Fukui

Fukui is divided by the Kinome Pass into two distinct halves. The north, Reihoku, is the old province of Echizen: the Fukui Plain, the Kuzuryū River, the snowy basins of Ōno and Katsuyama and a rugged coast with the columnar andesite cliffs of Tōjinbō. The south, Reinan, is the old province of Wakasa, a ria coastline of bays, fishing villages and the five lakes of Mikata, closely tied to Kyoto by the old "mackerel road".

Echizen was the domain of the Asakura clan, whose town at Ichijōdani was one of the cultural centres of sixteenth-century Japan, and later of a senior branch of the Tokugawa. The Zen master Dōgen founded Eihei-ji here in 1244, and it remains one of the two head temples of the Sōtō school. Katsuyama has yielded more dinosaur fossils than anywhere else in Japan and hosts a major dinosaur museum.

Fukui's economy is built on skilled small-scale manufacturing: Sabae makes the great majority of Japan's eyeglass frames, and Echizen's paper, knives, lacquer and pottery are among the country's oldest crafts. Wakasa Bay hosts a concentration of nuclear power stations that has long supplied the Kansai region.

The name comes from the castle town of Fukui, called Kitanoshō until the early seventeenth century; the Matsudaira lords renamed it Fukui (first written 福居, later 福井, "well of fortune"), a name associated with a well in the castle grounds.

After 1871 Echizen and Wakasa were reorganised several times, joined partly to Ishikawa and to Shiga as Tsuruga Prefecture was abolished in 1876. Fukui Prefecture was established in its present form, uniting Echizen and Wakasa, in 1881.

Reihoku is centred on the Fukui Plain, drained by the Kuzuryū, Hino and Asuwa rivers. Inland, the Ōno and Katsuyama basins lie below the mountains on the Gifu and Ishikawa borders, part of the Hakusan range. The Echizen coast is lined with cliffs; at Tōjinbō columnar-jointed andesite rises straight from the sea.

Reinan is a narrow strip between the mountains and Wakasa Bay, whose drowned-valley coast forms many sheltered inlets. The five lakes of Mikata are a Ramsar wetland, and Lake Suigetsu among them contains annual sediment layers spanning tens of thousands of years that serve as a worldwide reference for radiocarbon dating.

Reihoku has a Sea of Japan climate with heavy winter snow; the great snowfalls of 1963 and 1981 paralysed the Fukui Plain. Ōno and Katsuyama are among the snowiest basins in western Japan. Reinan is milder, with less snow, and its climate is closer to that of northern Kyoto. Summers are hot and humid throughout.

Echizen and Wakasa were close to the ancient capitals. Wakasa was a miketsukuni, a province supplying seafood to the imperial table, and salt and fish travelled to Kyoto along the Saba Kaidō. Tsuruga was a harbour for contacts with the Asian mainland. Eihei-ji was founded in 1244 by Dōgen, who brought Sōtō Zen from China.

From 1471 the Asakura ruled Echizen from Ichijōdani, which grew into a cultured town attracting courtiers from war-torn Kyoto, until Oda Nobunaga destroyed it in 1573. Shibata Katsuie then built Kitanoshō Castle, and in 1601 Yūki Hideyasu, a son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founded the Fukui domain. In the late Edo period its lord Matsudaira Shungaku and his adviser Hashimoto Sanai were leading reformers.

The twentieth century brought a devastating air raid on Fukui in 1945 and the Fukui earthquake of 28 June 1948, which led the Japan Meteorological Agency to add intensity 7 to its scale. Nuclear power plants were built along Wakasa Bay from 1970. The Hokuriku Shinkansen reached Fukui and Tsuruga in 2024.

Fukui's religious life is shaped by Zen at Eihei-ji and by Jōdo Shinshū, whose influence runs deep in rural Echizen; the Buddhist altar, the butsudan, has a central place in homes. The crafts of Echizen, paper, knives, lacquer, chests and pottery, grew up close to the markets of Kyoto and still cluster in the area around Echizen City and Sabae.

Wakasa preserves rites tied to Nara and Kyoto: the Omizu-okuri ceremony at Obama, in which sacred water is sent to Tōdai-ji, is the counterpart of the Omizutori rite in Nara. The Saba Kaidō and other old roads carry a sense of the region as Kyoto's larder.

Fukui's cooking combines Sea of Japan seafood with rustic mountain food. Echizen crab is the prefecture's winter pride; buckwheat noodles with grated daikon and sauce-soaked pork cutlets on rice are everyday dishes. Wakasa's mackerel, tilefish and fermented fish reflect centuries of supplying Kyoto.

Fukui has a dense network of small and medium manufacturers. Sabae produces most of Japan's eyeglass frames, including titanium frames, and the textile industry, which began with habutae silk, now makes synthetic fabrics. Chemicals, electronic components and machinery are also important.

Wakasa Bay has hosted one of the largest concentrations of nuclear power stations in Japan, supplying electricity to the Kansai region. Agriculture, fisheries, traditional crafts and tourism around Eihei-ji, Tōjinbō and the Dinosaur Museum complete the economy.