Hyōgo Prefecture
Japanese transcription(s)
• Japanese	兵庫県
• Rōmaji	Hyōgo-ken
Symbol of Hyōgo Prefecture
Country	Japan
Region	Kansai
Island	Honshū
Capital	Kobe
Government
• Governor	Toshizo Ido
Area
• Total	8,396.13 km2 (3,241.76 sq mi)
Area rank	12th
Population (November 1, 2011)
• Total	5,582,978
• Rank	7th
• Density	660/km2 (1,700/sq mi)
ISO 3166 code	JP-28
Districts	8
Municipalities	41
Flower	Nojigiku (Chrysanthemum japonense)
Tree	Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora)
Bird	Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana)
Website	web.pref.hyogo.lg.jp/fl/english/

Map of Hyōgo Prefecture.

Himeji Castle in Himeji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Hyōgo Prefecture (兵庫県, Hyōgo-ken^?) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island.^[1] The capital is Kobe.^[2]

The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.

History[link]

Present-day Hyōgo Prefecture includes the former provinces of Harima, Tajima, Awaji, and parts of Tamba and Settsu.^[3]

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 magnitude 7.2 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[link]

Hyōgo has coastlines on two seas: to the north, the Sea of Japan, to the south, the Inland Sea. 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 Island is an island in the Inland Sea, lying between Honshū 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 31 March 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.^[4]

Cities[link]

Twenty-nine cities are located in Hyōgo Prefecture:

Towns and villages[link]

Towns and villages in each district:

Islands[link]

• Awaji Island
• Ieshima Islands

Two major artificial islands are located Hyōgo Prefecture:

• Rokko Island
• Port Island

National parks[link]

• Sanin Kaigan National Park
• Setonaikai National Park
• Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Quasi-National Park

• 

  Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Quasi-National Park (Mt. Hyonosen view from Yabu)

• 

  Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Quasi-National Park (Torokawataira in Kami)

• 

  Sanin Kaigan National Park (Takeno Beach in Toyooka)

• 

  Sanin Kaigan National Park (Tajima-mihonoura of Sanin Coast in Shinonsen)

Mergers[link]

Future mergers[link]

• The city of Akō and the only town in Akō District (Kamigōri), are scheduled to merge and the city will retain the name Akō. Akō District will be defunct if the merger is successful. [1]

Economy[link]

Hyōgo Prefecture has many heavy industries, metal and medical, and Kobe Port is one of the largest ports in Japan.

Hyōgo is a part of the Hanshin Industrial Region. There are two research institute of Riken, natural sciences research institute in Japan, in Kobe and Harima. It has "SPring-8",a synchrotron radiation facility in Harima.

Kobe Port

Demographics[link]

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Culture[link]

National Treasures of Japan[link]

• Himeji Castle in Himeji (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
• Jōdo-ji in Ono
• Ichijō-ji in Kasai
• Kakurin-ji in Kakogawa
• Taisan-ji in Kobe
• Chōkō-ji in Katō

• 

  Jōdo-ji in Ono

• 

  Ichijo-ji in Kasai

• 

  Kakurin-ji in Kakogawa

Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Historic Buildings in Japan[link]

• Kitano-chō Yamamoto-dōri
• Izushi
• Sasayama

• 

  Kitano-chō Yamamoto-dōri

• 

  Izushi

• 

  Sasayama

Museums[link]

• Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art in Nada Ward, Kobe.
• Kobe City Museum in Chuo Ward, Kobe.
• Kobe Maritime Museum in Chuo Ward, Kobe.
• Himeji City Museum of Art in Himeji.
• Asago Art Village in Asago.
• Ashiya City Museum of Art & History in Ashiya.

• 

  Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe.

• 

  Kobe City Museum in Kobe.

• 

  Himeji City Museum of Art in Himeji.

