Keikyu Main Line trains from and in Tokyo connect to the Miura Peninsula on the Keikyu Kurihama Line. Service types Three different types of service oper ...

** –

Highway

Japan National Route 134 is a national highway connecting the city of Yokosuka and the town of Ōiso in Kanagawa 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 i ...

Education

Miura is home to Misaki Fisheries High School, a specialist fishery high school. The school trains students in one of four commercial fisheries skills: radio communications, engineering, food processing, and ocean fishing. The school maintains two fishing vessels, one of which is the ocean-going tuna fishing ship ''Shōnan Maru'', launched in 2005. The ''Shōnan Maru'' is a frequent visitor to the

port of Honolulu Honolulu Harbor, also called ''Kulolia'' and ''Ke Awa O Kou'' and the Port of Honolulu, is the principal seaport of Honolulu and the State of Hawaii in the United States. From the harbor, the City & County of Honolulu was developed and urbanized, ...

as part of the training programme.

Local events

Miura is well known for the Miura Marathon which is normally held in the first week of March. The race consists of three events: 5 kilometer, 10 kilometer, and a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...

Sister cities

Suzaka, Nagano is a Cities of Japan, city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 50,828 in 19,979 households, and a population density of 334 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Suzaka is located ...

, Japan *

Warrnambool, Victoria Warrnambool (; Eastern Maar, Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the Census in Australia#2021, 2021 census, Warrnambool had a populati ...

, Australia

Notes

References

Info about Kitesurfing on the beach

External links

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