Ishikawa Prefecture (石å·çœŒ, Ishikawa-ken) is a prefecture of Japan located in the ChÅ«bu region on HonshÅ« island. The capital is Kanazawa.
History
Ishikawa was formed from the merger of Kaga Province and the smaller Noto Province.
Geography
As of April 1, 2012, 13% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as Natural Parks, namely the Hakusan National Park; Echizen-Kaga Kaigan and Noto HantÅ Quasi-National Parks; and five Prefectural Natural Parks.
Cities
Eleven cities are located in Ishikawa Prefecture:
Towns
These are the towns in each district:
Mergers
Economy
Ishikawa's industry is dominated by the textile industry, particularly artificial fabrics, and the machine industry, particularly construction machinery.
Demographics
Ishikawa Prefecture has an area of 4,185 km² and as of April 1, 2011 it has a population of 1,166,643 persons.
Culture
The area is noted for arts and crafts and other cultural traditions:
- The art of NÅ was introduced to the area during the rule of the fifth Maeda lord Tsunanori and was refined into the style of Kaga hosho.
- The tea ceremony was introduced in 1666 when Maeda Toshitsune invited Senbiki Soshitsu of Urasenke to Kanazawa.
- Kutani ware (Kutani yaki) is a bright colored glaze like Chinese porcelain.
- Ohi teaware (ÅŒhi yaki) is a pottery with a style unique to Kanazawa.
- Kaga silk (Kaga yūzen) is made with complicated silk print technique with an intentional rough look (wabi-sabi).
- Kanazawa lacquerware (Kanazawa shikki) is high quality lacquerware traditionally decorated with gold dust.
- Kanazawa gold leaf (Kanazawa haku) is produced with a technique of beating gold into wafer-thin sheets.
- Kaga mizuhiki is ribbon-like decoration made from glued Japanese paper (washi).
- Kaga inlay crafts (Kaga zÅgan) are made with a combination of thin flat and thread metal inlays.
- Gojinjo Daiko is a Japanese Drum, a Wajima City cultural heritage (since 1961) as well as an Ishikawa Prefecture intangible cultural heritage (since 1963).
- Abare Festival is reputed the most 'fierce' festivals of Noto, Ishikawa.
Tourism
The most popular destination in Ishikawa is Kanazawa. Tourists can get to Ishikawa by plane via either the Komatsu or Noto airports. Popular sites include:
- 1000 Rice Fields
- 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
- Chirihama Driveway
- Higashi-chaya district in Kanazawa
- Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art
- Kaga hot-springs district
- Kenroku-en
- Mount Haku
- Shibayama Lagoon
- Wajima Morning Market
Prefectural symbols
- Fritillaria camschatcensis (flower)
- Golden eagle (bird)
- Thujopsis dolabrata (tree)
Miscellaneous topics
- Takeshi Kaga, an actor in Japan who is probably best known internationally for his portrayal of Chairman Kaga in the Japanese television show Iron Chef produced by Fuji TV, is from Ishikawa.
- Hideki Matsui, a current player for the New York Yankees, was born and raised in Neagari Town (now Nomi City), Ishikawa. He gained fame as a baseball player while attending high school in Kanazawa.
- Daisuke Nakata, a trampolinist who has competed in the Olympics in the past, is from Ishikawa.
Universities
Ishikawa hosts a number of well-known universities.
- Hokuriku Universityâ€"a small liberal arts university with a School of Pharmacy and a School of Future Learning that gives instruction in Business, Economics, and Foreign Language (Chinese and English).
- Ishikawa Prefectural Nursing University
- Ishikawa Prefectural University
- Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
- Kanazawa College of Art
- Kanazawa Gakuin University
- Kanazawa Institute of Technology
- Kanazawa Medical University
- Kanazawa Seiryo University
- Kanazawa University
- Kinjo Junior College
Transport
Railroad
- Hokuriku Railway (Hokutetsu)
- Asanokawa Line
- Ishikawa Line
- JR West
- Hokuriku Line
- Nanao Line
- Noto Railway Nanao Line
Road
Expressway and Toll Road
- Hakusan Super Forest Road
- Hokuriku Expressway
- Noetsu (Noto-Etsuchu) Expressway
- Noto Toll Road
National Highway
- Route 8
- Route 157 (Kanazawa-Hakusan-Katsuyama-Motosu-Gifu)
- Route 159
- Route 160
- Route 249
- Route 304
- Route 305
- Route 359
- Route 360 (Toyama-Hida-Shirakawa-Komatsu)
- Route 364
- Route 365
- Route 415
- Route 416
- Route 470 (Wajima-Himi-Takaoka-Oyabe-Tonami)
- Route 471
Port
- Kanazawa Port â€" International container hub port
- Nanao Port
Airport
- Komatsu Airport
- Noto Airport
Regional policies
- Premium passport
Politics
The current governor of Ishikawa is Masanori Tanimoto who was first elected in 1994 and has been reelected for a sixth term in the gubernatorial election in March 2014. Tanimoto is currently one of two governors who are in their sixth term nationwide, the other being Masaru Hashimoto of Ibaraki. Tanimoto is only the fourth governor of Ishikawa since 1947 when prefectural governors became elected offices, as predecessor YÅichi Nakanishi had held the governorship even longer than Tanimoto, winning his first election in 1963 and then serving eight consecutive terms until his death in 1994.
The prefectural assembly of Ishikawa has 43 members and is elected in unified local elections (last round: 2011) in 15 SNTV electoral districts â€" six single-member, five two-member, one three-member, two four-member districts and the Kanazawa City district that elects 16 members. As of February 26, 2014, the LDP prefectural assembly caucus has 25 members and no other group has more than four members.
In the National Diet, Ishikawa is represented by three directly elected members of the House of Representatives and two (one per election) of the House of Councillors. Additional members from the prefecture may be elected in the proportional representation segments of both houses: the Hokuriku-Shin'etsu proportional representation block in the lower house, the proportional election to the upper house is nationwide. After the Diet elections of 2010, 2012 and 2013, the five directly elected members from Ishikawa districts are all Liberal Democrats, namely:
- in the House of Representatives
- for the 1st district that covers Kanazawa City: Hiroshi Hase, LDP, 5th term,
- for the 2nd district that consists of Southern parts of Ishikawa and had been the district of former LDP president YoshirÅ Mori until 2012: Hajime Sasaki, LDP, 1st term,
- for the 3rd district in the North: Shigeo Kitamura, LDP, 3rd term,
- in the House of Councillors
- in the class of 2010 (term ends 2016): Naoki Okada, LDP, 2nd term, and
- in the class of 2013 (term ends 2019): Shūji Yamada, LDP, 1st term who was able to defeat Democratic incumbent and former defense minister Yasuo Ichikawa by a huge margin in 2013.
Notes
References
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
External links
- Official website
- Cultural assets of Ishikawa
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