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45-499: Hōryū-ji , the world's oldest wooden structure, was found to have in 2001 a shinbashira from a tree felled in 594 CE. Their examples continue in impending centuries in other tō (塔, pagoda) like the Hokkiji in Nara in 8th century, and Kaijūsenji of Kyoto . The pillar structure is made out of straight trunks of Japanese cypress ( hinoki ) . The pillar runs the entire (but see below) length of

90-645: A collision between the Taira and the Nara temples in 1180. This clash eventually led to Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji being set on fire, resulting in vast destruction of architectural heritage. At the rise of the Minamoto to its ruling seat and the opening of Kamakura shogunate , Nara enjoyed the support of Minamoto no Yoritomo toward restoration. Kōfuku-ji , being the "home temple" to the Fujiwara since its foundation, not only regained

135-416: A number of lower buildings in the neighbourhood. The reason traditionally attributed has been the shinbashira; newer research shows that the very wide eaves also contribute to the inertial stability of the pagoda. Overall deductions have not been very simplistic. Some of structural engineer Shuzo Ishida's model pagodas have a simulated shinbashira attached to the ground, as was common in pagodas built during

180-540: Is a centre for tourism. Moreover, many world heritage sites, such as the temple Tōdai-ji and Kasuga Shrine , exist in the capital city of Nara. 34°34′N 135°46′E  /  34.567°N 135.767°E  / 34.567; 135.767 Nikken Sekkei Nikken Sekkei Ltd. (日建設計) is an architectural, planning and engineering firm from Japan, with headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo . Today (2019), Nikken Sekkei ranks as

225-611: Is among the heaviest in Japan. Spring and fall are temperate. The mountainous region of Yoshino has been popular both historically and presently for its cherry blossoms in the spring. In the fall, the southern mountains are equally striking with the changing of the oak trees. Since 2006, there are 39 municipalities in Nara Prefecture: twelve [by definition: district-independent] cities and seven remaining districts containing 15 towns and twelve villages : Kansai Science City

270-456: Is an earthquake prone country, yet records show that only two of the pagodas have collapsed during the past 1,400 years owing to an earthquake. Hanshin earthquake in 1995 killed 6,400 people, toppled elevated highways, flattened office blocks and devastated the port area of Kobe . Yet it left the magnificent five-storey pagoda at the Tō-ji Temple in nearby Kyoto unscathed, though it levelled

315-653: Is covered by mountains and forests, leaving an inhabitable area of only 851 square kilometres (329 sq mi). The ratio of inhabitable area to total area is 23%, ranked 43rd among the 47 prefectures in Japan. Nara Prefecture is bisected by the Japan Median Tectonic Line (MTL) running through its territory east to west, along the Yoshino River . On the northern side of the MTL is the so-called Inner Zone, where active faults running north to south are still shaping

360-466: Is located in the middle of the Kii Peninsula on the western half of Honshu . Nara Prefecture is landlocked. It is bordered to the west by Wakayama Prefecture and Osaka Prefecture ; on the north by Kyoto Prefecture and on the east by Mie Prefecture . Nara Prefecture is 78.5 kilometres (48.8 mi) from east to west and 103.6 kilometres (64.4 mi) from north to south. Most of the prefecture

405-433: Is located in the northwest. According to the 2005 Census of Japan, Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,421,310, which is a decrease of 1.5%, since the year 2000. The decline continued in 2006, with another decrease of 4,987 people compared to 2005. This includes a natural decrease from previous year of 288 people (11,404 births minus 11,692 deaths) and a decrease due to net domestic migration of 4,627 people outbound from

450-854: Is located, and the Okunoya district in the south. The north/central dialect is close to Osaka's dialect, whilst Okunoya's dialect favours a Tokyo-style accent. The lengthening of vowel sounds in the Okunoya dialect is unseen in other dialects of the Kinki region , making it a special feature. Foods particular to Nara Prefecture include: The following are recognized by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry as being traditional arts of Nara: The sports teams listed below are based in Nara. Association football Basketball Many jinja (Shinto shrines), Buddhist temples, and kofun exist in Nara Prefecture, making it

