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 ...

located in Inukami District,

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

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 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 7,525 in 2900 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 940 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Taga developed as a shrine town of Taga Taisha, a major

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

Geography

Taga is located in eastern Shiga Prefecture, with the eastern part of the town is in the

Suzuka Mountains are a mountain range running through Mie Prefecture and along the borders of Gifu and Shiga prefectures in central Japan. The tallest peak in the range is Mount Oike at . In spite of its height, Mount Oike is not the most visited mountain; tha ...

bordering Inabe in Mie Prefecture and Ogaki in Gifu Prefecture. The western part of the town is in the flatlands of the Koto Plains, which extend towards

Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan. It is located entirely within Shiga Prefecture (west-central Honshu), northeast of the former capital city of Kyoto. Lake Biwa is an ancient lake, over 4 million years old. It is estimated to be the 13 ...

. The administrative and industrial center of the town is in the west, with the mountainous areas suffering from rural depopulation.The Inukami River flows through the south of the town.

Neighbouring municipalities

Gifu Prefecture *

Ōgaki is a city located in Gifu, Japan. As of October 31, 2018, the city had an estimated population of 161,539, and a population density of 782 persons per km2 in 65,931 households. The total area of the city was . Ōgaki was the final destination fo ...

Mie Prefecture * Inabe Shiga Prefecture * Aishō *

Higashiōmi is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 113,229 in 45771 households and a population density of 290 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Higashiōmi is located in east-centr ...

Hikone is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 111,958 in 49,066 households and a population density of 570 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Hikone is located in central Shig ...

* Kōra * Maibara

Climate

Taga 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.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Taga population statistics
/ref> the population of Taga has declined over the past 70 years.

History

The area of Taga was part of ancient

Ōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...

, and the name is listed in the ancient ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'' chronicle. The area was dominated by the local Taga clan from ancient times into 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 ...

, and the town itself developed as market town in front of the gates of Taga Taisha, a noted

that was favored by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

. The Taga clan were dispossessed after the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

and the region came under the control of

Hikone Domain was a '' fudai'' feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It was located in eastern Ōmi Province, in the Kansai region of central Honshu. The domain was centered at Hikone Castle, located in what is now the city of H ...

under 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 ...

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. The village of Taga was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system.Taga merged with the neighboring villages of Seritani and Kyutoku to form the town on Taga on November 3, 1941. The town expanded in 1955 by annexing the villages of Ōtaki and Wakigahata.

Government

Taga 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 12 members. Taga, collectively with the other municipalities of Inukami District, contributes one member to the Shiga Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Shiga 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

Agriculture and forestry has dominated the local economy since ancient times. Manufacturing includes a number of small to medium-sized factories, the largest of which is a bottling plant owned by Kirin Beer and a bakery owned by Fuji Baking Group.

Education

Taga has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

Ohmi Railway is a Japanese private railway company which operates in Shiga Prefecture, and a member of the Seibu group since 1943. The company is named after the Ōmi Province, the former name of the present-day Shiga. The railway is nicknamed by local users ...

– Taga Line *

Highways

Meishin Expressway The , or Nagoya-Kōbe Expressway is a toll expressway in Japan. It runs from a junction with the Tōmei Expressway in Komaki, Aichi (outside Nagoya) west to Nishinomiya, Hyōgo (between Osaka and Kobe). It is the main road link between Osaka a ...

* *

Local attractions

* Binmanji Ishibotokedani Necropolis, a National Historic Site * Mount Oike, highest peak in the Suzuka Mountains at 1241 meters * Taga Taisha, a major Shinto shrine

References

External links

*
Taga official website

Taga Sightseeing Association
Towns in Shiga Prefecture Taga, Shiga {{Shiga-geo-stub