Nagoya, chief town of Aichi prefecture and Japan's fourth largest city, lies in central Honshu. Its situation in the spacious Ise Bay, opening on to the Pacific, has favored the development of the port, which is now the third largest in Japan (after Yokohama and Kobe). It is also an important industrial center.
The economic rise of Nagoya began with the Meiji reforms. Its main industrial activities are heavy industry, shipbuilding and automobile manufacture, together with chemicals and pharmaceuticals, textiles and ceramics (this last continuing a tradition established in the 12th C in nearby Seto). Many factories and workshops can be visited.
Nagoya grew up around the castles built by the Imagawa and Oda families in the 16th C, and gained increased importance when Tokugawa Ieyasu built the large castle, which still survives for his son Yoshinao in 1612 and appointed as Governor of the province of Owari. The castle was also designed to be a stronghold of the Tokugawa in their conflict with the Toyotomi family. After Ieyasu's defeat of his enemies in 1614-15 the Owara-Tokugawa dynasty resided in Nagoya until 1868, when they were compelled to surrender their authority to the central government. Soon afterwards there began the development of industry which laid the foundations of the city's prosperity. The air attacks of 1945 caused heavy damage in Nagoya, and the castle was largely destroyed. The post-war reconstruction gave the city a fine network of wide modern streets.
Higashiyama Multiple Park made up of a zoo, botanical garden and amusement park, is also noted for its cherry blossoms. There is the Higashiyama Sky Tower that has an observation deck at an altitude of 180m where visitors can see the entire view of Nagoya.
Museum Meiji Mura is an open-air museum featuring Japanese architecture from the Meiji period (1868-1912). There are over 60 buildings including a prison, post office, bathhouse, churches and homes. Many of the buildings are open to the public and house furniture, temporary exhibits, and other items related to the respective buildings.
Address: Museum Meiji Mura, 1,Uchiyama, Inuyama-shi, Nagoya, Chubu , Japan
Japan's main island Honshu is covered by a network of high speed train lines that connect Tokyo with most of the island's major cities and Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu. Japan's high speed trains (bullet trains) are called shinkansen.
The Tokaido Shinkansen, connecting Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka, was inaugurated in the year 1964 as the first shinkansen line and the world's first high speed train. In 1964 the trains ran with speeds of about 200 km/h. Nowadays they reach speeds of over 300 km/h.
Tokugawa Art Museum houses many treasures which belonged to the Tokugawa family of Nagoya, including pictures, porcelain, weapons and documents; particularly notable items are the 43 parts of the "Genji-monogatari-emaki", a picture scroll by Fujiwara Takayoshi, and the "Saigyo-mono-gatari-emeki", a scroll depicting scenes from the life of the priest Saigyo (1118-90).
Address: Tokugawa Art Museum, 1017 Tokugawa-cho, Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Chubu 461, Japan
Hours:
January 2 to December 14: 10am-5pm; Closed: Mon
Tips: Group discount available for 20 or more. Last admission half hour before closing.
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Nagoya Castle, Nagoya
Nagoya Castle, Nagoya
Nagoya Castle, Nagoya
Tokaido Shinkansen, Nagoya