• 

  Asago Art Village in Asago

Education[link]

Universities[link]

• Amagasaki
  • Sonoda Women's University
  • St. Thomas University (Eichi University)
• Takarazuka
  • Takarazuka University
  • Koshien University
• Sanda
  • Kwansei Gakuin University (Sanda Campas)
• Nishinomiya
  • Kwansei Gakuin University
  • Otemae University
  • Mukogawa Women's University
• Ashiya
  • Ashiya University
• Kobe
  • Kobe University
  • Kobe University of Commerce
  • Kobe Gakuin University
  • Kobe City University of Foreign Studies
  • Kobe Women's University
  • Kobe Shukugawa Gakuin University
  • Konan University
  • University of Marketing and Distribution Sciences
• Kato
  • Hyogo University of Teacher Education
• Kakogawa
  • Hyogo University
• Himeji
  • Himeji Institute of Technology
  • Himeji Dokkyo University
  • Himeji Kinki University

Sports[link]

The sports teams listed below are based in Hyōgo.

Football (soccer)

• Vissel Kobe (Kobe)
• INAC Kobe (Women's) (Kobe)

Baseball

• Orix Buffaloes (Kobe)
• Hanshin Tigers (Nishinomiya)

Volleyball

• Hisamitsu Springs (Kobe)
• JT Marvelous (NIshinomiya)

Rugby

• Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers (Kobe)
• World Fighting Bull (Kobe)

Tourism[link]

Kobe remains a popular tourist destination. The region symbolizes Japan's earliest contact with the outside world. Many homes of early foreign visitors still stand on the bluff overlooking the harbor.

The vista of the Inland Sea remains a "million-dollar view". The Kobe port is one of the ports which are the most famous in Japan.

A popular troupe of Takarazuka Revue plays in Takarazuka.

Himeji Castle receives this praise from UNESCO: "masterpiece of construction in wood, combining function with aesthetic appeal... ." Together with its historical significance and its easy access from Kyoto or Osaka by Shinkansen, Himeji Castle receives tremendous numbers of visitors annually.

As for the Hyogo Prefecture northern part, sands where the coast is beautiful and a dynamic rock are consecutive. In the vicinity, there are a lot of famous sightseeing spots such as Kinosaki Onsen, Izushi and Yumura Onsen.

• 

  million-dollar view, Kobe

• 

  Harborland - Meriken Park area in Kobe

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  Awaji Yumebutai in Awaji

• 

  Kuchiganaya in Asago

• 

  Kinosaki Onsen in Toyooka

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  Yumura Onsen in Shinonsen

• 

  Tonomine highland in Kamikawa

Festival and Events[link]

Dekansho Bon Dancing Festival

Castle Festival in Himeji

• Miyuki Street New Year's midnight traditional sale, Himeji
• Nishinomiya Shrine's Ebisu Festival in January
• Yanagihara Ebisu Festival in January, Kobe
• Tada Shrine's Genji Festival in April, Kawanishi
• Kobe Festival and Parade in May
• Aioi Peron Festival in May
• Himeji Yukata Festival in June
• Dekansho Bon Dancing Festival in August, Sasayama
• Nada Fighting Festival, Himeji
• Kobe Luminarie in December
• Ako Chushingura Parade

Transportation[link]

Railway[link]

• JR West
  • Sanyo Shinkansen
  • JR Kobe Line
  • Wadamisaki Line
  • Sanyo Main Line
  • Sanin Line
  • Fukuchiyama Line (JR Takarazuka Line)
  • Kakogawa Line
  • Bantan Line
  • Kishin Line
  • Ako Line

• Hankyu Railway
  • Kobe Line
  • Kobe Kosoku Line
  • Itami Line
  • Imazu Line
  • Koyo Line
  • Takarazuka Line

• Nose Railway
  • Myoken Line
  • Nissei Line

• Shintetsu
  • Arima Line
  • Kobe Kosoku Line
  • Sanda Line
  • Koen Toshi Line
  • Ao Line

• Hokushin Kyuko Railway

• Kobe Municipal Subway
  • Seishin-Yamate Line
  • Kaigan Line

• Hojo Railway (Ao-Hojo)

