is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of April 1, 2017, the city had an estimated population of 44,132, with 17,473 households, and a population density of . The total area is . History The area of modern Miura has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Archaeologists have uncovered numerous remains from the Japanese paleolithic, Jōmon and Yayoi periods. From the late Heian period through the end of the Sengoku period, the area was ruled by the Miura clan, until they were annihilated by the rival Hojo clan. The local inlet of Aburatsubo is said to be named for this event. During the Edo period, it was tenryō territory ruled directly by the Tokugawa shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration, the town of Misaki within Miura District, Kanagawa was created on April 1, 1889. The town was electrified in 1913, but did not have running water until 1934. The area was badly shaken during the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, which had its epicenter in Sagami Bay just a few kilometers offshore from the city. The whole geographical area around the city was lifted by about 10 meters by tectonic movement, before subsiding to its original level during the next few days. No major tsunami was recorded. On January 1, 1955, Misaki absorbed neighboring Minami-Shitaura Town and Hasse Village to create the city of Miura. The city was connected to the Tokyo Metropolis by rail on July 7, 1966 with the opening of Miurakaigan Station on the outskirts of the city. The line was extended to Misakiguchi Station on April 26, 1975, but plans to further extend the line to the city center have been abandoned. Miura came to some infamy in 2001 after the dismembered body of Lucie Blackman was found in a seaside cave a few hundred meters from the apartment of serial rapist, Joji Obara. Miura has been the arrival point of several trans-Pacific sailboat races, such as the 1969 San Francisco-Tokyo Transpacific Yacht Race. Misaki was also the arrival point of the record solo circumnavigation of 71-year-old Minoru Saito, on June 6, 2005. Geography Miura is located on the very southern end of Miura Peninsula in southeast Kanagawa Prefecture, surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean, with Sagami Bay to the west. To the south of the urban area and port is the island of Jōgashima, connected to the city by a bridge. It is a