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Climate
Takayama City
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Hida is located in Gifu Prefecture,
almost in the center of the Japanese archipelago.
Here, narrow valleys stretch between countless steep mountains,
dotted with villages.
One of the widest basins here is the Takayama Basin. A peculiarity
of the climate is the vast difference in temperature between night
and day during the winter. With a heavy snowfall, the winter is
extremely cold, and at its coldest, temperatures have been known
to reach 15 degrees below freezing. On summer days, the dazzling
sunlight is often potent, but because the humidity is low, you can
savor a sense of refreshment, and nights are so cool that you cannot
do without a futon. There are beautiful views of nature everywhere,
with mountains in the 3,000-meter class, Norikuradake, Hotakadake,
and Yarigatake to the east, Hakusan to the West, and Ontakesan to
the south.
History
Kanamori Nagachika |
Takayama Castle |
In Hida, there are a great deal of historic
ruins from the Jomon period (about 8,000 years ago), objects opening
culture from the ancient past to our imagination.
About 1,350 years ago, it was decided by Taika reformers that a
tax would be paid. Because Hida is in the mountains and there was
little of the rice, grains, and textiles used to pay this tax, it
was decided instead that villagers would come to the capital to
work for 250 to 300 days of the year. They worked as carpenters
and built palaces, gates, and temples in the capital. Around 100
artisans from Hida came and went, and by the hands of these men,
magnificent buildings were finished. However, it is said that some
artisans fled this difficult work. In terms of history, among the
names of those who built famous temples, those of Hida’s artisans
are seen in great numbers. Artisans returned to Hida and used these
skills to build Hida’s ancient temples like a Sanbutuji Temple,
which, however, does not exist today but ruins. The techniques of
Hida’s artisans lives on even now in this area in traditional
arts and crafts.
At the end of the Muromachi period (about 450 years ago), Takayama
Geki built a castle on Tenjinyama (now called Shiroyama, or ‘castle
mountain’). For this reason, the area near Takayama Geki’s
castle came to be and continues to be called ‘Takayama.’
In 1585, Kanamori Nagachika conquered Hida and put a lot of effort
into reviving the culture of the castle, its town, and its temples. This
Kanamori period continued for 107 years through 6 rulers.
When the Kanamori period ended, Hida came under the direct control
of the Tokugawa shogunate. Takayama Castle, destroyed in 1695, was
designated as a prefectural historical landmark, and the ‘Site
of Takayama Castle’ is now Shiroyama Park. The period from
the end of the Kanamori period to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate
of Edo (Tokyo) is called the Edo period (1603 to 1867). During
this period, Takayama was a vassal state of the Tokugawa shogunate.
It was a period that witnessed a great burgeoning of Japanese culture,
which has been passed down through the centuries and is still evident
in Takayama today. The period of direct control by the Shogunate
lasted 177 years and 25 local governors, lasting through the myriad
changes of the Meiji Restoration (1868) and, in Showa 11 (1936),
the area became Takayama City. The city then merged with several
towns and villages, and in Heisei 17 (2005) with nine other neighboring
towns and villages, thus becoming a city with an area as large as
Tokyo.
In recent years, the city has been working to preserve the old townscapes
and create a comfortable environment for its elderly and disabled
citizens, thus promoting the creation of a barrier-free town under
the catchphrase ‘A town comfortable to live in is a town comfortable
to travel in.’ Since 2001, the city has been working to make
the lives of international tourists easier by providing brochures,
information on the Internet, and maps and signs. The objective of
these initiatives is to provide reliable reference materials that
will allow everyone to enjoy the town and its historical and traditional
attractions. |