Shirakawa, Fukushima
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Shirakawa (白河市, Shirakawa-shi) is a city in Fukushima, Japan. It is located in the southern portion of the prefecture.
The 2003 estimated population was 48,297 and the density in that year was 410.44 persons per km². The total area was 117.67 km². However, on November 7, 2005, after merging neighboring villages into its territory, the population increased to approximately 66,000, and the area is 305.30 km².
History
Shirakawa was formerly known as the gateway to the old Mutsu Province of Japan. Up to the Edo period it had prospered under the control of the Shirakawa clan as a castle town. In the Heian period, monk and waka poet Nōin composed the following short poem about the region:
都をば霞とともに立ちしかど秋風ぞ吹く白河の関
Miyako wo ba kasumi to tomo ni tachishikado akikaze zo fuku Shirakawa no seki.
During the Meiji Period in 1889, the area was classified as the town of Shirakawa. On April 1, 1949, Shirakawa was made a city after merging with the neighboring village of Ōnuma.
Subsequent mergers occurred in 1954 and 1955 with the inclusion of the villages of Shirasaka, Odagawa, Goka, and a portion of Omotegō into the territory of Shirakawa. On November 7, 2005, the neighbouring villages of Taishin, Higashi, and the remainder of Omotegō were incorporated into Shirakawa.
City services
Shirakawa has four high schools, eight junior high schools and fifteen elementary schools.
There are also nineteen post offices (including minor ones) within the boundaries of the city.[1]
Transportation
Rail
The city can be easily reached via Shirasaka, Shirakawa, and Kutano stations on the Tōhoku Main Line. Shin-Shirakawa Station, located in the neighbouring village of Nishigō, is also on the Tōhoku Shinkansen and provides fast access to Tokyo.
Road
Shirakawa can be accessed by the nearby Tohoku Expressway and National Routes 289 and 294.
Claims to fame
Residents point to the local variety of ramen as the town's main claim to fame. The main attractions of the town, aside from the restaurants, include Komine Castle (小峰城, Kominejō, literally "Small Peak Castle") and Nankō ("South Lake") Park.
Festivals held in Shirakawa include "Daruma Ichi", celebrating the traditional Daruma doll, wherein the city streets are packed with stalls selling Daruma, a variety of festival foods and charms, and "Chōchin Matsuri" (Lantern Festival), which is held each summer, with a special three-day celebration held once every three years.
Shirakawa is passed through in Oku no Hosomichi by Basho.
Shirakawa is the location of the village to which silk egg merchant Herve Joncour travels in the novel Silk by Alessandro Baricco, first published in 1997.
Twinned cities
References
External links
Media related to Shirakawa, Fukushima at Wikimedia Commons