495-457: Is not a single year over the last decade (since 1990, up to 2007) with more than 10 days of snowfall recorded by Nara Local Meteorological Observatory. The climate in the rest of the prefecture are mountainous, and especially in the south, with below −5 °C (23 °F) being the extreme minimum in winter. Heavy rainfall is observed in summer. The annual accumulated rainfall ranges as much as 3,000 to 5,000 millimetres (120 to 200 in), which

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540-664: Is the Daikō Range, including Mount Ōdaigahara . This mountainous region is also home to a World Heritage Site , the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range ". About 17% of the total land area of the prefecture is designated as National Park land, comprising the Yoshino-Kumano National Park , Kongō-Ikoma-Kisen , Kōya-Ryūjin , Murō-Akame-Aoyama , and Yamato-Aogaki Quasi-National Parks; and

585-472: The Tokugawa shogunate ultimately ruled the city of Nara directly, and most parts of Yamato province with a few feudal lords allocated at Kōriyama , Takatori and other places. With industry and commerce developing in the 18th century, the economy of the province was incorporated into prosperous Osaka , the commercial capital of Japan at the time. A first prefecture (briefly -fu in 1868, but -ken for most of

630-551: The Tokyo Skytree . (see below) (see relevant links and citations for further reading on the other earthquake bearing of Japanese pagodas) As a result of studies into the shinbashira structure and its utility in earthquake-resistance it has, once again, come into use in new buildings and structures, including the Tokyo Skytree . A central feature of the Tokyo Skytree tower is an innovative system to control swaying used here for

675-571: The Tsukigase-Kōnoyama , Yata , and Yoshinogawa-Tsuboro Prefectural Natural Parks. In the Nara Basin, the climate has inland characteristics, as represented in the bigger temperature variance within the same day, and the difference of summer and winter temperatures. Winter temperatures average about 3 to 5 °C (37 to 41 °F), and 25 to 28 °C (77 to 82 °F) in the summer with highest reaching close to 35 °C (95 °F). There

720-654: The Middle Kingdom to learn high civilization. By 7th century, Nara accepted the many immigrants including refugees of Baekje who had escaped from war disturbances of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula . The first high civilization with royal patronage of Buddhism flourished in today's Nara city (710–784 AD). In 784, Emperor Kanmu decided to relocate the capital to Nagaoka-kyō in Yamashiro Province , followed by another move in 794 to Heian-kyō , marking

765-608: The Nikken Group. Tadao Kamei has been CEO and President of Nikken Sekkei since 2015. Among other notable projects, Nikken Sekkei was the primary architectural firm for the Tokyo Skytree , currently (2019) the tallest self-supporting broadcasting tower in the world, and second tallest man made structure of any kind. In 2016 it has been selected by FC Barcelona for the redesign of the largest stadium in Europe . and in 2018, Sumitomo Forestry, in collaboration with Nikken Sekkei, announced

810-510: The North court. Likewise, local clans were split into two. Kōfuku-ji recovered its control over the province for a short time at the surrender of the South Court in 1392, while the internal power game of the temple itself opened a way for the local samurai clans to spring up and fight with each other, gradually acquiring their own territories, thus diminishing the influence of Kōfuku-ji overall. Later,

855-436: The base stone to the third floor; from the fourth story to the point where the spire begins, and the spire section. The shaft of a three-storied pagoda ( sanjuu-no-tou 三重塔), is divided between the second and third stories and again where the spire begins. During the 8c, shinbashira were erected on a base stone set at ground level. Example: Hokkiji Sanjuu-no-tou 法起寺三重塔 (742) in Nara . (see Earthquake Resistance below) Japan

900-609: The design, used performance-based design and nonlinear time-history analysis to prove that the solution would meet the goals of the California Building Code. Nara Prefecture Nara Prefecture ( 奈良県 , Nara-ken ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu . As of 2020, Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of 3,691 square kilometres (1,425  sq mi ). Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to

945-454: The distinction of having more UNESCO World Heritage listings than any other prefecture in Japan. Nara Prefecture region is considered one of the oldest regions in Japan , having been in existence for thousands of years, and is widely viewed as the Japanese cradle of civilization . Like Kyoto , Nara was one of Imperial Japan 's earliest capital cities. The current form of Nara Prefecture

