Takayama 5.81

Takayama is a city located in Gifu Prefecture, Japan.As of July 2011, the city has an estimated population of 92,369 and a population density of 42 persons per km². The total area is 2,177.67 km².EtymologyThe city is popularly known as Hida-Takayama in reference to the old Hida Province to differentiate it from other places named Takayama. The name 'Takayama' means 'tall mountain'.HistoryTakayama was settled as far back as the Jōmon period.The city is best known for its inhabitants' expertise in carpentry. It is believed carpenters from Takayama worked on the Imperial Palace in Kyoto and on many of the temples in Kyoto and Nara. The town and its culture, as they exist today, took shape at the end of the 16th century, when the Kanamori clan built Takayama Castle. About a hundred years later the city came under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. However, the high altitude and separation from other areas of Japan kept the area fairly isolated, allowing Takayama to develop its own culture over about a 300-year period.The city was formed on November 1, 1936 by a merger of the towns of Takayama and Onada.On February 1, 2005, the town of Kuguno, and the villages of Asahi, Kiyomi, Miya, Nyūkawa, Shōkawa and Takane (all from Ōno District), the town of Kokufu, and the village of Kamitakara (both from Yoshiki District) were merged into Takayama, which made Takayama the largest city in Japan by surface area.