270px, Ashiya City Hall 270px, Tanizaki Junichiro Memorial Museum 270px, Ashiya seen from Ashiya Station is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Japan. , the city had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 95,485 in 45562 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of 5200 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Ashiya is located between Kobe and Nishinomiya, and is the second smallest municipality in Hyōgo Prefecture. The ground gentle slopes from the Rokko Mountains in the north to

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. ...

in the south. It has a reputation as a high-end residential area, especially in the Hirata-cho and Matsuhama-cho neighborhoods, and in the northern end of the city.

Neighbouring municipalities

Hyōgo Prefecture * Higashinada-ku, Kobe *

Nishinomiya 270px, Nishinomiya City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center 270px, Hirota Shrine is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218948 households and a population density of 48 ...

Climate

Ashiya has a

Humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ashiya is 14.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1578 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in January, at around 26.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Ashiya has been increasing since the 1920s.

History

The area of Ashiya was part of ancient

Settsu Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or . Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Setts ...

and was mostly ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

'' territory under direct control the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

during the

Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. Ashiya was established in 1871 as a township in Hyōgo Prefecture and was designated part of Seido village (精道村) on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. In the early 1900s, it was designated as an urban planning area and became one of the centers of the

Hanshinkan Modernism identifies the modernist arts, culture, and lifestyle that developed from the region of Japan centered primarily on the Hanshinkan conurbation between Osaka and Kobe, the ideally terrained area between the Rokkō Range and the sea (Kobe's Nad ...

movement in terms of architecture and culture. This led to the building of large single-family homes with tennis courts, swimming pools, and tea houses, etc. along the hills overlooking

. Seido was promoted to city status on November 10, 1940, changing its name to "Ashiya". In 1945, the City of Ashiya prohibited the operation of pachinko parlors, gambling and entertainment facilities as well as small factories. This ordinance includes prohibitions on rooftop advertisements, advertising balloons, and a complete ban on flashing lights. Those laws still stand and there is no other municipal government with similar regulations in Japan. In 1991, Ashiya residents elected Harue Kitamura as the first woman to hold the office of mayor of a city in Japan. Kitamura was mayor when Ashiya suffered major damage during the

Kobe earthquake The , or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and h ...

on January 17, 1995. Over 50% of the urban area of Ashiya was destroyed by the earthquake, and there were 444 fatalities.

Government

Ashiya has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

city council of 21 members. Ashiya contributes one member to the Hyōgo Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Hyōgo 7th districts of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

Economy

Ashiya is primarily a residential city and

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for the Osaka and Kobe metropoles.

Education

Ashiya has eight public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Hyōgo Prefectural Board of Education. There are two private middle schools and three private high schools. In addition, the prefecture also operates one public middle school and one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railways

The first railway line to the city was completed in 1905."Ashiya" in ''

The New Encyclopædia Britannica ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 626. Central Ashiya is served by

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

Ashiya Station.

Hanshin Electric Railway is a Japanese private railway company of Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group that links Osaka and Kobe. It also owns the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. The first character for Kobe (神戸) and the second character for Osaka (大阪) combine to form the c ...

Ashiya Station and Uchide Station serve the southern part of the city, while

Hankyu Railway , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...

Ashiyagawa Station is located in the quieter northern area. JR logo (west)

- Kobe Line * Hankyu Railway Logo

Hankyu , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...

- Kobe Line *

Hanshin Main Line {{BS-map , title=Route map , title-bg=orangered , title-color=white , collapsible=yes , collapse=yes , map= {{BS, , , Lines are of Hanshin unless noted, } {{BS5, , hBHF, , , tBHF, , , {{STN, Osaka/{{STN, Kitashinchi} {{BS5, , hSTR, exKBHFa, tKACC ...

* -

Highways

Hanshin Expressway The is a network of expressways surrounding Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, Japan. Operated by , it opened in 1962. Portions of the Hanshin Expressway about east of Fukae Station collapsed during the Kobe earthquake on 17 January 1995. These sectio ...