• Hanshin Railway
  • Main Line
  • Kobe Kosoku Line
  • Mukogawa Line
  • Hanshin Nanba Line

• Sanyo Railway
  • Main Line
  • Aboshi Line

• Chizu Express

• Kitakinki Tango Railway
  • Miyazu Line

People Movers[link]

• Kobe New Transit
  • Port Liner
  • Rokko Liner

Road[link]

Expressway

• Chugoku Expressway
• Sanyo Expressway
• Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway
• Meishin Expressway
• Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway
• Bantan Expressway
• Second Shinmei road
• Hanshin Expressway

National Highway

• Route 2
• Route 9
• Route 28
• Route 29
• Route 43
• Route 171
• Route 173
• Route 174 (Sannomiya-Kobe Port)
• Route 175
• Route 176
• Route 178
• Route 179
• Route 250
• Route 312
• Route 372
• Route 373
• Route 426
• Route 427
• Route 428
• Route 429
• Route 436
• Route 477
• Route 482
• Route 483

Port[link]

• Kobe Port - Mainly international container hub port
• Akashi Port
• Shikama Port - Mainly Shodo Island route ferry

Airport[link]

• Kobe Airport
• Konotori Tajima Airport

Notable people[link]

• Kanō Jigorō Inventor of the martial art Judo
• Heath, musician, singer-songwriter and bassist of X Japan is from Amagasaki
• Kaoru, guitarist of Dir en grey
• Jun, musician, singer-songwriter and guitarist of Phantasmagoria is from Kobe
• Miyavi, musician, although born in Konohana-ku, Osaka grew up in Kawanishi
• So Taguchi, outfielder for the Chicago Cubs
• Juri Ueno, Japanese Academy Award-winning actress best known for her performances in Swing Girls and the live-action adaptation of Nodame Cantabile, is from Kakogawa
• Koichi Domoto, singer of Kinki Kids
• Shota Yasuda, guitarist of Kanjani Eight is from Amagasaki
• Aya Matsuura, singer is from Himeji
• Ayaka Kimura, actress, former singer of Coconuts Musume is from Kobe
• Chisa Maekawa, singer of Girl Next Door
• Miracle Hikaru, comedian and impersonator is from Toyooka
• Keiko Kitagawa, actress from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and Buzzer Beat was born in Kobe
• Nagaru Tanigawa, creator of the Haruhi Suzumiya series was born in Kinki
• Masamune Shirow, manga artist was born in Kobe
• Ume Aoki, manga artist
• Fumito Ueda, videogame creator of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian.
• Katsumi Yamada, known as Mr. Sasuke, one of the All-Star competitors of Sasuke is from Harima

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hyogo prefecture

• Official Hyōgo prefecture homepage
• Hyōgo prefecture tourist guide
• Hyōgo Business & Cultural Center
• Medical Services in Hyōgo prefecture

v t e 20x20pxHyōgo Prefecture Kobe (capital city) Chūō Higashinada Hyōgo Kita Nada Nagata Nishi Suma Tarumi Other cities Aioi Akashi Akō Amagasaki Asago Ashiya Awaji Himeji Itami Kakogawa Kasai Katō Kawanishi Miki Minamiawaji Nishinomiya Nishiwaki Ono Sanda Sasayama Shisō Sumoto Takarazuka Takasago Tamba Tatsuno Toyooka Yabu Akō District Kamigōri Ibo District Taishi Kako District Harima Inami Kanzaki District Fukusaki Ichikawa Kamikawa Kawabe District Inagawa Mikata District Kami Shin'onsen Sayō District Sayō Taka District Taka

