Mura (Japan)
Mura or Son (both Jap. 村, Engl. "village", equivalent to Chinese 村, pinyin "cūn") is a local administrative unit in Japan. Villages with the official designation of mura are usually smaller municipalities in rural Japan (see rural municipality). They always belong to a county gun. The usual English translation of this municipal unit, for example on multilingual place-name signs, is village.
Due to mergers of many municipalities in recent years, their number has declined sharply, from 568 at the beginning of the Heisei Area Reform (Heisei Daigappei) in April 1999 to 189 on January 1, 2019.
The following 13 prefectures therefore no longer have mura:
- Ehime Prefecture
- Fukui Prefecture
- Hyōgo Prefecture
- Hiroshima Prefecture
- Ishikawa Prefecture
- Kagawa Prefecture
- Mie Prefecture
- Nagasaki Prefecture
- Saga Prefecture
- Shiga Prefecture
- Shizuoka Prefecture
- Tochigi Prefecture
- Yamaguchi Prefecture
or rather, these 12 prefectures now have only one:
- Chiba Prefecture (Chōsei, Chōsei-gun)
- Kanagawa Prefecture (Kiyokawa, Aikō-gun)
- Kyōto Prefecture (Minamiyamashiro, Soraku-gun)
- Miyagi Prefecture (Ōhira, Kurokawa-gun)
- Ōita Prefecture (Himeshima, Higashikunisaki-gun)
- Osaka Prefecture (Chihayaakasaka, Minamikawachi-gun)
- Saitama Prefecture (Higashichibu, Chichibu-gun)
- Shimane Prefecture (Chibu, Oki-gun)
- Tokushima Prefecture (Sanagouchi, Myōdō-gun)
- Tottori Prefecture (Hiezu, Saihaku-gun)
- Toyama Prefecture (Funahashi, Nakaniikawa-gun)
- Wakayama Prefecture (Kitayama, Higashimuro-gun)
(As of January 1, 2019)
The Kun reading Mura for the character is more common than the On reading Son. The Son designation is currently used in only six prefectures. In Miyazaki, Okayama, Okinawa, Tokushima, and Tottori prefectures, all villages use the Son reading; in Kagoshima prefecture, it is used in only two of the four villages.
All other prefectures use the reading Mura.
In 2018, there were still 183 villages in Japan, 28 of which were designated as son.
Due to the derivation of numerous Japanese surnames from settlement names, Mura is found in many family names such as: Nakamura, Murayama, Nishimura, etc.
See also
- Japanese village in the Edo period
