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 ...

Kyoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Kyoto Prefecture has a population of 2,561,358 () and has a geographic area of . Kyoto Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the northeast, Shiga Prefecture ...

, 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 87,518 in 29,676 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 390 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Kameoka abuts Kyoto to the west and is located to the north of

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

. It is on the border line between former Tanba and Yamashiro Provinces. Together with Nantan city, the region is known as Southern Tanba, Kuchitan or Nanatan. For centuries, Kameoka served as a key transportation point to connect

San'in region The is an area in the southwest of Honshū, the main island of Japan. It consists of the northern part of the Chūgoku region, facing the Sea of Japan. Specifically, it is the two prefectures of Shimane Prefecture, Shimane and Tottori Prefecture ...

and Tanba providence with

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. Today, the city serves as one of the

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of Metro Kyoto. Kameoka is notable as the launch point for Hozugawa Kudari, a boat ride down the Hozu River. It is also the location of Anaoji Temple, one of the 21 temples in western Japan authorized to issue amulets in the name of the Boddhisattva Kannon.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kyoto Prefecture *

* Nantan Osaka Prefecture * Ibaraki *

Nose A nose is a sensory organ and respiratory structure in vertebrates. It consists of a nasal cavity inside the head, and an external nose on the face. The external nose houses the nostrils, or nares, a pair of tubes providing airflow through the ...

* Takatsuki * Toyono

Climate

Kameoka 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 Kameoka is 13.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1690 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.1 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kameoka peaked around the year 2000 and has declined slightly since.

History

Kameoka was part of ancient Tanba Province. Rice cultivation was introduced in the

Yayoi period The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...

, and the area's many large

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumulus, tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞 ...

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, especially on the left bank of the Oigawa River (Hozu River). According to the , at the beginning of the 6th century, the area was the center of a succession struggle within the imperial court, in which King Yahiko, who was in the direct line of succession was defeated by Emperor Keitai from

Echizen Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Echizen bordered on Kaga Province, Kaga, Wakasa Province, Wakasa, Hida Province, Hida, and Ōmi Provin ...

. The area was the location of the '' ichinomiya'' of the province, Izumo-daijingū and the Tanba Kokubun-ji. The Tanba provincial capital was located nearby, but its exact location has yet to be determined. The area around Kameoka developed as transportation hub as it was the entrance to Kyoto from the

. In 1333, Takauji Ashikaga raised his army in Kameoka to settle the Genkō Rebellion in

. 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 ...

Akechi Mitsuhide , first called Jūbei from his clan and later from his title, was a Japanese ''samurai'' general of the Sengoku period. Mitsuhide was originally a bodyguard of the last Ashikaga shogunate, Ashikaga ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshiaki and later, one of ...

constructed Kameyama Castle and laid out the

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, ...

which became the core of modern Kameyama. During 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 ...

, it was the center of Tanba-Kameyama Domain, which was controlled by a succession of '' fudai daimyo'' clans. Kameyama was renamed Kameoka in 1869 to avoid confusion with Kameyama, Mie. The town of Kameyama was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On January 1, 1955, Kameoka merged with 15 neighboring villages all within Minami-Kuwada District, and was raised to city status.

Government

Kameoka 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 24 members. Kameoka contributes two members to the Kyoto Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Kyoto 4th 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

Historically, the area served as a farming community for

, Japan's former capital. For centuries, area farmers provided ingredients used for traditional Japanese food served in

including

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

s, black beans, azuki,

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, matsutake, yams, and daikon. In addition, farmers in the city provide

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

and ayu (also known as sweetfish). At present, the area is a mix of agriculture, light manufacturing and is increasingly 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 Kyoto.

Education

* Kyoto Gakuen University

Primary and secondary schools

Kameoka has 17 public elementary schools and seven public middle schools operated by the city government and two public high schools operated by the Kyoto Prefectural Department of Education.

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'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

* * * * * *

Sister cities

Kameoka has agreements of friendship and co-operation with: *

Knittelfeld Knittelfeld () is a city in Styria, Austria, located on the banks of the Mur River, Mur river. The name of the town has become notorious for the Knittelfeld Putsch of September 7, 2002, a party meeting of the Freedom Party of Austria, which resul ...

, Austria, since April 14, 1964 * Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States, since November 3, 1985 * Jandira, Brazil, since November 3, 1980 *

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

, China, since December 31, 1996

Local attractions

* Anao-ji temple, 21st on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage * Chitose Kurumazuka Kofun, National Historic Site * Izumo-daijingū Shinto shrine * Kameyama Castle ruins * Tanba Kokubun-ji ruins, National Historic Site * Mount Takakuma (高熊山) (357 metres), located in Anao (穴太), is one of the most sacred mountains in the Oomoto religion. The religion's co-founder, Onisaburo Deguchi, performed spiritual training on this mountain in 1898. *Ten'on-kyō (天恩郷), the administrative headquarters of the Oomoto religion

Sports

* – home of Kyoto Sanga FC, a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club

Notable people from Kameoka

* Aya Domenig (born 1972) * Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795) * Onisaburo Deguchi (1871–1948), founder of the Oomoto religion

References

External links

Kameoka City official website

{{Authority control Cities in Kyoto Prefecture