7. History

      
Some famous people were present in the history of Niigata. One of Famous person is Uesugi Kenshin. Uesugi Kenshin is the Daimyou of Echigo in Sengoku era. Daimyou is like king, and Echigo is the name of the old days of Niigata prefecture. Sengoku era lasted until the end of the 16th century from the end of the fifteenth century. He was born in Echigo in 1513, and his first name was Nagao Kagetora. He was put out to live-in service to temple when he was child, and he trained for seven years in the temple, but he became head of the Nagao family on behalf of his older brother because his older brother could not rule over infighting. He put down one after another rebellion in the country, and his name began to spread to countries around. In 1553, fight against Takeda Shingen began. This fight is called fight of Kawanakajima, and it lasted until 1561. Many countries stopped exporting the salt to Takeda Shingen, but Uesugi Kenshin does not stop exporting the salt. He thought that people in country of Takeda Shingen will suffer if they cannot get the salt. There is a saying that sending a salt to the enemy in Japan. This word was born from this incident.



Uesugi Kenshin

Pollution-related disease called Niigata Minamata disease occurs in 1965. Niigata Minamata disease is one of the four major pollution diseases in Japan. Minamata disease is a disease that causes central nervous system symptoms of poisoning by methyl mercury. People contract Minamata disease death in the worst case. When a factory in Niigata prefecture was making acetaldehyde, methyl mercury was generated and shed as effluent into the river without being processed. Fish and shellfish living in the river absorbed the methyl mercury, and people living near the river ate the fish and shellfish had ingested methyl mercury. Many people were suffering from Minamata disease, and some people are suffering still now.

Three big earthquakes happened in Niigata during these 100 years. These are named Niigata earthquake, Niigata Chuetsu earthquake and Niigata Chuetsuoki earthquake. Especially, Niigata Chuetsu earthquake brought great damage. Niigata Chuetsu earthquake was seismic intensity 7, and earthquake with a seismic intensity of 7 is only Kobe earthquake and this earthquake. Niigata Chuetsuoki earthquake　occurred in only three years after the Niigata Chuetsuoki earthquake occur. Damage by Niigata Chuetsuoki earthquake was less than that of Niigata Chuetsuoki earthquake because people had to prepare for earthquake firmly.

Road collapsed by earthquake

I used the following website.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E6%9D%89%E8%AC%99%E4%BF%A1
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%B0%B4%E4%BF%A3%E7%97%85