Date, Fukushima

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This article is about the city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. There is a Japanese city with the same name, see Date, Hokkaido.

Location of Date in Fukushima Prefecture

Date (伊達市; -shi) is a city located in northern Fukushima, Japan.

As of 2006, the town has an estimated population of 68,489 and a density of 258.45 persons per km². The total area is 265 km².

There were nine towns in Date District, Fukushima. On January 1, 2006, five towns in Date District merged it and became Date City. Merged towns were Hobara-machi, Yanagawa-machi, Date-machi, Ryozen-machi, Tsukidate-machi. The central town is Hobara. (-machi means town in Japanese)

Kawamata-machi, Iino-machi, Kori-machi, Kunimi-machi, these five towns in Date District left merger.

A whole body skeleton of Paleoparadoxia was excavated in Yanagawa-machi on August 21, 1984. The skeleton is named the Yanagawa Specimen.

Japan tries to avoid multiple cities with the same name in order to prevent administrative mistakes due to confusion. There are only two cases of cities in Japan with the same name:Fuchū in Hiroshima and Tokyo, and Date in Hokkaidō and Fukushima.

[edit] History of two Date Cities

In the Edo period, the Date clan ruled the whole Miyagi and the South of Iwate. The Date clan was one of the most influential daimyos, samurai. In the Meiji period, many samurai lost their territories because of the Meiji Restoration. This was also true for the Date clan. A party led by Watari-Date, a branch family of the Date clan, settled in uncultivated Hokkaido. This is the origin of Date City 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 City in Fukushima is the ancestral ground of Date clan. Date City 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 (721-783) received the Date District in 1189 from the Shôgun Minamoto no Yoritomo.

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.