Tokushima

Tokushima occupies the eastern quarter of Shikoku. Most of its people live on the lower plain of the Yoshino River, one of Japan's great rivers, which flows east along the Median Tectonic Line to the sea at Tokushima city. To the south and west the land rises into the Shikoku Mountains, where Tsurugi-san reaches 1,955 metres and the Iya Valley hides villages of steep terraced fields, thatched farmhouses and bridges woven from vines.

The prefecture looks east: the Ōnaruto Bridge crosses the Naruto Strait, where tidal whirlpools form between the Inland Sea and the Pacific, to Awaji Island and on to Kobe. For centuries indigo grown on the Yoshino plain made the Awa domain rich, and the wealth of its merchants supported the puppet theatre of Awa Ningyō Jōruri and the Awa Odori, now one of Japan's largest dance festivals.

Tokushima is also where most pilgrims begin the Shikoku Henro. Temple 1, Ryōzen-ji, stands in Naruto, and Awa's 23 temples are known as the "dōjō of awakening", the stage at which the pilgrim resolves to seek enlightenment.

The prefecture is named after Tokushima Castle, built by Hachisuka Iemasa in 1585 on a hill at the mouth of the Yoshino River; the name, meaning roughly "virtuous island", was given to the castle and its delta town.

The former province name Awa (阿波) is traditionally linked with awa (粟), foxtail millet, the ancient crop of the region. In the Edo period the Hachisuka ruled Awa and Awaji Island together. After the abolition of the domains, Awaji was transferred to Hyogo in 1876 and Awa was briefly merged into Kōchi Prefecture before Tokushima Prefecture was re-established in its present form in 1880.

The Yoshino River, nicknamed Shikoku Saburō, "third son of Shikoku", as one of Japan's three great unruly rivers, runs almost straight east for much of its course, creating a broad valley between the Sanuki Mountains in the north and the Shikoku Mountains in the south. Upstream it cuts the gorges of Ōboke and Koboke; its tributary the Iya flows through a deep, isolated valley.

The coast changes character from north to south: the whirlpools and islets of the Naruto Strait, the delta and harbour of Tokushima city, and south of Anan a rocky Pacific coast with beaches where sea turtles nest, leading towards Cape Muroto in Kōchi.

The north has a mild climate influenced by the Inland Sea, with relatively low rainfall. The south, facing the Pacific, is warmer and one of the wettest areas of Japan, especially in the typhoon season. The mountains of Iya and Tsurugi are cool in summer and snowy in winter.

Awa was settled early, and the region along the Yoshino has many kofun. In the medieval period it was ruled by the Hosokawa and then their retainers the Miyoshi, who briefly dominated the Kinai in the sixteenth century. In 1585 Toyotomi Hideyoshi granted Awa to Hachisuka Iemasa, whose family ruled until 1871 and built Tokushima Castle.

Under the Hachisuka, indigo cultivation on the Yoshino plain became Awa's great industry, and Awa indigo dominated the Japanese market until synthetic dyes arrived in the late nineteenth century. From 1917 to 1920 German prisoners of war from Qingdao were held at the Bandō camp in present-day Naruto, where they gave the first complete performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Japan. The Ōnaruto Bridge (1985) and Akashi Kaikyō Bridge (1998) linked Tokushima with Kansai by road.

The Awa Odori is Tokushima's defining tradition: during Obon in August, groups called ren dance through the streets to the rhythm of shamisen, drums and flutes, chanting that dancers and watchers are both fools, so better to dance. Awa Ningyō Jōruri, a form of the bunraku puppet theatre performed on village stages, and the indigo craft known as Japan Blue are cherished elements of Awa's identity.

The prefecture holds the first 23 temples of the Shikoku Henro, and pilgrims setting out from Ryōzen-ji are a familiar sight. The mountain village of Kamikatsu is known for selling garnishing leaves to restaurants and for its zero-waste policy.

Tokushima is a larder for the Kansai region, supplying lotus root, carrots and sweet potatoes, and it grows almost all of Japan's sudachi. The sea provides Naruto wakame and sea bream from the strait, and the mountains buckwheat and game.

Tokushima's manufacturing is led by LEDs and electronic materials, centred on Anan, where the bright blue LED was developed, and by pharmaceuticals and food processing. Agriculture supplies vegetables and fruit to Kansai, and forestry remains important in the mountains. The Kansai link across Awaji shapes commuting and tourism.