Sakai, Osaka
Sakai (堺市; -shi) is a city located in
Osaka Prefecture,
Japan. It has been one of largest and important seaports of Japan since the Medieval era.
As of
2003, the city has an estimated
population of 792,497 and the
density of 5,793.53 persons per
km². The total area is 136.79 km².
The current city was legally founded on
April 1,
1889 according to the law of the
Imperial Japan.
Sakai is famous for the quality of its
Japanese style kitchen knives, which is a major industry in Sakai.
History
\nIn the Muromachi period Sakai was one of richest cities in Japan.\nSakai is located along a coast and the mouth of Yamago-gawa river which connected Yamato region (now Nara Prefecture) to the sea, it was therefore one of connection between the Asian trade and the inland trade.\nSakai was an autonomous city run by merchants citizens. In those day it was said Umi Sakai, Riku Imai (tr. "The richest city along the sea is Sakai, inlands Imai."). The famous zen-buddist priest Ikkyu loved to live in Sakai because of its free atmosphere. In the Sengoku period some Christian priests visited Sakai and documented its prosperity. After the coming of Europeans Sakai became a trade center of fire arms and a daimyo Oda Nobunaga was one of their important customers. Nobunaga was so ambious to try unifying Japan and attempted to take the autonomy preverege from Sakai. Sakai citizens denied his order and made an desperate war against his army. Most of citizens flied out somewhere and Sakai was burned and seized by Nobunaga.
Sen no Rikyu known as the great tea master was originally a merchant of\nSakai. Because of the close relationship between Chanoyu and Zen buddhism like Priest Ikkyu, and of the high prosperity of citizens, Sakai was one of center for tea favorites since the early time.
After the death of Nobunaga, one of his men, Toyotomi Hideyoshi seized the power. Under his reign Sakai became a prosperous city again.
In the Edo period Sakai was still an important trade center but now only inland trade for the sake of Tokugawa Bakufu policy, named Sakoku. Later the end of this era Westerners landed again to Sakai, but it resulted in a tragic accident, since citizens and foreigners were ignorant of eachother's ways. French troops and Sakai citizens clashed with some French were injured, thus some Japanese who were responsible were sentenced death by seppuku. This accident is called Sakai Case(Sakai-jiken).
In the modern Japan, Sakai is mainly a industrious city with a big port.
Persons
\n*Ikkyu\n*Sen no Rikyu\n*Hideo Nomo(jp. Nomo Hideo) Nomo worked in Shin-nittetsu Sakai and played in its club team before he was scouted by Kintetsu Bufferoes.
External Links
\n* Official website in Japanese
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