280px, Kashihara 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

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 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , 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 118,674 in 56,013 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 3000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . A number of historical sites in Kashihara are listed on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage (Cultural Heritage) Tentative List as "The Asuka and Fujiwara Imperial Capitals and Related Properties," including the remains of

Fujiwara-kyō 280px, Map of Fujiwara-kyō was the Imperial capital of Japan for sixteen years, between 694 and 710. It was located in Yamato Province (present-day Kashihara in Nara Prefecture), having been moved from nearby Asuka, and remained the capital u ...

, Hon-Yakushi-ji temple ruins, Maruyama Kofun, and the Yamato Sanzan.

Geography

Kashihara is located at the southern edge of the Nara Basin. The city encompasses the Yamato Sanzan, "the three mountains of

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...

", (, , and ), which are celebrated in

Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...

, and have been jointly designated a Place of Scenic Beauty.

Surrounding municipalities

Gose Gose () is a warm fermented beer that is usually brewed with at least 50% of the grain bill being malted wheat (with the rest being malted barley such as Pilsner malt), fruit syrups - such as lemon and coriander - and salt - either added or a ...

* Sakurai * Yamatotakada * Kōryō * Tawaramoto * Asuka * Takatori

Climate

Kashihara 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 Kashihara is 14.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1636 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.2 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.8 °C.

Demographics

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

History

The area of Kashihara was the center 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 contains many

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. The exact spot of

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the and . His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"national studies claimed to have identified an area within Kashihara as the exact location. The city was the location of the Imperial capital

, from 694 to 710. During 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 ...

, Imai-cho was a fortified city surrounded by a moat as a missionary base for the Ikko sect of Buddhism which fought against the army of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

, but was disarmed, but was allowed to exercise jurisdiction and developed into an autonomous city. In the late 16th century it was said to be one of the two richest autonomous cities of Japan, as in ''Umi no Sakai, Riku no Imai'' (tr. "by the sea,

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its '' kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun ...

– inland, Imai" - Imai or :ja:今井町 is now a part of Kashihara). The town of Imai was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to city status on February 11, 1956 by merging with the towns of Yagi and Unebi and the villages of Masuge, Kamoko and Maminashi. The city annexed the villages of Kanahashi and Shinzawa on July 3, 1956. On 8 July 2022, after former Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...

was shot while campaigning in Nara City, he was taken to Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara for treatment, but died there.

Government

Kashihara 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 23 members. Kashihara collectively with the municipalities of Takaichi District contributes four members to the Nara Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the Nara 3rd 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

The local economy is based on agriculture and light manufacturing, including pharmaceuticals and automobile components.

Education

Kashihara has 15 public elementary schools and six public junior high school operated by the city government and two public high schools operated by the Nara Prefectural Board of Education. There are also two private high schools. The Nara Medical University and the Nara College of Arts are both located in Kashihara.

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, ...

–

Sakurai Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) in Nara Prefecture. It connects Nara Station, Nara on the Yamatoji Line to Takada Station (Nara), Takada on the Wakayama Line, with some services continuing on the Wakayama L ...

: - - 20px

Kintetsu Railway , referred to as and officially Kinki-Nippon Railway, is a Japanese passenger railway company, managing infrastructure and operating passenger train service. Its railway system is the largest in Japan, excluding Japan Railways Group. The railw ...

- Kashihara Line : 16px - - - - 20px

Osaka Line The is a railway line in Japan owned by Kintetsu Railway, connecting Osaka and Mie Prefecture via Nara Prefecture. The line is the longest double-tracked railway of non-JR operators. Together with the Nagoya Line, this line forms the route for ...

: 16px - - 20px

- Minami Osaka Line : 16px - - 20px

- Yoshino Line : 16px -

Highways

Keinawa Expressway * * * *

Sister city relations

* Louyang,

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

Province, China, friendship city since February 2006.

Local attractions

Tomb of Emperor Jimmu, haisho.JPG, Tomb of Emperor Jimmu Imaich%C5%8D_Kashihara JPN 001.jpg, Imai-cho Ofusa-kannon Kashihara Nara pref Japan01s3.jpg, Ofusa Kannon Kumedera1.jpg, Kmune-dera Shounenji-temp-hondou.jpg, Shonen-ji Unebiyamaguchi-jinja haiden.jpg, Unebiyamaguchi Jinja Iwafune 01.jpg, Masuda Iwafune

National Historic Sites

ruins * Moto Yakushi-ji temple ruins * Maruyama Kofun * Shōbuike Kofun * Ueyama Kofun * Shōbuike Kofun

Shrines and temples

* Kashihara Shrine

References

External links

*
Kashihara City official tourism website
(English) * * {{Authority control Cities in Nara Prefecture