Marugame, Kagawa

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Marugame (丸亀市; -shi lit. round turtle) is a city located in Kagawa, Japan.

1 Geography
2 Points of interest
3 History
4 External links

[edit] Geography

As of 2005, the city had an estimated population of 110,118 and the density of 985.04 persons per km². The total area is 111.79 km².

[edit] Points of interest

Marugame is famous for having one of only 6 remaining original wooden castles (Marugame Castle) in the whole of Japan. The other interesting point about the castle is that it stands on a man-made hill which is over 50m high, making it the largest castle mount in Japan.

Marugame is also famed for its fan (uchiwa) production. About 90% of all fans made in Japan are produced in Marugame.

Places of interest to visit close to Marugame include:

[edit] History

Marugame was founded in April, 1899 during the Meiji era. Marugame was the 53rd city to be given a city code in Japan. From the 1940s to 1950s (during the Showa era) the southeast area of the city and some islands were amalgamated to form new parts of the city. In 1999 (the 11th year of the Heisei era) Marugame celebrated its 100th anniversary.

On March 22, 2005, the town of Ayauta and the town of Hanzan merged with "old Marugame" forming the current expanded city. The former Ayauta was founded in 1959 (the 34th year of the Showa era) with the amalgamation of the villages of Kumatama and Okada. Kumatama was in turn founded with the amalgamation of the villages of Kurikuma and Tomikuma in 1951.

The former Hanzan was founded in 1956 (the 31st year of the Showa era) with the amalgamation of the villages of Sakamoto and Hokunji.