v t e Regions and administrative divisions of  Japan Regions Hokkaido Tōhoku Kantō Nanpō Islands Chūbu Hokuriku Kōshin'etsu Shin'etsu Tōkai Kansai Chūgoku San'in San'yō Shikoku Kyushu Northern Kyushu Ryukyu Islands Prefectures Hokkaido Hokkaido Tōhoku Aomori Iwate Miyagi Akita Yamagata Fukushima Kantō Ibaraki Tochigi Gunma Saitama Chiba Tokyo Kanagawa Chūbu Niigata Toyama Ishikawa Fukui Yamanashi Nagano Gifu Shizuoka Aichi Kansai Mie Shiga Kyoto Osaka Hyōgo Nara Wakayama Chūgoku Tottori Shimane Okayama Hiroshima Yamaguchi Shikoku Tokushima Kagawa Ehime Kōchi Kyushu Fukuoka Saga Nagasaki Kumamoto Ōita Miyazaki Kagoshima Okinawa

Coordinates: 34°41′26.94″N 135°10′59.08″E / 34.6908167°N 135.1830778°E / 34.6908167; 135.1830778

Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando (2004)
Born	(1941-09-13) September 13, 1941 (age 70) Minato-ku, Osaka, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Awards	Alvar Aalto Medal, 1985 Pritzker Prize, 1995 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, 1997 AIA Gold Medal, 2002 Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence, 2012
Work
Practice	Tadao Ando Architects & Associates
Buildings	Row House, Sumiyoshi, 1979 Church of the Light, Osaka, 1989 Water Temple, Awaji, 1991
Projects	Rokko Housing I, II, III, Kobe, 1983-1999

Tadao Ando (安藤 忠雄, Andō Tadao^?, born September 13, 1941, in Minato-ku, Osaka, Japan and raised in Asahi-ku in the city) is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was categorized by Francesco Dal Co as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field. He visited buildings designed by renowned architects like Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn before returning to Osaka in 1968 and established his own design studio, Tadao Ando Architect and Associates.

He works primarily in exposed cast-in-place concrete and is renowned^{[by whom?]} for an exemplary craftsmanship which invokes a Japanese sense of materiality, junction and spatial narrative through the pared aesthetics of international modernism.^{[citation needed]}

Tadao Ando has strong culture backgrounds in Japan, where he is raised and also currently stays. The Japanese religion and life style influenced him a lot in this design style in terms of architecture. His style in architecture is said to create "haiku" effect, and also emphasize the nothingness to represent the beauty of simplicity. Yet he likes to design architecture with complex spatial circulation while the appearance is simple. As a self-taught architect, Ando keeps his Japanese culture and language tightly in his mind while he travels around Europe for learning experience. Ando also likes to learn new knowledge from books; however, he thinks physical experiencing architecture is the most powerful way to expand his architecture knowledge and also influence on his architecture work. On the other hand, Ando dislikes the idea of form and rules because it tends to manipulate the knowledge rather than incorporate physical experience into the space. As an architect, Ando believes that architecture can change the society--"to change the dwelling is to change the city and to reform society" ^[1]. "Reform society" could be a promotion of a place or a change of the identity of that place. According to Werner Blaser, "Good buildings by Tadao Ando create memorable identity and therefore publicity, which in turn attracts the public and promotes market penetration" ^[2]. The power of architecture can certainly be proved by Ando's work. Concrete almost become Ando’s signature. The idea of concrete wall with evenly located holes on it not only represents his style of simplicity but also becomes a very useful measurement for the construction. However, as his principle of cooperating architecture with nature, he chooses to use wood on human touchable surface such as floor, as a way to embody the most natural resource into the architecture.

