Sakai

Sakai (säkī`), city (1990 pop. 807,765), Osaka prefecture, S Honshu, Japan, on Osaka Bay at the mouth of the Yamato River. An industrial center, it has engineering, iron- and steelworks, chemical plants, machine factories, and textile mills. Sakai was a major port from the 15th to the 17th cent.

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Sakai

a port in S Japan, on S Honshu on Osaka Bay: an industrial satellite of Osaka. Pop.: 787 833 (2002 est.)

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Sakai 

a city and port in Japan; located in the southern part of the island of Honshu, on Osaka Bay of the Inland Sea, in Osaka Prefecture. Separated from Osaka by the Yamato River. Part of the Hanshin economic region (Osaka-Kobe). Population, 624,000(1972).

Sakai is a major transportation junction. It has machine building (including shipbuilding and the manufacture of optical equipment, railroad rolling stock, and agricultural machinery and implements) and ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. There are also petrochemical and textile (silk-weaving and cotton-cloth) industries, traditional manufacture of carpets, and manufacture of bicycles and metalware.

The first reference to Sakai dates from the eighth century. Located at the intersection of land and sea routes, the city quickly became the most important port of medieval Japan for trade with China and Korea, as well as an artisan center. From the 12th through the 16th century, Sakai was a free city, and its administration was handled by prominent merchants and the heads of the handicraft guilds. During the rule of the feudal house of Tokugawa (1603–1867) in Japan, the city came under the rule of government officials. The seaside Hamadera Park is used for recreation by the inhabitants of Osaka and Sakai.