Watari (Miyagi)

Watari-chō 亘 理 町
Geographical location in Japan
Region :	Tōhoku
Prefecture :	Miyagi
Coordinates :	38 ° 2 '  N , 140 ° 51'  E Coordinates: 38 ° 2 '16 "  N , 140 ° 51' 9"  E
Basic data
Surface:	73.60 km²
Residents :	32,956 (October 1, 2019)
Population density :	448 inhabitants per km²
Community key :	04361-3
Symbols
Flag / coat of arms:
Tree :	Japanese black pine
Flower :	Camellia sasanqua
town hall
Address :	Watari Town Hall 7 - 4 , Aza Shimokōji Watari- chō , Watari-gun Miyagi  989-2393
Website URL:	www.town.watari.miyagi.jp
Location of Wataris in Miyagi Prefecture

Watari ( Japanese 亘 理 町 , - chō ) is a Japanese city ​​in the district of the same name in Miyagi Prefecture .

geography

Torinoumi lagoon with the island of Hiruzuka on the coast of Watari (aerial photo in color combined from 8 aerial photographs from 1984), created by MLIT .

Watari is located on the Abukuma , which forms the northern border of the municipality and there flows into the Sendai Bay . The highest elevation is the Shihō-zan ( 四方 山 ) with 272 m  TP on the border to the west of Kakuda and Yamamoto in the south. Iwanuma stretches north on the other bank of the Abukuma .

The right side of the estuary is known as the Arahama District, which has a swimming and surfing beach. Also in this area south of the river mouth is the 1.30 square kilometers and 4.4 m deep brackish water - Lagoon Torinoumi ( 鳥の海 ), the Northeast as a natural port is used. The lagoon receives fresh water through a system of irrigation channels for the surrounding fields that draw water from the Abukuma. Inside is the approximately 4 hectare island of Hiruzuka ( 蛭 塚 ).

The residential area of ​​Arahama (荒 浜) is between the river and the lake.

history

Watari County in the spelling 曰 理 [郡] is first mentioned in the Shoku Nihongi in an entry dated to 718.

During the Edo period , the area belonged to the fiefdom ( han ) Sendai and Date Shigezane built the Watari Castle ( 亘 理 城 Watari-jō ) here, around which a castle town ( Jōkamachi ) was formed, which was the nucleus of today's Watari. The Watari line of the Date clan resided at the castle . The city was also a post office on the old Rikuzenhama-kaidō highway , which is followed by today's National Road 6 .

During the early Meiji period , the samurai emigrated to Hokkaidō and founded the city of Date-Mombetsu (today: Date ). Watari's economy was made up of sake breweries, oil production, lumber production and equipment manufacturing. The port of Arahama at the estuary served as a shipping port for rice to the capital Edo (today: Tokyo ).

Today's Watari community came into being on April 1, 1889, when the Japanese community was reorganized. February 1, 1955, the neighboring town of Arahama (was 荒浜町 , -machi (), and the neighboring villages Yoshida 吉田村 , - mura ) and Okuma ( 逢隈村 , mura incorporated).

2011 Tōhoku earthquake

Extent of flooding and damage

On March 11, 2011, the city was hit by the Tōhoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. As usual in Japa, the Abukama River was protected by river dams, which themselves suffered no visible damage. But the tsunami was higher than the river dams, exceeded them and caused damage to the area behind. In other places along the coastline, coastal dykes had been built to protect against storm surges caused by typhoons , but these were completely destroyed in many places by the tsunami. Crossing these coastal dikes by the tsunami led to the support of their rear. This undermined their construction, exposing their central sand and gravel core, which was easily eroded by the tsunami , ultimately causing the dyke body to collapse. Coastal ponds in the Arahama district of the city of Watari could not withstand the tsunami either and were destroyed.

While flood heights of 7.56 m were measured near the coastal dykes, they were 4.82 m in the inland area.

The tsunami flooded an area in the city of Watari where (as of 2010) 10,920 people in 3,230 households had lived. 23.2% of those living in the floodplains in Watari were 65 years of age or older in 2010.

The number of completely destroyed residential buildings is put at 2,389 and that of the partially destroyed at 1,150.

Victim

The fire and disaster control authority reported 283 dead and 4 missing in Watari.

Measured against the total population of Watari, which was given as 34,845 in the 2010 census, the casualty rate from the 2011 disaster was 0.8%, if all dead and missing persons recorded in the 157th FDMA damage report of March 7, 2018 are taken into account or 0.77% if the RA-reported disaster-related deaths are deducted from registered victims, bringing the total to 270 dead and missing. With the same database, but based solely on the flood area of ​​the tsunami in Natori, which covered an area of ​​35 km², the casualty rate was 1.92%.