Kobe Route The , signed as Route 3, is one of the routes of the Hanshin Expressway system serving the Keihanshin area in Kansai, Japan. It is an intercity route that travels in an east to west direction from Osaka to Kobe, with a total length of . Rou ...

Bayshore Route (Port of Osaka-Kobe) The , signed as Route 5, is one of the routes of the Hanshin Expressway system serving the Keihanshin area. It is an intercity route that travels in an east to west direction from Suminoe-ku, Osaka to Tarumi-ku, Kobe. It has a total length of . ...

** **

Sister city relations

Montebello, California Montebello (Italian for "Beautiful Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located just east of East Los Angeles and southwest of San Gabriel Valley. It is an independent city. east of downtown Los Angeles. It is ...

, United States A sister city agreement was signed between Ashiya and

on May 24, 1961. Student Ambassadors are chosen to travel to Montebello every year since 1964.

Local attractions

Yodokō Guest House : The Yodokō Guest House was built as the summer villa for the well-to-do brewer of Sakura-Masamune sake, Tazaemon Yamamura, and is the only surviving Frank Lloyd Wright residence in Japan. The guest house was designed in 1918, and construction w ...

, q house designed by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

located on a hill overlooking Hankyu Ashiyagawa Station and Osaka Bay. It was completed in 1924 as a residence for the Yamamura family, founders of the famous

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

company "Sakuramasamune" (). It is open for tours. Ashiya also features the house of Hiroko Koshino, The Koshino House at about 600 meters altitude in the Okuike affluent residential area of the city, designed by

Pritzker Architecture Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

winner Tadao Ando.

Culture and people

Persons of note associated with Ashiya include Jirō Shirasu ("the man who reproached MacArthur"),

Ryōji Noyori is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, Noyori shared a half of the prize with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations; the second half of the prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his st ...

(Nobel prize winner),

Takashi Asahina was a Japanese conductor. Person Asahina was born in Tokyo as an illegitimate child of Kaichi Watanabe.中丸美繪オーケストラ、それは我なり(in Japanese) Bungeishunjū pp.35-49, 2008 He founded the ''Kansai Symphonic Orche ...

(conductor), Junichirō Tanizaki (writer),

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...

(writer),

Yuriko Koike is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned to ...

(House of Representatives member),

Yōko Ogawa is a Japanese writer. Her work has won every major Japanese literary award, including the Akutagawa Prize and the Yomiuri Prize. Internationally, she has been the recipient of the Shirley Jackson Award and the American Book Award. '' The Memory ...

(writer),

Tsumasaburō Bandō was one of the most prominent Japanese actors of the twentieth century. Famous for his rebellious, sword fighting roles in many jidaigeki silent films, he rose to fame after joining the Tōjiin Studio of Makino Film Productions in Kyoto in ...

(kabuki actor), Morinosuke Kawaguchi (futurist),

Tsuruko Yamazaki was a Japanese artist, known for her bold artistic experiments with abstract visual styles and non-traditional materials. She was a co-founder and the longest-standing female member of the Gutai Art Association, an avant-garde artists' collect ...

(artist), Takuya Kuroda (jazz trumpeter and arranger) and professional sumo wrestler

Takakeishō Mitsunobu is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ashiya, Hyōgo. He made his professional debut in November 2014, and reached the highest ''makuuchi'' division in January 2017 after 14 tournaments. He won his first championship in the top division i ...

. The city is the main setting in Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's novel ''Sasameyuki'' (細雪） (''

The Makioka Sisters is a novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki that was serialized from 1943 to 1948. It follows the lives of the wealthy Makioka family of Osaka from the autumn of 1936 to April 1941, focusing on the family's attempts to find a husband fo ...

'', Eng. trans. Edward G. Seidensticker).

References

External links

*
Ashiya-People.com Local media website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashiya, Hyogo Cities in Hyōgo Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Ashiya, Hyōgo