Yamasaki, Hyōgo

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Yamasaki (山崎町; -chō) was a town located in Shiso District, Hyōgo, Japan. On April 1, 2005 the town merged with three other towns from the district forming the city of Shiso and no longer exists as an independent municipality.

Yamasaki is approximately 45 minutes by car from the nearest city, Himeji, which is to the east.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 25,629 and a density of 143.27 persons per km². The total area was 178.89 km². This population is served by a large hospital, the administrative center of Shiso City, and a major intercity highway, the chugoku expressway. There is no rail link, largely dictated by geography. There is one large high school, three junior high schools,

Yamasaki translates as "Mountain Bay", a reference to its seclusion amongst a range of forest covered mountains. The extensive forest area provides the towns biggest industry, logging. The new "Shiso Shi" incorporates a number of local townships and villages, most significantly the castle town of Haga and Chikusa.

Yamasaki has existed as a town for about 50 years, but the area has been occupied since the Ōnin period in the fifteenth century, as its ancient "Hachiman Shrine" denotes. Today, includes substantial rice paddy cultivation.

Yamazaki Anzai, an important confucian scholar, has ancestry in the area and is Yamasakis most well known personage

[edit] External links

• Official website of Shiso in Japanese