260px, Takasago City Hall is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

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. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 86,888 in 36,828 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...

of 2500 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Takasago is located in southern Hyōgo prefecture facing Harima Bay on the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Ba ...

. Most of the city area is located in the

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A ''floodplain'' is part of the process, bei ...

formed on the west side of the mouth of the Kakogawa River, and the coastline is mostly

reclaimed land Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamatio ...

Tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

aceous rocky mountains are scattered throughout the city area, and the quarrying of these mountains since prehistoric times has resulted in a characteristic rocky landscape.

Neighbouring municipalities

Hyōgo Prefecture *

Himeji 260px, Himeji City Hall is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 525,682 in 227,099 households and a population density of 980 persons per km2. The total area of the city is ...

* Kakogawa

Climate

Takasago has a

Humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Takasago is 15.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1527 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.9 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Takasago peaked in the 2000s and has gradually declined.

History

The area of modern Takasago is part of ancient

Harima Province or Banshū (播州) was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tanba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji. During th ...

. It has been settled since prehistoric times, and

shell midden A midden is an old landfill, dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bone, bones, feces, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, Lithic flake, lithics (especially debitage), and other Artifact (archaeology), ...

s from the

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

have been found along the coast. The area has been used as a quarry since at least the

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

and sarcophagi made from Takasago

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

have been found throughout the Kinai area. The place name "Takasago" is found in early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

documents, and it was known as a fishing port and for salt production. It was transformed into a

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

from the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

, and was a base of operations for Hashiba Hideyoshi's conquest of western Japan in the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. In the

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, its role was eclipsed by neighboring

; however, it continued to prosper as a distribution center for goods based on shipping on the Kakogawa River, and as a key port for

Himeji Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Harima Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Himeji Castle, which is located in what ...

. Takasago served as the inspiration for naming

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

wrestler

Takasago Uragorō was a Japanese sumo wrestler from , Kazusa Province (now Tōgane, Chiba Prefecture). His highest rank was ''maegashira'' 1. Although he never reached a high rank in professional sumo, Takasago is a personality known for having led the first so ...

, who wrestled under the patronage of the Himeji. By extension, the town gave its name to

Takasago stable is a stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Takasago group of stables. It is correctly written in Japanese as "髙砂部屋", but the first of these ''kanji'' is rare, and is more commonly written as "高砂部屋". History The stable was establ ...

. The town of Takasago was created with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On July 1, 1954 Takasago merged with the village of Arai and the town of Sone and village of Iho from Innami District to form the city of Takasago.

Government

Takasago 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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 19 members. Takasago contributes one member to the

Hyogo Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Hyōgo Prefecture. The assembly's 87 members are elected every four years in 40 districts by single non-transferable vote. Nine of the electoral districts correspond with the wards of Kobe city and the rema ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Hyōgo10th district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Takasago is located within the Harima Seaside Industrial Area and is a center for heavy industry, including steel mills, refineries and chemical processing. Many factories for major companies dot its skyline in the south, such as Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, the Kobe Steel Takasago Manufacturing Complex, Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Takuma Power Plant, and Kikkoman Soy Sauce. In recent years, problems with industrial pollution, especially bottom sediment pollution caused by PCBs has become a political issue.

Education

Takasago has ten public elementary schools and six public middle schools operated by the city government and three public high schools operated by the Hyōgo Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one private middle school and one private high school.

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, ...

–

San'yō Main Line The is a major railway line owned by JR Group companies in western Japan, connecting Kōbe Station and Moji Station, largely paralleling the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, in other words, the southern coast of western Honshu. The San'yō Shi ...

(

JR Kobe Line JR, J. R. or Jr. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' J R'', a 1975 novel by William Gaddis * J. R. Ewing, a ''Dallas'' television character * JR Chandler, an ''All My Children'' television character * '' Jornal da Record'', a Brazilian ne ...

) * -

Sanyo Electric Railway is a Japanese private railway operating company based in western Hyōgo Prefecture. It runs local and express rail service between Himeji and Kobe, and also connects directly with Hanshin Main Line to Osaka. Although the Hanshin Electric Rai ...

- Main Line * - - -

Highways

* (Kobe, Okayama, Hiroshima, Shimonoseki) * (Kobe, Okayama)

Local attractions

* Ishi no Hōden, National Historic Site *Takasago District Historic Building Preservation Zone Sone nishinochou hutonyatai.JPG, Futon Yatai in Sone Tenmangu Festival on October File:Takasagokaihin06.jpg, Pinus and Takasago Seaside park File:Kashima-jinja (Takasago,Hyogo) haiden.JPG, Takasago Kashima Shrine File:Takasago-jinja aioinomatsu.JPG, Aioi Pinus in Takasago Shrine

Notable people from Takasago

Kiyohiko Azuma is a Japanese manga artist. From 1999 to 2002, he authored the ''yonkoma'' comedy manga series ''Azumanga Daioh'', which was later adapted as an anime series by J.C.Staff. In 2003, he began ''Yotsuba&!'', a slice-of-life manga series about the ...

, Japanese

mangaka A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the industry as a pr ...

(''

Azumanga Daioh is a Japanese ''yonkoma'' comedy manga series written and illustrated by Kiyohiko Azuma. It was serialized from February 1999 to May 2002 in the monthly magazine ''Dengeki Daioh'' by MediaWorks (publisher), MediaWorks; three additional c ...

'' and ''

Yotsuba&! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kiyohiko Azuma, the creator of ''Azumanga Daioh''. It has been serialized since January 2003 in the monthly magazine ''Dengeki Daioh'' by ASCII Media Works, formerly MediaWorks (publisher ...

'') * Yamagata Bantō, Japanese

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

Takumi Kawanishi is a Japanese singer and actor. He debuted as a member of the Japanese boy band JO1 in 2020, after placing third in the first season of ''Produce 101 Japan''. He played Sōma Shiki in the live action adaptation of '' Play It Cool, Guys'' ...

, Japanese singer and dancer, member of

JO1 is a Japanese boy band formed through the first season of '' Produce 101 Japan'' by Lapone Entertainment. The group is composed of eleven members: Issei Mamehara, Ren Kawashiri, Takumi Kawanishi, Shosei Ohira, Shion Tsurubo, Ruki Shiroiwa, ...

* Kokuten Kōdō, Japanese

film actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

(Real Name: ''Tanigawa Saichirō'',

Nihongo is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. ...

: 谷川佐市郎) * Chiho Murata, Japanese women's professional shogi player ranked 2- dan and younger sister of Tomohiro Murata * Tomohiro Murata, Japanese

professional shogi player A professional shogi player (将棋棋士 ''shōgi kishi'' or プロ棋士 ''puro kishi'' "professional player") is a shogi player who is usually a member of a professional guild of shogi players. There are two categories of professional playe ...

ranked 7- dan and older brother of Chiho Murata * Kohei Oda,

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

(

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They h ...

and

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

Central League The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...

) * Ken Terauchi, Japanese diver (

springboard A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type. Springboards are commonly fixed by a hinge at one end (so they can be flipped up when not in use), and ...

and platform) - Originally from Takarazuka, Hyogo * Keiko Teshima, Japanese

judoka is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

Myōgiryū Yasunari is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Takasago, Hyōgo. Making his debut in May 2009 as a ''makushita tsukedashi'' out of university, he reached the top division for the first time in November 2011. His highest rank to date has ...

Japanese sumo wrestler

References

External links

*
Takasago City official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Takasago, Hyogo Cities in Hyōgo Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan