Date, Fukushima
Encyclopedia
is a city
Cities of Japan
||A is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as and , with the difference that they are not a component of...

 located in northern Fukushima
Fukushima Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region on the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Fukushima.-History:Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Fukushima prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

As of May 2011, the town has an estimated population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of 65,409 and the total area is 265 km².

There were nine towns in Date District
Date District, Fukushima
is a district located in Fukushima, Japan.As of 2008, the district has an estimated population of 39,633 and a density of 190 persons per km². The total area is 208.53 km².-Towns and villages:*Kawamata*Kōri*Kunimi-Mergers:...

, Fukushima
Fukushima Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region on the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Fukushima.-History:Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Fukushima prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....

. On January 1, 2006, five towns in Date District merged to form the city of Date. Merged towns were Hobara
Hobara, Fukushima
was a town located in Date District, Fukushima, Japan. It was a part of the Kenpoku Region.On January 1, 2006, Hobara was merged with the towns of Date, Ryōzen, Tsukidate and Yanagawa and became Date City....

, Yanagawa
Yanagawa, Fukushima
was a castle town located in Date District, Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 20,626 and a density of 248.72 persons per km². The total area is 82.93 km²....

, Date, Ryōzen
Ryozen, Fukushima
was a town located in Date District, Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 9,491 and a density of 108.68 persons per km²...

, and Tsukidate
Tsukidate, Fukushima
was a town located in Date District, Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 4,443, and a density of 101.83 persons per km²...

. The central town is Hobara
Hobara, Fukushima
was a town located in Date District, Fukushima, Japan. It was a part of the Kenpoku Region.On January 1, 2006, Hobara was merged with the towns of Date, Ryōzen, Tsukidate and Yanagawa and became Date City....

.

A whole body skeleton of Paleoparadoxia
Paleoparadoxia
Paleoparadoxia is a genus of large, herbivorous marine mammals that inhabited the northern Pacific coastal region during the Miocene epoch . It ranged from the waters of Japan , to Alaska to the north, and down to Baja California, Mexico...

 was excavated in Yanagawa on August 21, 1984. The skeleton is named the Yanagawa Specimen.

History of two Date Cities

In the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, the Date clan ruled the whole Miyagi
Miyagi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. 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...

 and the South of Iwate
Iwate Prefecture
is the second largest prefecture of Japan after Hokkaido. It is located in the Tōhoku region of Honshū island and contains the island's easternmost point. The capital is Morioka. Iwate has the lowest population density of any prefecture outside Hokkaido...

. The Date clan was one of the most influential daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

s, samurai. In the Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

, many samurai lost their territories because of the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

. This was also true for the Date clan. A party led by Watari
Watari, Miyagi
is a town located in Watari District, Miyagi, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 35,132 and a population density of 479.88 persons per km². The total area is 73.21 km²....

-Date, a branch family of the Date clan, settled in uncultivated Hokkaido. This is the origin of Date in Hokkaido. On the other hand, the name of Date clan originated from the name of Date District in Fukushima.

The Date clan rose in Date District in 12th Century. Date in Fukushima is the ancestral ground of Date clan. Date in Hokkaido is the ground of a descendant of Date clan. The two cities have an indirect relation.

The Date family, descendants of Fujiwara no Uona
Fujiwara no Uona
Fujiwara no Uona was a member of the Fujiwara clan in Japan and occupied the position of sadaijin "Minister of the Left" in the ancient Japanese court. He was son of Fujiwara no Fusasaki ....

 (721-783) received the Date District in 1189 from the Shôgun Minamoto no Yoritomo
Minamoto no Yoritomo
was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan. He ruled from 1192 until 1199.-Early life and exile :Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto clan, and his official wife, a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, who was a member of the...

.

Before the Edo period, the home castle of Date clan was Yanagawa castle in Yanagawa in Date District. In the Edo period, the home castle was Sendai castle in Sendai, Miyagi.

Economy

Taiyo Yuden
Taiyo Yuden
is a Japanese materials and electronics company, situated in Ueno, Taito, Tokyo, that helped pioneer recordable CD technology along with Sony and Philips in 1988. Founded 60 years ago, Taiyo Yuden currently operates factories in Japan, Singapore, Korea, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia,...

 operates a CD and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 production plant in the Yanagawa Industrial Zone in Date, Fukushima.

2011 earthquake and tsunami

Date is about 60 kilometre north-west of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant
The , also known as Fukushima Dai-ichi , is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. First commissioned in 1971, the plant consists of six boiling water reactors...

, the site of the nuclear accident that followed the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...

. Although outside the nuclear accident exclusion zone, the levels of radiation in the city caused residents, and especially schoolchildren, to remain indoors more.

External links

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