Atami

Atami is located in the far eastern corner of Shizuoka Prefecture at the northern end of Izu Peninsula. The city is on the steep slopes of a partially submerged volcanic caldera on the edge of Sagami Bay. Atami literally means "hot ocean", a reference to the town's famous onsen hot springs. The city boundaries include the offshore island of Hatsushima. Most of Atami is located within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. Warmed by the Kuroshio Current offshore, the area is known for its moderate maritime climate with hot, humid summers, and short winters.

• Kanagawa Prefecture
  • Yugawara
• Shizuoka Prefecture
  • Itō
  • Izunokuni
  • Kannami

The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (Köppen climate classification: Cfa). The average annual temperature in Atami is 16.3 °C (61.3 °F). The average annual rainfall is 2,012.7 mm (79.24 in) with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.4 °C (79.5 °F), and lowest in January, at around 7.0 °C (44.6 °F).^[2]

As of 1 May 2019^[update], with the city's estimated population of 36,865^[1] and per Japanese census data,^[4] the population of Atami has been in slow decline over the past half century.

 

Atami has been known as a resort town centered on its hot springs since the 8th century AD. In the Kamakura period, Minamoto no Yoritomo and Hōjō Masako were notable visitors. During the Edo period, all of Izu Province was tenryō territory under direct control of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the cadastral reform of the early Meiji period in 1889, Atami village was organized within Kamo District, Shizuoka. It was elevated to town status on June 11, 1894, and was transferred to the administrative control of Tagata District in 1896.

The epicenter of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 was deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay, close to Atami, which suffered considerable damage, as did other municipalities throughout the surrounding Kantō region.^[5] The tsunami wave height reached 11 meters (35 feet) at Atami, swamping the town and drowning three hundred people.^[6]

The Inagawa-kai, third largest of Japan's yakuza groups, was founded in Atami in 1949 as the Inagawa-gumi (稲川組) by Kakuji Inagawa.^[7]

In 1963 the Japanese Communist Party established a study facility in the mountains near Atami. The JCP holds a triennial congress there.^[8]

The modern city of Atami was founded on April 10, 1937, through the merger of Atami Town with neighboring Taga Village. After the proclamation of Atami as an "International Tourism and Culture City" by the Japanese government in 1950, the area experienced rapid growth in large resort hotel development. This growth increased after Atami station became a stop on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen high-speed train line in 1964. In concert with its famous onsen, Atami was known for its onsen geisha.

Atami experienced a considerable decline in popularity as a vacation destination due to the Japanese economic crisis in the 1990s and the associated fall in large group company-sponsored vacations, but is currently experiencing a revival as a commuter town due to its proximity to Tokyo and Yokohama.

 

Following torrential rainfall a landslide was triggered which swept through part of the city on 3 July 2021. 27 people were killed and 3 were injured.^{[9][10][11][12]}

 

Atami has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 15 members.

 

The economy of Atami is heavily dependent on the tourist industry, mostly centered on its hot spring resorts.^[13] Commercial fishing is a major secondary industry.

Atami has eight public elementary schools and four public junior high schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education. The International University of Health and Welfare, based in Ōtawara, Tochigi, has a campus in Atami.

 

•   Central Japan Railway Company - Tōkaidō Shinkansen
  • Atami Station
•   East Japan Railway Company - Tōkaidō Main Line
  • Atami Station
•   East Japan Railway Company - Itō Line
  • Atami Station – Kinomiya Station – Izu-Taga Station – Ajiro Station

•   National Route 135
• Atami Beach Line
• Izu Skyline

Atami is twinned with:

•   Beppu, Ōita, Japan, since August 1966
•   Sanremo, Italy, since November 1976^[14]
•   Cascais, Portugal, since July 1990^[14]
•   Zhuhai, China, friendship city since July 2004^[15]

• Yū Hayami, singer, actress
• Yuka Imai, voice actress
• Yuji Ohno, jazz musician
• Atamifuji Sakutarō, professional sumo wrestler
• Mitsuko Uchida, classical pianist

• Atami Castle, a Japanese castle replica serving as a museum, built in 1959. Features a garden with over 200 sakura trees^[16]
• Izusan Jinja, an ancient Shinto shrine, a major site of the syncretic Shugendō religion
• MOA Museum of Art, housing the extensive art collection of eccentric multimillionaire and religious leader Mokichi Okada
• Peace Pagoda, built by Nipponzan-Myōhōji in 1961

• In the 1951 film Tokyo File 212, a key scene takes place at a resort in Atami.
• In the 1953 film Tokyo Story, the parents visit the hot springs in Atami.
• Much of the 1953 film, A Japanese Tragedy, is set in Atami.
• Atami is also the setting of the TV drama Atami no Sousakan.
• Atami also appears in the 1954 film, Golden Demon (Konjiki Yasha), based on the novel of the same name by Kōyō Ozaki, as the place where two main characters become engaged to be married.^[17]
• In the 1962 film King Kong vs. Godzilla, the final throes of the film's climactic battle between Godzilla and King Kong sees them descending Mount Fuji and into Atami. After destroying Atami Castle during a trade of blows, the two monsters fall over a cliff into Sagami Bay, with Kong emerging as the victor of the fight.
• In the 1967 film, Gappa, the Triphibian Monster, the two adult Gappa creatures make landfall in Atami, destroying much of it in the process.
• In the Studio Ghibli anime drama, Only Yesterday, the main character Taeko goes to Atami at age 10, visiting some of the onsen, but she passes out in the Roman bath from dizziness.^[18]
• In the 2016 anime, Prince of Stride, Atami is the first stop in the End of Summer Trial Tour.^[19]
• In the 89th episode of the anime, "Urusei Yatsura", Mrs. Moroboshi wins a 2-day trip to Atami with her husband, leaving her son Ataru, the main character, at home alone with Lum.
• In the 2019 video game, AI: The Somnium Files, protagonist Kaname Date is a detective solving a murder mystery. In one of the game's endings, he quits the case and goes with a woman to Atami. In the 2022 sequel, AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative, protagonist Kuruto Ryuki can have a similar ending with the same woman.

• Hammer, Joshua. (2006). Yokohama Burning: The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-6465-7; ISBN 978-0-7432-6465-5 (cloth).

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atami, Shizuoka.

•   Atami travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official Website (in Japanese)