Sukagawa, 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 the center of 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...

. It is famous for both its peony
Peony
Peony or paeony is a name for plants in the genus Paeonia, the only genus in the flowering plant family Paeoniaceae. They are native to Asia, southern Europe and western North America...

 garden (Botan En), a national scenic beauty, and its torch
Torch
A torch is a fire source, usually a rod-shaped piece of wood with a rag soaked in pitch and/or some other flammable material wrapped around one end. Torches were often supported in sconces by brackets high up on walls, to throw light over corridors in stone structures such as castles or crypts...

 festival which has been hereditary for over 400 years.


Sukagawa is also known for Eiji Tsuburaya
Eiji Tsuburaya
was the Japanese special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction movies, including the Godzilla series...

 and Kokichi Tsuburaya
Kokichi Tsuburaya
was a Japanese athlete who competed mainly in the Marathon. He competed for Japan in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, where he won the bronze medal, and was overtaken within the final 100 meters by Basil Heatley of the UK.After the Tokyo Olympics, Kokichi suffered from lumbago...

, Denzen Aōdō, a painter, and Yuki Kadokura, a singer.

History

During the Edo period, Sukagawa belonged to the Shirakawa Domain
Shirakawa Domain
The ' was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Mutsu Province. Its most famous ruler was Matsudaira Sadanobu, the architect of the Kansei Reforms.Shirakawa was also the scene of one of the battles of the Boshin War.-List of lords:...

. It was prospering as a major lodging place on Ōshū Kaidō
Oshu Kaido
The was one of the five routes of the Edo period and it was built to connect Edo with Mutsu Province and the present-day city of Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan...

, which is one of the Edo Five Routes
Edo Five Routes
The were the five major roads that started at Edo during the Edo period, the most important of which was the Tōkaidō, which linked Edo and Kyoto...

, and was the commercial center in the region. But after mid-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 :...

, Koriyama, which had succeeded in inviting the junction of West Ban'etsu Line
West Ban'etsu Line
The is a rail line in Japan operated by East Japan Railway Company . It runs between Kōriyama Station in Kōriyama, Fukushima Prefecture and Niitsu Station in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture. The name "Ban'etsu" is taken from the first characters of the names of the ancient provinces of and , which...

, took its presence. After the earthquake of 2011
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...

, the Fujinuma Dam
Fujinuma Dam
The , was an earth-fill embankment dam in Sukagawa City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It was established on the Ebana River, a tributary of the Abukuma River, west of the city office of Sukagawa City. Construction on the dam commenced in 1937 and it was completed in 1949 after construction was...

 failed and a part of the city was destroyed. See also Radiation effects from Fukushima I nuclear accidents
Radiation effects from Fukushima I nuclear accidents
The radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are the results of release of radioactive isotopes from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami...

.

Mergers

  • The city was founded on March 31, 1954, by consolidation of Sukagawa Town, Hamada Town, Nishibukuro Village and Inada Village in Iwase District
    Iwase District, Fukushima
    is a district located in Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 31,847 and a density of 83.50 persons per km². The total area is 381.38 km².-Merger:...

     and Oshioe Village in Ishikawa District
    Ishikawa District, Fukushima
    is a district located in Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 48,399 and a density of 105.98 persons per km². The total area is 456.70 km².-Towns and villages:*Asakawa*Furudono*Hirata*Ishikawa*Tamakawa...

    . Then, it merged with Niida Village in Iwase District on March 10, 1955, with Ohigashi Village in Ishikawa District on February 1, 1967, and finally, and also recently, with Naganuma Town
    Naganuma, Fukushima
    was a former town located in Iwase District, Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 6,455 and a density of 106.98 persons per km². The total area was 60.34 km²....

     and Iwase Village
    Iwase, Fukushima
    was a village located in Iwase District, Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the village had an estimated population of 5,993 and a density of 93.31 persons per km². The total area was 64.23 km²....

     in Iwase District on April 1, 2005.

Demographics

As of January 1, 2005.








   


   


   


   


   



   


   


   


   


   

Name of Area Population(persons) Surface(km²) Population density(persons/km²)
Sukagawa22,523 8.552634.27
Hamada 5,570 12.06 461.86
Nishibukuro17,424 23.60 738.31
Inada 4,463 16.16 276.18
Oshioe 4,386 34.43 127.39
Niida 7,557 18.79 402.18
Ohigashi 6,049 41.39 146.15
Naganuma 6,639 60.34 106.98
Iwase 6,146 64.23 93.31
Total80,757279.55 288.88

Events

Sukagawa city holds a well-known fireworks display every summer in August. About three hundred thousand spectators view this display each year. Approximately one hundred thousand separate fireworks of various kinds are fired off.

Transportation

Sukagawa is connected to Japan through Sukagawa Station
Sukagawa Station
is a train station in Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.- Adjacent stations :...

 (須賀川駅 sukagawa-eki) a railway station served by Tōhoku Main Line.

It is also the only city in the Fukushima prefecture that boasts an airport; Fukushima Airport
Fukushima Airport
, is an airport serving Sukagawa, a city in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan. The airport is located southeast of Kōriyama Station in Kōriyama.A popular TV drama, Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World, was filmed there.-Airlines and destinations:...

 was opened on May 20, 1993 with regular domestic flights to Sapporo
Sapporo, Hokkaido
is the fourth-largest city in Japan by population, and the largest city on the island of Hokkaido. It is the capital of Hokkaidō Prefecture, located in Ishikari Subprefecture, and an ordinance-designated city of Japan....

, Osaka, Fukuoka
Fukuoka, Fukuoka
is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by...

 and Naha
Naha, Okinawa
is the capital city of the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa.Naha is a coastal city located on the East China Sea coast of the southern part of Okinawa Island, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands...

 and international flights to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 and Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

.

External links

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