280px, Horyu-ji is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in Ikoma District, Nara, Japan. , the town 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 28,036 in 12,292 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 2000 persons per km². The total area of the town is Ikaruga is home to

Hōryū-ji is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in Ikaruga, Nara, Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Built shortly after Buddhism was introduced to Japan, it is also one of the oldest Buddh ...

and

Hokki-ji – formerly known as and – is a Buddhist temple temple in the Okamoto neighborhood of the town of Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The temple's honorary '' sangō'' prefix is , although it is rarely used. The temple was constructed to ho ...

, ancient

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

s collectively inscribed as

UNESCO World Heritage Sites World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

. Other ancient temples include Hōrin-ji, also in the vicinity of Hōryū-ji. The town was named after the palace of

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half ...

, Ikaruga-no-Miya (''Imperial Palace of Ikaruga'', or ''Imperial House of Ikaruga''), whose grounds were at Hōryū-ji.

Geography

Topographically, Ikaruga is divided into a mountain forest area in the north, a hilly area in the center, and a plain area in the south. The northern mountain forest area is the southern end of the Yata Hills, which are part of the Ikoma Mountains, and Mount Matsuo is located there. The Tatsuta River flows on the west side of the town, and the Tomio River flows on the east side

Neighboring municipalities

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, 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 ...

* Ando * Heguri * Ikoma * Kawai * Ōji * Sangō * Yamatokōriyama

Climate

Ikaruga 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 Ikaruga is 14.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1636 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.1 °C. Ikaruga climate: Average Temperature, weather by month
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Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Ikaruga is as shown below:

History

The area of Ikaruga is part of ancient

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

, and was densely settled in 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 ...

, with many ancient

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

s surviving within the town borders. It was also an early center of

Buddhism in Japan Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185－1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was cont ...

during the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

, with a number of ancient temples surviving to the present day, The villages of Tatsuta, Tomisato and Horyuji were established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Tatsuta was raised to town status on April 2, 1891. On February 11, 1947, Tatsuta merged with Tomisato and Horyuji to form the town of Ikaruga.

Government

Ikaruga 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 ...

town council of 13 members. Ikaruga, collectively with the other municipalities of Ikoma District contributes three members to the Nara Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the Nara 2nd 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

Ikaruga has a mixed economy of agriculture, commerce and light manufacturing. Due to its location, the town is increasing becoming a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for the greater Osaka metropolis.

Education

Ikaruga has three public elementary schools and two public junior high schools operated by the town government and one public high school operated by the Nara Prefectural Board of Education.

Elementary schools

* Ikaruga Elementary School * Ikarugahigashi Elementary School * Ikaruganishi Elementary School

Junior high schools

* Ikaruga Junior High School * Ikarugaminami Junior High School

High schools

* Hōryū-ji International High School

Transportation

Railways

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, ...

Kansai Main Line The is a railway line in Japan, which connects Nagoya Station with JR Namba Station in Osaka. It is jointly run by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West), with the boundary between both compan ...

(

Yamatoji Line The is the common name of the western portion of the Kansai Main Line in Japan. The line is owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It starts at Kamo Station (Kyoto), Kamo Station in Kyoto Prefecture and ends at JR Namba Stat ...

) :

Highways

* *

Local attractions

Temples and shrines

* Chūgū-ji * Ikaruga Shrine *

* Hōrin-ji *

* Kichiden-ji * Mimuroyama * Ryūta Shrine

Kofun

* Fujinoki Kofun * Kasuga Kofun * Okanohara Kofun * Terayama Kofun

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Towns in Nara Prefecture Ikaruga, Nara