Yamatotakada, Nara

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**Yamatotakada**
**大和高田市**
Yamatotakada's location in Nara, Japan.
Location
Country	Japan
Region	Kansai
Prefecture	Nara
Physical characteristics
Area	16.48 km² (6.36 sq mi)
Population (as of January 1, 2007)
Total	72,510
Density	4,399.87 /km² (11,396 /sq mi)
Location	34°31′N, 135°44′E
Symbols
Tree	Camellia sasanqua
Flower	Cosmos
Yamatotakada Government Office
Mayor	Masakatsu Yoshida
Address	〒635-8511 101-1 Ōaza Ōnaka, Yamatotakada-shi, Nara-ken
Phone number	0745-22-1101
Official website: City of Yamatotakada

Yamatotakada (大和高田市, Yamatotakada-shi^?) is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan.

Places named "Takada" are found all over Japan. To specify its location, this city's name includes "Yamato," the province that preceded the modern Nara Prefecture.

The city continues to develop as a local business and government center in the center of Nara Prefecture.

1 History
2 Neighboring municipalities
3 Sister cities
- 3.1 Outside Japan
4 Education
5 Transportation
- 5.1 Rail
6 External links

[edit] History

Inhabited since the Paleolithic age, the city area nurtured paddy field agriculture in the fertile Nara Basin since ancient times. Large keyhole type burial mounds (kofun) were constructed in the northwestern part of the city around the 5th century.

A local samurai family ruled the area in the medieval age, but the lord of Takada perished in 1580 at the hand of a local vassal of the powerful Oda Nobunaga. In the early modern age, the city area developed as a local market town with a big Buddhist temple at its core.

With the introduction of Western civilisation into Japan, a modern spinning factory was set up here at the end of the nineteenth century. Since then, the city became a center of the modern textile industry.

After the Second World War, Takada was designated as a city in 1948. In 1963, the city of Yamatotakada established, through the arrangement of an Australian Catholic father, a sister-city relationship with Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. It is known as the first such relationship between the two countries.

Toshiharu Matsuda, who served as mayor of the city since 1992, resigned in 2003. During his terms of office he executed ambitious construction plans resulting in burdensome borrowings. He was also criticized for his connection with a gangster boss in the city of Nara. Masakatsu Yoshida, elected as new major in April, 2003, has had to cope with the deteriorating financial problems combined with a curtailed national subsidy and mounting unpaid city tax.

A citizens' group advocates new friendship relation with Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province in central China, though city administrators are still reluctant.

[edit] Neighboring municipalities

Nara Prefecture
- Kashihara
- Gose
- Kashiba
- Katsuragi
- Kōryō

[edit] Sister cities

[edit] Outside Japan

Lismore, Australia

[edit] Education

Primary Schools
- Takada Elementary School
- Iwasono Elementary School
- Katashio Elementary School
- Ukiana Elementary School
- Ukiananishi Elementary School
Junior High Schools
- Takada Junior High School
- Takadanishi Junior High School
- Katashio Junior High School
High Schools
- Takada High School
- Takadahigashi High School
- Nara Culture High School
- Japan Aviation High School
- Takada Commerce High School
Universities
- Nara Culture Women's Junior College
Other
- Bigei Gakuen Vocational School
- Apollo Gakuin Fashion Business School