The Nara Basin (奈良盆地 ''Nara-bonchi''), also known as the Yamato Basin (大和盆地 ''Yamato-bonchi''), is a valley in the north-western part of

Nara Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It has an area of roughly . It is surrounded on four sides by mountains: the Yamato Plateau in the east, the Ikoma- Kongō range in the west, the Narayama Hills in the north (which separate it from the Kyoto Basin), and the Ryūmon Mountains in the south. The valley itself makes up only around 8% of the land area of Nara Prefecture, but the terrain is especially fit for rice production, and as the site of the ancient capital of Heijō-kyō it served as a political and cultural centre. Today it is closely connected to the

Keihanshin is a metropolitan region in the Kansai region of Japan encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka in Osaka Prefecture and Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture. The entire region has a population () of 19,302,746 o ...

metropolitan area by a strong transport infrastructure, with several major cities growing up in the area in addition to the

prefectural capital A prefectural capital is a city where a prefectural government and assembly is located. Japan In Japan, a prefectural capital is officially called , but the term is also used (). List of Japanese prefectural capitals Notes: ¹ Non-capital ...

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

, and is the most densely-populated region of the prefecture.

Geography

The Nara Basin, which is also known as the Yamato Basin, is located in the north-western part of

. It is surrounded on four sides by mountains: in the east by the Yamato Plateau (which is raised up by the Kasuga

fault scarp A fault scarp is a small step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a fault has moved vertically with respect to the other. It is the topographic expression of faulting attributed to the displacement of the land surface by movement al ...

); in the west by the Ikoma- Kongō range; in the north by the , which separate it from the ; and in the south by the . The basin has a total land area of around . This accounts for only about 8% of the land area of the prefecture, but because of its flat and fertile alluvial soil it is especially suited for cultivating rice

History

The imperial capital of Heijō-kyō was constructed here in the eighth century (the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

), making this region the political and cultural centre of Japan at the time.

Population and demographics

As of 2000, the population of the Nara Basin was around 1.24 million.

Settlements

The

, as well as several important settlements (such as

Kashihara is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 124,829, with 52,034 households. Population density is around 3,176.79 persons per km2, and the total area is 39.52 km2. The city was founded on Februa ...

Yamatokōriyama is a city in Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 84,059 and 38,944 households. Geography Yamato Koriyama is located in the northern part of the Nara Basin and stretches approximately 9 km from east to west and ...

, Tenri,

Yamatotakada is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. As of April 1, 2017, the city had an estimated population of 66,400 and 29,713 households. The population density is 4,000 persons per km², and the total area is 16.48 km². The city continue ...

, Sakurai and

Gose Gose () is a warm fermented beer that originated in Goslar, Germany. It is usually brewed with at least 50% of the grain bill being malted wheat. Dominant flavours in gose include a lemon sourness, a herbal characteristic, and a strong saltin ...

), are located in the Nara Basin, making it the most densely-populated region of Nara Prefecture. It is closely connected to the

metropolitan area (

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

and

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

) by a strong transport infrastructure.

References

Works cited