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 ...

in western

Tottori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, least populous prefecture of Japan at 538,525 (2023) and has a geographic area of . ...

, 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 146,139 in 68,534 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 1100 persons per km². The total area of the city is . It is the prefecture's second largest city after Tottori, and forms a commercial center of the western part of this prefecture.

Geography

Yonago is in far western Tottori Prefecture, and faces the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

to the north and Lake Nakaumi to the northwest. It is adjacent to

Shimane Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a ge ...

and across the lake from its capital of Matsue. The city limits are mostly flat, and the Hino River flows through the Yonago Plain. The southern part is a hilly area at the foot of

Mount Daisen is a dormant stratovolcano in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It has an elevation of . This mountain is the highest in the Chūgoku region, and the most important volcano on the Daisen volcanic belt, which is a part of the Southwestern Honshu volca ...

, and the mountainous area can be seen from the Yumigahama Peninsula in the northwest. The irrigation canal "Yonekawa" runs from Yonago City to Sakaiminato City as an intake of water from the Hino River.

Surrounding municipalities

* Sakaiminato * Daisen * Nanbu * Hōki * Hiezu

Yasugi is a Cities of Japan, city located in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 35,965 in 14257 households and a population density of 85 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Yasugi is located ...

Climate

Yonago 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 climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, with July and September being particularly wet months.

Demography

Per Japanese census data, the population of Yonago has been slowly growing since the 1950s as follows.

Etymology

The name of Yonago in the Japanese language is formed from two ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' characters. The first, , means "rice", and the second, means "child".

History

The area of Yonago was part of ancient Hōki Province. Per the ''

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 ...

'', the tomb of the creator ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

Izanami , formally referred to with the honorific , is the creator deity of both creation and death in Japanese mythology, as well as the Shinto mother goddess. She and her brother-husband Izanagi are the last of the seven generations of primordial ...

is located on the border of Yonago with neighboring

Izumo Province was an Old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province is in the Chūgoku region. History During the early Kofun period (3rd century) this reg ...

, and many

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

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 ...

remains have been found within city limits. In the early

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 ...

, the

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 ...

appointed Nakamura Kazutada to be ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of the 175,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'' Yonago Domain, and reconstructed Yonago Castle. The center of the modern city of Yonago evolved from the ''

jōkamachi The were centres of the domains of the feudal lords in medieval Japan. The ''jōkamachi'' represented the new, concentrated military power of the daimyo in which the formerly decentralized defence resources were concentrated around a single, cent ...

'' of that castle. After Nakamura died without heir, the domain was abolished and its territories incorporated into the holdings of the

Ikeda clan was a Japanese clan that claimed descent from Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948-1021) of the Seiwa Genji. Minamoto no Yasumasa, the fourth generation descending from Yorimitsu, and younger brother of Minamoto no Yorimasa (1104-1180), was the first to ...

of Tottori Domain. The Ikeda retained Yonago Castle and assigned it to their hereditary ''

karō were top-ranking samurai officials and advisors in service to the ''daimyōs'' of feudal Japan. Overview In the Edo period, the policy of ''sankin-kōtai'' (alternate attendance) required each ''daimyō'' to place a ''karō'' in Edo and anothe ...

'' from the Arao clan who ruled until 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 Yonago was established within Aioi District of Tottori Prefecture with the creation of the modern municipalities system in October 1889. A post office was founded in 1872, a prison in 1877, and a courthouse in 1884. Railway services were established in 1902. After becoming Saihaku County through county mergers, Yonago was raised to city status on April 1, 1927. Yonago absorbed the town of Yodoe (from Saihaku District) on March 31, 2005.

Government

270px, Yonago City Hall Yonago 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 26 members. Yonago contributes nine members to the Tottori Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tottori 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 ...

