Naoetsu

One of the central districts in Joetsu City, southwest of Niigata Prefecture. Formerly Naoetsu City. In the old days, it was a port town on the Hokuriku Road, where five horses were stationed for relay races, as described in the Engishiki. In the Middle Ages, it played an important role as the outer port of the Uesugi clan's Kasugayama castle town. After Uesugi Kagekatsu was transferred to Aizu, it became the property of Hori Hideharu and Tadatoshi, but later, Tokugawa Ieyasu had his sixth son, Matsudaira Tadateru, establish the Takada domain, which became an outpost for the Maeda clan of the Kaga domain. As a result, the castle town was moved to Takada, and Naoetsu became the outer port of Takada castle town. In modern times, Naoetsu Port was favored for land transportation, as it was the location of the Shinetsu Main Line and the Hokuriku Main Line (currently the JR Shinetsu Main Line and the Echigo Tokimeki Railway's Nihonkai Hisui Line and Myoko Haneuma Line) that intersected, and large factories such as Shinetsu Chemical, Nippon Stainless Steel (now Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal), and Nisso Steel (now Pacific Metals) began to gather on both sides of the port, and it developed into the core area of ​​the Joetsu coastal industrial zone. In 1964 (Showa 39), a new port was dug into the sand dunes at the old river mouth port, and a new wharf capable of docking 15,000-ton ships was completed, and Naoetsu Port was designated as an important port. In 1983, the volume of marine cargo imported and exported at Naoetsu Port was 2.51 million tons. Along the coast, there are Kota Shrine, which was one of Echigo's Ichinomiya (first shrines), the Joetsu City Aquarium Museum, and swimming beaches such as Tanihama, Gozu, and Naoetsu, making the area a famous tourist destination.

[Hisao Yamazaki]

"History of Naoetsu" (1971, Naoetsu City)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

新潟県南西、上越市(じょうえつし)にある中心地区の一つ。旧直江津市。古くは『延喜式(えんぎしき)』にみえる宿駅として「水門(みなと)馬五疋(ひき)」の駅伝馬が配された北陸道の湊(みなと)町で、中世は上杉氏の春日山(かすがやま)城下町の外港として重きをなした。上杉景勝(かげかつ)の会津(あいづ)移封後は堀秀治(ひではる)・忠俊(ただとし)の所領となったが、その後、徳川家康が六男松平忠輝(ただてる)に高田藩を開府させ、加賀藩前田家に対する前哨(ぜんしょう)基地とした。これにより高田に城下町が移ったため、直江津は高田城下の外港に変わった。近代は街道交通とともに、信越本線と北陸本線（現在はJR信越本線とえちごトキめき鉄道の日本海ひすいライン、妙高はねうまライン）の交差する陸上交通上の地の利を得て、港の両岸には信越化学、日本ステンレス（現、新日鐡住金）、日曹(にっそう)製鋼（現、太平洋金属）などの大工場が集積を始め、上越臨海工業地帯の核心地域に発展。1964年（昭和39）からは旧河口港内の砂丘に掘込み式新港を築港して、1万5000トン級の船舶が接岸できる新埠頭(ふとう)が完成し、直江津港は重要港湾に指定された。1983年の直江津港の海上貨物輸移出入量は251万トンであった。海岸沿いには、越後一宮(えちごいちのみや)の一つであった居多(こた)神社や、上越市立水族博物館、谷浜、郷津(ごうづ)、直江津などの海水浴場もあり、観光地としても名高い。

［山崎久雄］

『『直江津の歴史』（1971・直江津市）』

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