290px, Unitika oaktown yamatotakada 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 61,950 in 31312 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 3800 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Occupying a corner of the central-western part of the Nara Basin, most of the small city area is flat, with the northwestern part of the city forming the southern end of the Umami Hills. The Katsuragi River and the Takada River run through the city from north-to-south. The Soga River runs through the northeastern part of the city, near the border with Kashihara, and the Kuzugawa River runs through the northwestern part. The Takada River once ran east of its current course, but because it was plagued by flooding, rerouting work began in 1932, resulting in its current course. The old course was filled in and turned into a road, which became the current Japan National Route 166 and Nara Prefectural Route Yamato-Takada-Ikaruga Line, and traces of it remain in the place names along the road and relics such as bridge railings. In recent years, the use of farmland and reservoirs for housing has eliminated flood storage areas during heavy rains, and some parts of the city suffer from flooding above and below the floor level during heavy rains.

Neighboring 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 ...

Kashiba 280px, Kashima Jinja in Kashiba 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 larg ...

Kashihara 280px, Kashihara City Hall is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 118,674 in 56,013 households, and a population density of 3000 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . A number of histor ...

* Katsuragi * Kōryō

Climate

Yamatotakada 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 Yamatotakada 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 26.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.7 °C.Yamatotakada climate: Average Temperature, weather by month
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Demographics

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

History

The area of Yamatotakada was 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 ...

. Inhabited since the

Japanese Paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC, with recent authors suggesting that there is good evi ...

, the city area nurtured paddy field agriculture in the fertile Nara Basin since ancient times. Numerous large keyhole-type burial mounds (''

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 ...

'') were constructed in the northwestern part of the city around the 5th century. 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 ...

Takada Castle was constructed by the local Takada clan near the site of the current Katashio Elementary School, and the area developed as a

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, ...

. 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 developed into a market town centered around cotton cultivation, which led to the development of spinning and textile industries after the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. The town of Takada was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was elevated to city status on January 1, 1948 and was renamed Yamatotakada to avoid confusing with similarly named cities in Iwate,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

and Oita. Toshiharu Matsuda, who served as mayor of the city since 1992, resigned in 2003. During his terms of office he executed ambitious construction plans resulting in burdensome debt. He was also criticized for his connection with a gangster boss in the city of

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

. Masakatsu Yoshida, elected as new major in April 2003, has had to cope with the deteriorating financial problems combined with a curtailed national subsidy and mounting unpaid city tax.

Government

Yamatotakada 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 17 members. Yamatotakada contributes three members to the Nara Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the

Nara 3rd district Nara 3rd district (奈良県第3区, ''Nara-ken dai-sanku'' or simply 奈良3区, ''Nara-sanku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan located in Nara Prefecture. LDP candidate Taido Tanos ...

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 city continues to develop as a local business and government center in the center of Nara Prefecture. The Yamatotakada area is a center for light manufacturing. Traditionally, the area is noted for the textile and hosiery industries.

Education

Yamatotakada has eight public elementary schools, three public junior high schools, one public high school and one vocational training 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 and one private vocational training school. *

Primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

** Iwasono Elementary School ** Katashio Elementary School ** Ukiana Elementary School ** Takada Elementary School ** Ukiananishi Elementary School *

Junior high schools Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes ...

** Katashio Junior High School ** Takada Junior High School ** Takadanishi Junior High School *

High school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

s ** Japan Aviation High School ** Nara Culture High School ** Takada Commerce High School ** Takada High School ** Takadahigashi High School * Other ** Yamatotakada Municipal Nursing School ** Bigei Gakuen Vocational 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, ...

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 ...

(Manyō-Mahoroba Line) : 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 ...

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 is a railway line operated by Kintetsu Railway. It runs between in Osaka and in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture. The line connects Osaka to southern part of the Nara Basin, running through Osaka's southern suburb cities of Matsubara, Fujiidera ...

: 16px -

Highways

Keinawa Expressway * * * *

Sister cities

* Lismore,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, from 1963, through the arrangement of an Australian

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

father (

Paul Glynn Paul Glynn (born 1928) is a Society of Mary (Marists), Marist missionary priest and writer from Australia. He is the author of several books, including ''The Song of Nagasaki'' (1988) and ''The Smile of the Ragpicker'' (1992), both best-sellers ...

), a sister-city relationship with Lismore,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. It is known as the first such relationship between the two countries.

Notable people from Yamatotakada

Thelma Aoyama is a Japanese pop and Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. She is part Afro-Trinidadians and Tobagonians, Afro-Trinidadian and Japanese. She is known for her collaboration song with SoulJa, "Koko ni Iru yo" and her answer song "Soba ni Iru ne". In Sep ...

, musician * Hirofumi Itō, ''shogi'' player *

Ai Kago is a Japanese actress and singer. In 2000, Kago debuted as a 4th generation member of the idol girl group Morning Musume. During her time in the group, she was also part of Mini-Moni and other Hello! Project sub-groups. In 2004, Kago depart ...

, actress and singer

References

External links

Yamatotakada City official website

{{Authority control Cities in Nara Prefecture Yamatotakada, Nara