Miyako-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about fifty thousand (50,369 in 2020). This city’s population carries a step caused by mergers. In 2005 Miyako City newly merged with Taro Town and Niisato Village, and in 2010 further annexed Kawai Village, forming the present city area. Read in the figures after the mergers, it fell from 60,250 in 2005 through 59,430 in 2010 and 56,676 in 2015 to 50,369 in 2020. That the fall in the 2010s was especially large can be read as the overlapping of the tsunami damage of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Look inside and the aging is deep. The share aged 65 and over reaches 37.8% in 2020. The area is 1,259 square kilometers, the largest in the prefecture, most of the city area being mountain forest. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.36 in fiscal 2023, on the side that leans heavily on the local allocation tax. The Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years. The easternmost port town of Honshu holds, at the same time, a falling population, deep aging, and a vast area. Why these three overlap in one city becomes visible when you trace the history of the cargo ships of Kuwagasaki and the sea of the Sanriku coast.

Miyako’s frame is set by the geography of a natural good harbor opening at the eastern end of Honshu. This harbor of the Sanriku coast, with the Sanriku offing — one of the world’s three great fishing grounds — at its back, has from of old been a place of fishing and shipping. Holding within its area Cape Todogasaki, the easternmost point of Honshu, this town set out as a port town opened toward the sea.

What tells of that harbor’s prosperity is Kuwagasaki of the Edo period. In the Miyako and Kuwagasaki anchorages, the great stores and storehouses of cargo-ship wholesalers stood in a row, and inns, pleasure quarters, and fine restaurants lined the streets, boasting the most bustling district in the domain. This harbor, at which the kitamae ships also called, was a node that gathered the marine products of the Sanriku coast and sent them off to the Kamigata region. Just to the north lies Jodogahama, a scenic spot whose name appears in the domain’s records from the Edo period, visited by men of letters and painters as a place of beauty. A port of shipping and fishing, and a scenic spot, formed this town’s origin.

Entering the modern era, in 1941 Miyako took the municipal system as the third in the prefecture, after Morioka and Kamaishi. Then, in the Heisei mergers, it joined Taro Town, Niisato Village, and Kawai Village and became the city with the largest area in the prefecture. Meanwhile this sea of the Sanriku coast brought great tsunami damage in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Beginning from a bustling harbor lined with cargo-ship wholesalers, taking the municipal system, becoming a wide-area city through two mergers, and passing through the earthquake — this town’s form stands atop the history of the easternmost port of Honshu.

What sets Miyako apart is that, while it gained the largest area in the prefecture through two mergers, its population keeps falling. From 2005 to 2020 more than ten thousand were lost, and the aging rate rose to 37.8%. The especially large fall of the 2010s carries the shadow of the tsunami damage of the 2011 earthquake. The sea of the Sanriku coast has two faces: it brings the bounty of fishing and shipping, while it also brings the disaster of tsunami.

The vast area also ties to the difficulty of daily life. With about fifty thousand people scattered across a city area of 1,259 square kilometers, the density of population is low, and how to support the settlements in the mountains and along the coast becomes a task. Even so, the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the childcare capacity is kept. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.36 is a level whose own tax revenue covers only a little over a third of expenditure, supporting the wide city area by leaning on the allocation tax. The population falls, the area is wide, and the sea has two faces of bounty and disaster. These are separate sides held by one making — the easternmost port town of Honshu. Take out population alone, or area alone, and what this town carries does not come into view.

In Miyako several faces of differing origin overlap. One is its geography as a port town holding Cape Todogasaki, the easternmost point of Honshu — an origin of fishing and shipping with the Sanriku offing fishing ground at its back. Another is the bustle of Kuwagasaki, where cargo-ship wholesalers and storehouses stood in a row in the Edo period — leaving the memory of a node of shipping at which the kitamae ships also called. And the scenic spot of Jodogahama gives this town a face as a place of beauty.

With the cape where the morning sun rises earliest in Honshu at its back, a bay of calm waves opens toward the Sanriku offing fishing ground. At Jodogahama just to the north, blue sea sets off white rock faces, and the bustle of Kuwagasaki, where cargo-ship wholesalers and storehouses once stood in a row, now sinks into the quiet scenery of a fishing port. The same sea of the Sanriku coast carried the bounty of fishing and shipping, and in 2011 also carried the disaster of tsunami. This eastern-end port receives both bounty and disaster from one sea.