Hyogo

Hyogo is often described as "Japan in miniature" because it combines five historic provinces with very different characters. The Hanshin strip between Osaka and Kobe (Settsu) is densely urban; Harima around Himeji is an industrial and castle-town plain on the Inland Sea; Tajima in the north faces the Sea of Japan with snowy mountains, crab ports and Kinosaki Onsen; Tanba is a rural upland of black soybeans and pottery; and Awaji is an island linked by bridges to both Honshu and Shikoku.

Kobe, the capital, has been one of Japan's main international ports since 1868 and still shows its cosmopolitan past in the foreign residences of Kitano and its Chinatown. Himeji Castle, Japan's finest surviving castle, was among the first Japanese World Heritage sites. Arima near Kobe and Kinosaki in the north are two of the country's best-known hot-spring towns.

Hyogo is also where the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake struck on 17 January 1995, killing more than 6,400 people. The recovery shaped Japan's approach to earthquake preparedness, and the memory is kept in Kobe's Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution.

The name comes from Hyōgo, the old harbour district of what is now Kobe – the Ōwada-no-tomari port developed by Taira no Kiyomori – where the prefectural office was set up in 1868. The name is said to derive from an armoury (兵庫, "weapons store") kept there in ancient times. Today's prefecture was created in 1876 by merging the first Hyogo Prefecture with Shikama (Harima), Toyooka (Tajima and western Tanba) and Myōdō (Awaji) prefectures, producing the only Kansai prefecture that touches both seas.

The Chūgoku Mountains run east–west through the middle of the prefecture and divide the Inland Sea side from the Sea of Japan side. The highest peak, Hyōno-sen (1,510 m), lies on the Tottori border. The Rokkō range rises steeply behind Kobe, compressing the city into a narrow coastal strip. Rivers such as the Kako, Ichi and Ibo drain Harima southward; the Maruyama flows north past Toyooka to the Sea of Japan.

The northern coast, with sea caves, stacks and sandy bays, belongs to San'in Kaigan National Park and the San'in Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark. The Genbudō basalt columns near Toyooka gave their name to the geological term for basalt (genbugan). In the south, Awaji Island separates Osaka Bay from the Harima Sea; the Akashi Strait between Kobe and Awaji is spanned by the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, and the Naruto Strait with its whirlpools separates Awaji from Tokushima.

The Inland Sea coast has a mild, relatively dry climate with warm winters. The Tanba uplands have cool winters with frequent fog. The Sea of Japan side receives heavy snow in winter, especially in the mountains of Kami-chō and Yabu, where ski resorts such as Hachi-Kita operate. Awaji is the mildest part, suited to growing onions and flowers.

According to the Kojiki, Awaji was the first island formed by the gods Izanagi and Izanami. In the 12th century Taira no Kiyomori developed the port of Ōwada-no-tomari and briefly moved the capital to Fukuhara (1180) in present-day Kobe; the Genpei War battle of Ichinotani (1184) was fought nearby. Himeji Castle was expanded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and rebuilt into its present form by Ikeda Terumasa between 1601 and 1609.

Hyōgo port was opened to foreign trade in 1868 as Kobe, and the foreign settlement brought Western architecture, trade houses and industries such as shipbuilding and steel (Kawasaki and Mitsubishi). The Hanshin area became a manufacturing and residential belt, with the Takarazuka Revue (1914) and Kōshien Stadium (1924) as cultural icons. The 1995 earthquake devastated Kobe and the Hanshin area; the city was rebuilt within a decade.

Hyogo's culture varies from province to province. Nada, in the Hanshin area, is Japan's largest sake-brewing district. Takarazuka is known for its all-female revue, Nishinomiya for Kōshien Stadium and the national high-school baseball tournaments. Awaji preserves the puppet theatre tradition from which bunraku grew, and Tanba's Tachikui kilns are one of the Six Ancient Kilns. In the north, Izushi is a small castle town famous for its soba and its clock tower.

Hyogo supplies several of Japan's premium ingredients: Tajima cattle, the source of Kobe beef; Yamada Nishiki, the leading sake rice; snow crab from Tajima's ports; Awaji onions; and Tanba black soybeans and chestnuts. Akashi is famous for octopus and sea bream, and the Harima coast for oysters.

Hyogo has a large manufacturing base: steel and heavy industry along the Harima coast (Himeji, Kakogawa, Takasago), shipbuilding and machinery in Kobe, and a wide range of consumer goods. Kobe is a centre of medical-industry research on Port Island and of fashion and confectionery. Agriculture ranges from Kobe beef and sake rice to Awaji onions and Tanba black beans, and tourism draws visitors to Himeji, Kobe, Arima and Kinosaki.