Mayor of town era (1889 to 1927)

*Haruhiko Endo (遠藤春彦) December 1889 to April 1892 *Yajiro Miyoshi (三好八次郎) May 1892 to December 1892 *Seitaro Otsuka (大塚誠太郎) December 1892 to December 1896 *Zenhei Sumida (住田善平) December 1896 to December 1900 *Genjiro Kinemura (杵村源次郎) December 1900 to September 1901 *Hayami Watanabe (渡辺駛水) October 1901 to October 1909 *Kenji Hatotani (鳩谷兼次) December 1909 to December 1913 *Tanji Niwa (丹羽旦次) December 1913 to December 1921 *Tsunehiko Nishio (西尾常彦) April 1922 to March 1927

Mayor of city era (1927 to present)

*Tsunehiko Nishio April 1927 to July 1943 *Kanjo Saito (斎藤干城) August 1943 to December 1945 *Kanji Nosaka (野坂寛治) December 1945 to April 1963 *Hiromichi Kawai (河合弘道) April 1963 to April 1983 *Toru Matsumoto (松本　徹) April 1983 to April 1991 *Takatomo Morita (森田隆朝) April 1991 to April 2003 *Yasuo Nosaka (野坂康夫) April 2003 to April 2017 *Takashi Igi (伊木隆司) April 2017 to present

Economy

Over 70% of the Yonago workforce is employed in the service sector. Oji Paper has a production facility in Yonago. The city is also home to Sharp Yonago, which produces Sharp-brand flat screen televisions.

Education

Yonago has 23 public elementary schools and 11 public junior high schools operated by the town government and one private junior high school. The city has six public high schools operated by the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education and national public high school and five private high schools. Tottori University has a campus located in Yonago. The prefecture also operates three special education schools for the handicapped.

Transportation

Airports

* Miho-Yonago Airport, located in a neighboring city of Sakaiminato. There are currently flights to and from

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Haneda Airport , also known as and sometimes abbreviated to ''Tokyo-Haneda'', is the busier of the two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary domestic base of J ...

and also flights to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. * Izumo Airport, another airport located in

but not far from the city. There are currently flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Shizuoka and Oki.

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 Line * - - -

Hakubi Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) in the mountainous area of the Chūgoku region of Japan. It begins at the south end of Okayama Prefecture at Kurashiki Station in Kurashiki, passing through Niimi Station ...

- Sakai Line * - - - - - - - -

Highways

Yonago Expressway * JP Expressway E9

San'in Expressway * * * * * *

Sister cities

Yonago is twinned with: *

Baoding Baoding is a prefecture-level city in central Hebei province, approximately southwest of Beijing. As of the 2020 census, Baoding City had 11,544,036 inhabitants, of which 2,549,787 lived in the metropolitan area made of 4 out of 5 urban distri ...

, China, since 1991 *

Sokcho Sokcho (; ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city and major tourist hub located in the northeast of Gangwon Province, South Korea. History From around the 3rd century to the early 5th century AD, Sokcho was part of Eastern Ye, Do ...

, South Korea, since 1995

Local attractions

National Historic Sites

* Yonago Castle - A castle ruin, one of the

Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles The is a list of 100 Japanese castle, castles, intended as a sequel of 100 Fine Castles of Japan. The castles were chosen for their significance in culture, history, and in their regions by the in 2017. Hokkaidō region Tōhoku region Kant ...

. * Mukoeyama Kofun Cluster * Mukibanda Yayoi remains * Kamiyodo temple ruins * Aoki Site * Fukuichi Site * Tottori Domain Battery Sites

Other

* Odaka Castle - A castle ruin in the Sengoku period * Ōgamiyama Shrine * Yonago City Museum of Art *Kaike Onsen, which sits along the Miho Bay and is part of Yonago, is said to be the birthplace of the triathlon in Japan.

Notable people

Sena Irie is a Japanese retired amateur boxer who won a gold medal in the inaugural women's featherweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She became the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing. Biography Irie was born in Yonago, J ...

, Japanese boxer * Maika Yamamoto, Japanese model and actress * Nobuko Otowa, Japanese actress *

Kihachi Okamoto was a Cinema of Japan, Japanese film director who worked in several different film genre, genres. Career Born in Yonago, Tottori, Yonago, Okamoto attended Meiji University, but was drafted into the Air Force 1943 and entered World War II, an exp ...

, Japanese film director

Gallery

File:Sanin history of museum01s4592.jpg, San'in Historical Museum File:Yonago mizudorikoen.jpg, Yonago Waterbirds Sanctuary File:Castle of candy.JPG, Kotobuki Castle of Sweets, in the Yodoe area, is modeled after Yonago Castle File:Yonago Castle, honmaru-1.jpg, Stone wall of Yonago Castle

References

External links

Yonago Tourist Association
(in Japanese) * {{Authority control Populated coastal places in Japan Cities in Tottori Prefecture Port settlements in Japan