KITA-IBARAKI

city, northern Ibaraki Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. The western part of the city occupies hills that slope toward the rest of the city on the coast. Agriculture (rice) and fishing (sardines, mackerel) are important. Because of the closing of all but one of the coal mines in the area, the city's population was decreasing throughout the 1970s. Kita-Ibaraki is renowned for the Japan Art Institute, established in the former villa of the late 19th- and early 20th-century artists Okakura Tenshin and Yokoyama Taikan. Pop. (1980) 47,670.