Жапониядағы Сайжо қаласы: Табиғи судың астанасы

Saijō (西条市) is a city in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. as of 2022, the city had an estimated population of 106,016 in 58803 households and a population density of 210 persons per km2. The total area of the city is .

Saijō is in central Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku and is bordered by the Seto Inland Sea to the north. It sits at the base of Mount Ishizuchi, the tallest peak in western Japan. The consolidated city of Saijō encompasses a broad area, spreading out across the entire Dōzen Plain from the foothills of the Ishizuchi Mountain Range to the Seto Inland Sea (the former Saijō City, Tōyo City, Komatsu Town and Tanbara Town), and also contains smaller communities extending into the lower reaches of the mountains. The Dōzen Plain is crossed by several rivers, the largest being the Kamo River and the Nakayama River. The main city of Saijō is known for natural spring water. Signs throughout the city and at the city's train station call Saijō the "Spring Water Capital of Japan." Numerous fountains, known locally as uchinuki, are scattered throughout the city where water is frequently bottled by locals and visitors alike. Most private dwelling houses also drill private wells to take advantage of the water. A famous freshwater spring known as Kōbōsui, named for Kūkai (also known as Kōbō Daishi), gushes from the bottom of Saijō harbor and is visited by locals and Buddhist pilgrims alike to drink and worship.

The first appearance of the name Saijō in written record is a letter from third Kamakura Shōgun Minamoto no Sanetomo recognizing the jurisdiction over the region of the Kōno clan that was included in the Yoshōki, a history of the clan written centuries later. Some regional historians such as Yuzuru Yamauchi challenge the veracity of that document, arguing that the first reliably datable extant document referring to Saijō is from the end of the Kamakura period. The etymology of the name Saijō itself is unclear. One possible origin suggested in extant documents from Kikō ji Temple in Niihama is that the region was once divided into a "western district" (the literal meaning of Saijō) and an eastern district (Tōjō, now Niihama) by the small group of mountains that lie between the two cities. The most common narrative follows this interpretation and attributes both the name and the geographical boundaries of Saijō to the Taika Reforms of the 7th century, though this origin has been disputed for lack of concrete historical evidence.

Saijō has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Saijō is 14.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1839 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in January, at around 25.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.0 °C.

Per Japanese census data, the population of Saijō has remained steady since the 1960s.

Residents of Saijō speak the Tōyo (eastern Ehime) variation of the Iyo dialect, which is part of the Western Japanese language group and similar in many ways to Kansai dialect. Due to some local variations in the dialect, people in Saijō refer to their particular form of Tōyo dialect as Saijō dialect (Saijō ben).

The Saijō area was part of ancient Iyo Province and has been inhabited at least as early as the Jōmon period, as evidenced by earthenware dated to approximately 6000 BC discovered in the Ichikura highland region. A large number of artifacts dating to the middle and late Yayoi period have been unearthed on and around Mount Hachidō. The significant clustering of burial mounds from the later Kofun period in the highlands has led archaeologists to believe that the flat plain on which modern Saijō sits was either too cold or too close to the Seto Inland Sea for tomb construction.

The history of the region from the Kamakura period to the beginning of the Edo period is difficult to piece together, in part because much of the area was destroyed as a result of Kobayakawa Takakage's campaign to subdue Iyo Province during the Invasion of Shikoku. At the beginning of the Kamakura period, the shogunate established the powerful Kōno clan as governors (shugo) over the entire Iyo Province, including Saijō. The Kōno had long held power over the region as manorial lords of the Saijō area. However, in 1342, Ashikaga Takauji ordered the invasion of Iyo Province by the subordinate Hosokawa clan as part of a bid to consolidate the shogunate's power over all of Shikoku. The Hosokawa clan assumed control over a large portion of the area that would last until the Warring States Period, and Saijō was ruled by proxy by the Ishikawa clan from Takakogi Castle in the present day Sunouchi district.

After the Meiji Restoration, Saijō Domain and adjacent Komatsu Domain became Saijō Prefecture and Komatsu Prefecture, respectively, in 1871. That same year, both prefectures were absorbed by the new Matsuyama Prefecture, which would be renamed Ishizuchi Prefecture before being combined with Kamiyama Prefecture to form the current Ehime Prefecture in 1873. In contrast to the decline of mountain based industries in the middle of the Showa period, agriculture and coastal industries grew consistently through the economic boom period before experiencing some decline after the beginning of the recession in 1991. In 1964, Saijō was designated the "New Tōyo Industrial Development City", accompanied by increased coastal reclamation projects and the development of heavy industry. This allowed the Saijō port industrial zone to compete with the already developed Tōyo City and Niihama City coastal chemical industries. The coastal area of Saijō forms the largest industrial zone in Shikoku, and covers a wide variety of fields, including materials, semiconductors, shipbuilding, beverages, power generation, and steel. The value of industrial shipments from Saijō is larger than that of Kochi Prefecture as a whole. Away from the coastline, Coca Cola operates its Shikoku bottling plant in Komatsu. Panasonic Healthcare had a factory in the Iioka area that closed in 2013. The Saijo Plain in the center of the city, which is located downstream of the Kamo and Nakayama river systems, is known as a breadbasket, with production flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees, making it one of the leading agricultural areas in Ehime Prefecture. Saijō's farms and orchards produce many varieties of crops, and the region is particularly known for producing the herbs used in the traditional spring porridge nanakusa no sekku, eggplant, roses, persimmons, and spinach. The Japan Agricultural (JA) Group operates several permanent farmers' markets in the Saijō region.

Saijō has 26 public elementary schools and ten public middle schools operated by the city government. The city has five public high schools operated by the Ehime Prefectural Board of Education.

Saijō is famous for its three fall festivals, held annually from October 14–17, which feature over 100 hand carried wooden floats known as danjiri or taikodai (depending on the festival) that belong to neighborhood associations across the city. These floats are up to 5 meters tall and weigh between 600 and 800 kilograms. The festivals have been celebrated since the Edo period. Saijō's festivals are known as the Iwaoka Shrine Festival (Oct. 14–15), Isono Shrine Festival (Oct. 15–16), and Iizumi Shrine Festival (Oct. 16–17), with the largest number of danjiri (over 80) taking part in the Isono Shrine Festival. The Isono Shrine Festival begins at midnight of the 15th with a ceremony at Isono Shrine inviting a god into the portable shrine known as the Goshinyō, after which the danjiri and four two wheeled mikoshi roam the city for two days. The float bearers wear traditional outfits and sing a local variation of the Ise Ondo, signifying the region's historical relationship to Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture. The festival ends with the kawa iri, where the Goshinyō and 11 danjiri are carried into the Kamogawa River while the other floats keep watch from the bank.