Area rank 12th Districts 8 Area 8,396 km² Bird Oriental stork | ISO 3166 code JP-28 Municipalities 41 | |
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Population 5.572 million (31 Mar 2012) Weather 10°C, Wind W at 11 km/h, 64% Humidity Points of interest Mount Rokkō, Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, Mount Maya, Kobe Chinatown, Nunobiki Falls Colleges and Universities | ||
Himeji castle hy go prefecture japan unesco world heritage sites
Hyōgo Prefecture (兵庫県, Hyōgo-ken) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshu island. The capital is Kobe.
Contents
- Himeji castle hy go prefecture japan unesco world heritage sites
- Map of HyC58Dgo Japan
- History
- Geography
- Cities
- References
Map of Hy%C5%8Dgo, Japan
History
Present-day Hyōgo Prefecture includes the former provinces of Harima, Tajima, Awaji, and parts of Tanba and Settsu.
In 1180, near the end of the Heian period, Emperor Antoku, Taira no Kiyomori, and the Imperial court moved briefly to Fukuhara, in what is now the city of Kobe. There the capital remained for five months.
Himeji Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is in the city of Himeji.
Southern Hyōgo Prefecture was severely devastated by the 6.9 Mw Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995, which destroyed major parts of Kobe and Awaji, as well as Takarazuka and neighboring Osaka Prefecture, killing nearly 6,500 people.
Geography
Hyōgo has coastlines on two seas: to the north, the Sea of Japan, to the south, the Seto Inland Sea. On Awaji Island, Hyōgo borders the Pacific Ocean coastline in the Kii Channel. The northern portion is sparsely populated, except for the city of Toyooka, and the central highlands are only populated by tiny villages. Most of Hyōgo's population lives on the southern coast, which is part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area. Awaji is an island that separates the Inland Sea and Osaka Bay, lying between Honshu and Shikoku.
Summertime weather throughout Hyōgo is hot and humid. As for winter conditions in Hyōgo, the north of Hyōgo tends to receive abundant snow, whilst the south receives only the occasional flurry.
Hyōgo borders on Osaka Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, Tottori Prefecture and Okayama Prefecture.
As of March 31, 2008, 20% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as Natural Parks, namely the Sanin Kaigan and Setonaikai National Parks; Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Quasi-National Park; and Asago Gunzan, Harima Chūbu Kyūryō, Inagawa Keikoku, Izushi-Itoi, Kasagatayama-Sengamine, Kiyomizu-Tōjōko-Tachikui, Onzui-Chikusa, Seiban Kyūryō, Seppiko-Mineyama, Tajima Sangaku, and Taki Renzan Prefectural Natural Parks.
Cities
Twenty-nine cities are located in Hyōgo Prefecture: