Date

Date is a city in northern Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, occupying the eastern half of the Fukushima Basin with Miyagi Prefecture on its northern border. It is made up of five former towns, Date, Hobara, Yanagawa, Ryozen and Tsukidate, each keeping its own traditions and events, and the municipal government sits in Hobara. The Abukuma and Hirose rivers cross it. Hobara is linked to the origins of the Date clan, whose later lord Date Masamune founded Sendai. The economy rests on rice and horticulture, with peaches and dried persimmons especially noted, and the area was once known for silk farming before turning to fruit in the Taisho period. Population has declined over seventy years.