• Gallery: Effects in Watari after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011:
• 

  Coastline of northern Watari (in the picture below the Abukama River) and southern Iwanuma (satellite images from September 5, 2010 and March 12, 2011)

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  Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter during a search and rescue operation over the Takaya (高 屋 地区) district with its still flooded rice fields (Photo: March 13, 2011)

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  Drainage pump in use for draining the flooded fields in Watari with an MLIT vehicle

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  Torinoumi area (鳥 の 海) (Photo: April 1, 2011)

• 

  Torinoumi area near Hiruzuka Island (蛭 塚) (Photo: April 1, 2011)

Attractions

The most important tourist destination is the Torinoumi lagoon . The area at sea level forms a small estuary system with attached marshland on the southwestern coast of Sendai Bay. In November 1986 the Torinoumilagune, which as a wetland has a very important function as a collecting point for migratory birds , was designated as a prefectural nature reserve with an area of ​​180 hectares for 20 years .

Other sights are the 700 year old chestnut tree , which is a protected natural monument, on the grounds of the Shōmyō Temple ( 称 名寺 Shōmyō-ji ), as well as the Watari Shrine ( 亘 理 神社 Watari-jinja ) with the remains of the old castle.

traffic

Watari is connected to the Japanese rail network with the stations Hamayoshida, Watari and Ōkuma via the JR East Jōban line to Tokyo and Sendai .

Important highways are the Jōban highway to Misato , as well as the national road 6 to Tokyo or Sendai.

education

Watari has six elementary schools, four middle schools (Arahama, Ōkuma, Watari and Yoshida) and one high school.

Town twinning

• Date , sister city since April 17, 1981

Web links

Commons : Watari  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 10 万分 1 浸水 範 囲 概況 図 , 国土 地理 院 ( Kokudo Chiriin , Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, formerly: Geographical Survey Institute = GSI), www.gsi.go.jp: 地理 院 ホ ー ム> 防災 関 連> 平 成 23 年 （2011年） 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 に 関 す る 情報 提供> 10 万分 1 浸水 範 囲 概況 図:

At this point, the GSI publishes two maps with Watari ( 浸水 範 囲 概況 図 13 , 浸水 範 囲 概況 図 14 ), on which the areas flooded by the Tōhoku tsunami 2011 are drawn on the basis of evaluations of aerial photographs and satellite images, as far as possible.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Takahito Mikami, Tomoya Shibayama, Miguel Esteban, Ryo Matsumaru: Field survey of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures . In: Coastal Engineering Journal . tape 54 , no. 1 , 2012, p. 1250011-1-1250011-26 , doi : 10.1142 / S0578563412500118 . (Published March 29, 2012).
2. ↑ 調査 実 施 湖沼 一 覧 . Kokudo Chiriin, accessed July 1, 2018 (Japanese). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} 亘 理 . In: ブ リ タ ニ カ 国際 大 百科 事 典 小 項目 事 典 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved July 1, 2018 (Japanese). 
4. ↑ H. Murakami, K. Takimoto, A. Pomonis: Tsunami Evacuation Process and Human Loss Distribution in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake - A Case Study of Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture . In: 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering . 2012 ( iitk.ac.in [PDF]).
5. ↑ ^{a b c} 平 成 23 年 （2011 年） 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 （東 日本 大 震災） に つ い て （第 157 報） ( Memento from March 18, 2018 on WebCite ) ( PDF ( Memento from March 18, 2018 on WebCite )),総 務 省 消防 庁 (Fire and Disaster Management Agency), March 7, 2018.
6. ↑ 平 成 22 年 国 勢 調査 - 人口 等 基本 集 計 結果 - （岩手 県 ， 宮城 県 及 び 福島 県） ( Memento from March 24, 2018 on WebCite ) (PDF, Japanese), stat.go.jp (Statistics Japan - Statistics Bureau , Ministry of Internal Affairs and communication), 2010 Census, Summary of Results for Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, URL: http://www.stat.go.jp/data/kokusei/2010/index.html .
7. ↑ Tadashi Nakasu, Yuichi Ono, Wiraporn Pothisiri: Why did Rikuzentakata have a high death toll in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster? Finding the devastating disaster's root causes . In: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction . tape 27 , 2018, p. 21-36 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ijdrr.2017.08.001 . (Published online on August 15, 2017), here p. 22, table 2.
8. ↑ 平 成 23 年 (2011 年) 東北 地方 太平洋 沖 地震 （東 日本 大 震災） に つ い て （第 153 報） ( Memento of March 10, 2016 on WebCite ) , 総 務 省 消防 庁 (Fire and Disaster Management Agency), 153rd report, March 8, 2016.
9. ^ Scott, Derek A.: A directory of Asian wetlands . IUCN , Gland, et al. 1989, ISBN 2-88032-984-1 (p. I-xiv, p. 1-1181, Karten, iucn.org - The introduction to the section Japan is by Koichiro Sonobe).

Remarks

1. ↑ The Arahama district of Watari city should not be confused with the district of the same name in the Wakabayashi (若 林区) district of Sendai city (仙台 市), which, as in the first-mentioned district, was destroyed by the Tōhoku tsunami of March 11, 2011 came (Source: Takahito Mikami, Tomoya Shibayama, Miguel Esteban, Ryo Matsumaru: Field survey of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures . In: Coastal Engineering Journal . Volume 54 , no. 1 , 2012, p. 1250011-1-1250011-26 , doi : 10.1142 / S0578563412500118 . )