is a

Prefectural Natural Park and of Japan are places of scenic beauty that are designated for protection and sustainable use by the Minister of the Environment under the of 1957. National parks are designated and in principle managed by the Ministry of the Environment. Q ...

in central

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

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Established in 1957, the park spans the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Katō, Nishiwaki, Sanda, and Sasayama. Designation of the park helps protect the habitat of the

Japanese giant salamander The Japanese giant salamander (''Andrias japonicus'') is a species of fully aquatic giant salamander endemic to Japan, occurring across the western portion of the main island of Honshu, with smaller populations present on Shikoku and in northe ...

( Special Natural Monument),

kitsune The , in popular Japanese tradition, are foxes or fox spirits that possess supernatural abilities such as shapeshifting, and capable of bewitching people. General overview , though literally a 'fox', becomes in folklore a ' fox spirit', o ...

, and tanuki.

References

Parks and gardens in Hyōgo Prefecture Protected areas established in 1957 1957 establishments in Japan {{Japan-protected-area-stub

See also

References