was a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in Shisō District, Hyōgo,

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 ...

. As of 2003, the town 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 25,629 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...

of 143.27 persons per km². The total area was 178.89 km². On April 1, 2005, Yamasaki, along with the towns of

Chikusa is one of the 16 wards of the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 October 2019, the ward had an estimated population of 165,863 and a population density of 9,123 persons per km². The total area was 18.18 km². Geography ...

, Haga and

Ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise t ...

(all from Shisō District), was merged to create the city of Shisō and no longer exists as an independent

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. Yamasaki was about 45 minutes by car from the nearest city,

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 ...

, which is to the east. This population was served by a large hospital, the administrative center of Shisō City, and a major intercity highway, the

Chūgoku Expressway The (part of Asian Highway Network ) is an expressway in Japan, which extends from Suita, Osaka to Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. It connects Kansai and Chūgoku regions in western Honshu, Japan's main island. Other major cities along the expressway ...

. There was no rail link, largely dictated by geography. There was one large high school, three junior high schools, Yamasaki translates as "Mountain Cape", a reference to its seclusion amongst a range of forest-covered mountains. The extensive forest area provides the town's biggest industry, logging. The new Shisō City incorporates a number of local townships and villages, most significantly the castle town of Haga and

. Yamasaki has existed as a town for about fifty years, but the area has been occupied since the

Ōnin was a after ''Bunshō'' and before ''Bunmei''. This period spanned the years from March 1467 through April 1469. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1467 : The era name was changed to mark an event or a number of events. The old era end ...

period in the fifteenth century, as its ancient "

Hachiman Shrine A is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the ''kami'' Hachiman. It is the second most numerous type of Shinto shrine after those dedicated to Inari Ōkami (see Inari shrine). There are about 44,000 Hachiman shrines. Originally the name 八幡 was ...

" denotes. Today, it includes substantial rice paddy cultivation. Yamazaki Anzai, an important Confucian scholar, had ancestry in the area and was Yamasaki's best known personage.

External links

*
Official website of Shiso
Dissolved municipalities of Hyōgo Prefecture Shisō, Hyōgo {{Hyōgo-geo-stub