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.
History
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.
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