260px, Rurikei Prefectural Natural Park 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 ...

located in Kyoto Prefecture,

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 ...

. , 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 30,744 in 14406 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 50 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Nantan is located in the southern part of the Tamba region in central Kyoto Prefecture.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kyoto Prefecture *

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 ...

Ayabe is a Cities of Japan, city located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 31,082 in 13660 households and a population density of 90 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Ayabe is situated in th ...

Kameoka is a city in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 87,518 in 29,676 households and a population density of 390 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kameoka abuts Kyoto to the east and is loca ...

* Kyōtamba Fukui Prefecture * Ōi Shiga Prefecture * Takashima Osaka Prefecture *

Nose A nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which receive and expel air for respiration alongside the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes th ...

Hyōgo Prefecture *

Tamba-Sasayama , formerly known as , is a city in the central eastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 40,050 in 17523 households and a population density of 110 persons per km2. The total area of the city is Geograph ...

Climate

Nantan has a Humid climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Nantan is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . Its record high is , reached on 21 August 2020, and its record low is , reached on 28 February 1981.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Nantan has declined slightly in recent decades.

History

The area of the modern town of Nantan was within ancient

Tanba Province was a province of Japan in the area of central Kyoto and east-central Hyōgo Prefectures. Tanba bordered on Harima, Ōmi, Settsu, Tajima, Wakasa, and Yamashiro Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō system ...

, and may have been the site of the

provincial capital A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the g ...

in 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 ...

. 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 ...

Sonobe Domain 250px, Sonobe Castle was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Tanba Province in what is now the central portion of modern-day Kyoto Prefecture. It was centered around Sonobe ''jin'ya'', which was locat ...

was located within its borders. The town of Sonobe was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Sonobe merged with the neighboring towns of

Hiyoshi Strand of ginkgo trees at Keio University is a part of the city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located within Kōhoku Ward in the northeast of Yokohama City. Overview It is served by Hiyoshi Station on the Tōkyū Tōyoko L ...

, and

Yagi Yagi may refer to: Places *Yagi, Kyoto, in Japan * Yagi (Kashihara), in Nara Prefecture, Japan *Yagi-nishiguchi Station, in Kashihara, Nara, Japan * Kami-Yagi Station, a JR-West Kabe Line station located in 3-chōme, Yagi, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima, ...

(all from Funai District), and the town of Miyama (from Kitakuwada District) to form the city of Nantan on January 1, 2006.

Government

Nantan 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 ...

town council of 22 members. Nantan, together with the town of Kyōtamba contributes one member to the

Kyoto Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Kyoto Prefecture. Overview Kyoto Prefecture is a stronghold of the Japanese Communist Party, which continued with the revolutionary government of Torazō Ninagawa over the seventh term over 28 years. The t ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Kyoto 4th district 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

Nantan has an economy based on regional commerce, agriculture and forestry. The main products include

mizuna , kyona, Japanese mustard greens, or spider mustard, Mark Bittman is a cultivar of ''Brassica rapa'' var. ''niposinica''. Description and use Possessing dark green, serrated leaves, mizuna is described as having, when raw, a "piquant, mild p ...

and other "Kyoto vegetables".

Education

Colleges and universities

Bukkyo University is a private university in Kita-ku, Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The school's predecessor was founded in 1912, and it was chartered as a junior college in 1949. Bukkyo means Buddhism in Japanese, and the university's philosophy is based on ...

, Sonobe campus * College of Medical Technology Meiji University of Oriental Medicine * Kyoto College of Medical Technology * Kyoto University of Arts and Crafts * Meiji University of Integrative Medicine

Primary and secondary schools

Nantan has seven public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government and three public high schools operated by the Kyoto Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one private middle school and one private high school. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

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 ...

–

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

/ Sagano Line) * - - - - - -

Highway

Kyoto Jūkan Expressway * * * *

Sister city relations

* Manila, Philippines * Clutha District, New Zealand

Localattractions

260px, Kayabuki no sato Sights include the Rurikei Prefectural Natural Park and Miyama Kayabuki no sato "

Thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

farmhouses village".

Noted people from Nantan

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...

– video game designer and creator of

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

and

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

Bonnie Pink , known by her stage name Bonnie Pink, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. She writes and composes all her songs, and plays guitar and piano. Asada has said that the name Bonnie Pink is random and has no special meaning; she chose it b ...

– singer-songwriter *

Makoto Fujita , born Makoto Harada (April 13, 1933 – February 17, 2010), was a Japanese actor. He was born in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, the son of silent-film actor Rintarō Fujima, and started his career as a comedian in 1952. Acting Roles Fujita appeared in bo ...

– actor *

Hiromu Nonaka was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party. Nonaka served as a local politician in Kyoto Prefecture from 1951 to 1978 and in the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2003, becoming one of its most prominent members in the 1990 ...

– politician * Yoshimi Tanaka – politician * Yasuhiro Nakagawa – politician

References

External links

*
Nantan City official website
(some English) Populated places established in 2006 Cities in Kyoto Prefecture Nantan, Kyoto {{Kyoto-geo-stub