Miyazaki

Miyazaki stretches for about 400 kilometres along the Pacific side of Kyushu, between Oita in the north and Kagoshima in the south. A narrow coastal plain with the capital Miyazaki and the cities of Nobeoka and Hyūga backs onto the steep, forested Kyushu Mountains, which cover most of the prefecture; in the south-west the Miyakonojō basin opens towards the Kirishima volcanoes. Roughly three quarters of the land is forest, and Miyazaki has long been one of Japan's leading producers of cedar timber.

The prefecture is the Hyūga of the chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Takachiho in the north and the Kirishima peak Takachiho-no-mine in the south-west both claim to be the site where Ninigi, grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, descended from heaven, and Emperor Jimmu is said to have set out from the Hyūga coast on his eastern expedition to found the Japanese state. Shrines, kagura and hundreds of burial mounds keep this mythic geography present.

With one of the highest numbers of sunshine hours in Japan and a warm current offshore, Miyazaki became Japan's leading honeymoon destination in the 1960s and later a centre for surfing, golf and the spring training camps of professional sports teams. Agriculture remains central: broiler chickens, pigs and wagyu, early vegetables and tropical mangoes.

The name Miyazaki (宮崎, "shrine cape") was originally that of a district of Hyūga Province, usually explained by its location on a promontory near a shrine, often linked to the present Miyazaki Jingū. Hyūga (日向, "facing the sun") is the provincial name, reflecting the coast's eastern aspect. Miyazaki Prefecture was created in 1873, merged into Kagoshima in 1876 and re-established in 1883 within the borders of Hyūga, except for the Morokata area around Miyakonojō, which had belonged to the Satsuma domain and was nevertheless assigned to Miyazaki.

The Kyushu Mountains form the prefecture's backbone, cut by the deep valleys of the Gokase, Mimi, Hitotsuse and Omaru rivers, which drain eastwards to the Pacific. Sobo-san (1,756 m) on the Oita border is the highest peak. In the north-west, pyroclastic-flow deposits from Aso have been carved into the columnar gorge of Takachiho. The south-west belongs to the Kirishima volcanic group, part of Kirishima-Kinkōwan National Park, with Karakuni-dake (1,700 m), Takachiho-no-mine and the active Shinmoe-dake. The coast is mostly straight and sandy around Miyazaki city, but south of Aoshima the Nichinan coast turns rocky, with wave-cut sandstone platforms and headlands down to Cape Toi.

Miyazaki has a warm, humid climate with mild winters and long sunshine hours, especially in winter when the mountains block the north-westerly monsoon. Summers are hot and very wet: the prefecture lies on a main track of typhoons, and the rainy season and typhoons bring some of the highest rainfall totals in Japan, particularly in the mountains. Snow falls only on the higher peaks and in the Ebino Plateau.

Hyūga has one of the densest concentrations of kofun burial mounds in Kyushu, above all at Saitobaru, which points to a powerful regional elite in the 4th to 7th centuries. The chronicles of the 8th century made Hyūga the stage of the founding myths of the imperial house.

In the Middle Ages the Itō clan dominated central Hyūga until the Shimazu of Satsuma defeated them in the 1570s; the Shimazu victory over the Ōtomo at the Mimi River in 1578 decided the balance of power in Kyushu. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign of 1587 the province was divided, and throughout the Edo period it remained a mosaic of small domains – Nobeoka, Takanabe, Sadowara and Obi – plus shogunal territory and the Satsuma-held Morokata district.

After a false start and a period as part of Kagoshima, Miyazaki Prefecture was re-established in 1883. The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 ended with fighting in northern Miyazaki. In the 20th century a chemical industry grew up in Nobeoka, tourism boomed after the 1960s, and agriculture and forestry remained the economic base; outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in 2010 and volcanic eruptions of Shinmoe-dake in 2011 were major regional events.

Miyazaki's culture is shaped by the myths and by the isolation of its mountain villages. Kagura is performed in hundreds of communities, most famously the night-long Takachiho yokagura, and remote villages such as Shiiba preserve folk songs and a heritage of slash-and-burn farming. On the coast, shrines connected with the imperial myths – Miyazaki Jingū, Aoshima Jinja and Udo Jingū – are focal points of festivals. The Morokata area around Miyakonojō shares much of its culture with neighbouring Satsuma.

Miyazaki cooking centres on chicken: the prefecture is among Japan's largest producers of broilers and has its own style of free-range jidori. Warm-climate produce such as mangoes, hyūganatsu citrus and early cucumbers and peppers are grown on the coastal plain, while the Miyazaki beef of the Miyakonojō area and the skipjack tuna of the southern ports complete the table. Shōchū, distilled mostly from sweet potato, is the everyday drink.

Agriculture, livestock and forestry are the backbone of Miyazaki's economy. The prefecture is one of Japan's leading producers of broiler chickens, pigs and wagyu cattle, grows early-season vegetables in greenhouses on the coastal plain, and has for decades produced more cedar logs than any other prefecture. Industry is concentrated in Nobeoka, the historic base of a large chemical and fibre group, and in electronics plants; Miyakonojō is a centre of shōchū distilling. Tourism rests on the coast, Takachiho and Kirishima, and on sports camps that bring professional baseball and football teams each spring.