Tsu (津市, Tsu-shi) - The capital of Mie
Prefecture, Japan. It is located on Ise Bay.
Tsu originally developed as a castle town. During the Edo
era, it became a popular stopping point for travelers to Ise
shrine, about 40 km to the southeast. The old city was
founded on April 1, 1889. About half of it was destroyed by
the American bombing raids of 1945, although it has been
rebuilt since then and remains one of the region's principal
cities.
Tsu is home to Mie University, the prefecture's only
national university.
Tsu is on the Kisei Main Line, Kintetsu Nagoya Line, and Ise
Railway. The closest airport is Chubu Centrair International
Airport, on an artificial island in Ise Bay, south of
Nagoya.
As a monomoraic, coda-less monosyllable, "Tsu" is an
unusually short city name.
On January 1, 2006, the old Tsu merged with the city of
Hisai and the towns and villages in Age District and Ichishi
District to form the new city of Tsu. The city became the
8th prefectual capital city to form the new municipal
organization joining Saitama, Shizuoka, Aomori, Toyama,
Matsue, Yamaguchi, and Saga. As a result of the merger, the
city became the 2nd largest by population behind Yokkaichi,
and became the largest by area ahead of Matsusaka.
The city became the smallest of all prefectural capitals by
population since the city of Yamaguchi merged with the
surroinding towns and villages on October 1, 2005, but due
to this mergers as written above, the city of Yamaguchi once
again became the smallest prefectural capital by population.
The city is also prone to tsunamis and has made a wall to
try and slow them down and give the people time to run away.
Information source: “Tsu, Mie.” wikipedia.org. Article
date: 26 Feb. 2008. Retrieved: Wikipedia. 4 Mar. 2008 <Tsu, Mie>. |
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