The simplicity of his architecture emphasizes the concept of sensation and physical experiences, mainly influenced by the Japanese culture. A religious term, Zen, focuses on the concept of simplicity and more concentrate on the inner feeling rather than the appearance. The theory has vividly shown on Ando’s work and definitely become his style that distinguishes other outstanding architects in the world. In order to practice the idea of simplicity, Ando’s architecture is mostly constructed with concrete, which provides his architecture a sense of cleanness and weightiness at the same time. Due to the simplicity of the exterior, the construction and organization of the space are relatively potential in order to represents the aesthetic from sensation. Unlike most of the religious architecture that mainly focusing on the preservation of history, one of his work, the Komyo-ji Temple in Saijo, Ehime, is made out of wood, which requires repair after each period of time. However, in the perspective of Japanese culture, the most significant concept of the shrine is to be able to spread the divine spirit from the interior and being able to eternalize it through the architecture. Besides Japanese religious architecture, Ando also designs Christian Churches, such as the Church of Light (1989) and the Church in Tarumi (1993). Although there are different characteristic between Japanese and Christian churches, Ando treats them with the similar strategy. In fact, there should be no difference for designing religious architecture and houses. He explains, “we do not need to differentiate one from the other. Dwelling in a house is not only a functional issue, but also a spiritual one. The house is the locus of mind (kokoro), and the mind is the locus of god. Dwelling in a house is a search for the mind (kokoro) as the locus of god, just as one goes to church to search for god. An important role of the church is to enhance this sense of the spiritual. In a spiritual place, people find peach in their mind (kokoro), as in their homeland” ^[3]. Besides speaking the spirit of the architecture, the association between the nature and the architecture is also his architecture strategy. As an architect, Ando makes his architecture become a way for people to easily experience the spirit and the beauty of the nature through the architecture. He thinks architecture is responsible for performing the attitude of the site and then turning it into visible perceptions. This not only represents his theory of the role of architecture in the society but also shows the reason that he spends so much time studying architecture from his physical experience.

In 1995, Ando won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the highest distinction in the field of architecture.^[4] He donated the $100,000 prize money to the orphans of the 1995 Kobe earthquake.^[5]

Buildings and works[link]

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe

Tadao Ando's body of work is known for the creative use of natural light and for architectures that follow the natural forms of the landscape (rather than disturbing the landscape by making it conform to the constructed space of a building). The architect's buildings are often characterized by complex three-dimensional circulation paths. These paths interweave between interior and exterior spaces formed both inside large-scale geometric shapes and in the spaces between them. His "Row House in Sumiyoshi" (Azuma House, 住吉の長屋), a small two-story, cast-in-place concrete house completed in 1976, is an early Ando work which began to show elements of his characteristic style. It consists of three equally sized rectangular volumes: two enclosed volumes of interior spaces separated by an open courtyard. By nature of the courtyard's position between the two interior volumes, it becomes an integral part of the house's circulation system. This house is famous for the contrast of appearance and spatial organization, which allow people to experience the richness of the space within the geometry.

Ando's housing complex at Rokko, just outside Kobe, is a complex warren of terraces and balconies and atriums and shafts. The designs for Rokko Housing One (1983) and for Rokko Housing Two (1993) illustrate a range of issues in the traditional architectural vocabulary—the interplay of solid and void, the alternatives of open and closed, the contrasts of light and darkness. More significantly, Ando's noteworthy achievement in these clustered buildings is site specific—the structures survived undamaged after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.^[6] New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger argues convincingly that "Ando is right in the Japanese tradition: spareness has always been a part of Japanese architecture, at least since the 16th century; [and] it is not without reason that Frank Lloyd Wright more freely admitted to the influences of Japanese architecture than of anything American."^[6] Like, Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which did survive the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, site specific decision-making, anticipates seismic activity in Ando's several Hyōgo-Awaji buildings.^[7]

Completed projects list[link]

Westin Awaji Island hotel

The Church of the Light

Piccadilly Gardens landscape redesign by Ando in 2002

Completed projects[link]

• 

  Honpuku Temple(Water Temple)

• 

  Azuma House

• 

  Times Gallery

• 

  Mount Rokko Chapel

• 

  Galleria Akka

• 

  Kobe Waterfront Plaza built with the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art

• 

  The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

• Sakura Hiroba.jpg
• 

  Gallery Noda

• 

  Langen Foundation

• 

  Rokko Housing I and II, Kobe

• 

  Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art, Kyoto

Projects in progress[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]