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990-413: The first governor. The first prefectural assembly of Nara was elected in the same year and opened its first session in 1888 in the gallery of the main hall of Tōdai temple. In the 1889 Great Meiji mergers which subdivided all (then 45) prefectures into modern municipalities , Nara prefecture's 16 districts were subdivided into 154 municipalities: 10 towns and 144 villages . The first city in Nara

1035-402: The first time; it has been dubbed a "shinbashira" after the central pillar found in traditional five-story pagodas. The 375-meter-long, steel-reinforced concrete shinbashira is not directly connected to the tower itself and is designed to cancel out the swaying of the needle-like tower during an earthquake. According to an official with Nikken Sekkei , which designed the structure, the concept

1080-434: The foundation ( Shinso ja: 心礎) Hōryūji Gojū-no-tou 法隆寺五重塔, (Gojū-no-tō: 5-layered-pagoda) was found to be 3m below ground level. At this time, pillars were tapered and became roughly circular from the point where they rose beyond the roof, starting as hexagonal from the base. This shaping was necessary as metal pieces were fit to the central pillar to support the spire. Later uses starting 12c involve them suspended just above

1125-578: The ground, thus making them suspensions like the Nikkō Tōshōgū Gojū-no-tū 日光東照宮五重塔 (1818) in Tochigi prefecture. Size had a bearing on the fragmentation of the pillars found in the 8th century. The central pillar of Gojuu-no-tou at Hōryūji has a height of 31.5 m with a diameter of 77.8 cm at base, 65.1 cm in the middle and approximately 24.1 cm at the midpoint on the spire. Such huge pillars had to be divided into three sections: from

1170-570: The land area of the prefecture. The Ōmine Range is in the center of the Kii Mountains, running north to south, with steep valleys on both sides. The tallest mountain in Nara Prefecture, and indeed in the Kansai region, is Mount Hakkyō . To the west, separating Nara Prefecture from Wakayama Prefecture, is the Obako Range, with peaks around 1,300 metres (4,300 ft). To the east, bordering Mie Prefecture,

1215-413: The land, while only 6% of people lives there, resulting in a density of 39 people km . Nara prefecture had the highest rate in Japan of people commuting outbound for work, at 30.9% in 2000. A similar tendency is seen in prefectures such as Saitama , Chiba , and Kanagawa , all three of them having over 20% of people commuting for other prefectures. The 2004 total gross prefecture product (GPP) for Nara

1260-622: The landscape. The Ikoma Mountains in the northwest form the border with Osaka Prefecture. The Nara Basin, which lies to the east of these mountains, contains the highest concentration of population in Nara Prefecture. Further east are the Kasagi Mountains, which separate the Basin from the Yamato Highlands. South of the MTL is the Outer Zone, comprising the Kii Mountains, which occupy about 60% of

1305-713: The name of Sumitomo Temporary Architecture Department, it was founded in response to Sumitomo's need to establish a headquarters. The company established its independence from the Sumitomo Corporation in the 1950s under the name Nikken Sekkei Komu Co. Ltd. As a private practice since 1970, Nikken Sekkei has maintained its In-house Shareholder Corporate System and is partly owned by its employees. Nikken Sekkei together with Nikken Sekkei Research Institute (NSRI), Hokkaido Nikken Sekkei, Nikken Sekkei Civil Engineering (NSC), Nikken Housing System Ltd (NHS), Nikken Space Design (NSD), Nikken Sekkei Construction Management (NCM) forms

1350-430: The north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama Prefecture to the southwest, and Mie Prefecture to the east. Nara is the capital and largest city of Nara Prefecture, with other major cities including Kashihara , Ikoma , and Yamatokōriyama . Nara Prefecture is located in the center of the Kii Peninsula on Japan's Pacific Ocean coast, and is one of only eight landlocked prefectures. Nara Prefecture has

1395-462: The pagoda, and juts out of the top 'layer' of the pagoda, where it supports the finial of the pagoda. The shinbashira is a typical element of Japanese pagodas facing regular earthquakes, but cannot be found in China or Korea, which are not or at least not frequently hit by earthquakes and where other methods were developed instead. The initial architectural forms included the pillar ingrained deep within

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1440-458: The population. As of 2004, the average density of the prefecture is 387 people per km . By districts, the Yamato flat inland plain holds as much as about 90% of total population within the approximately 23% size of area in the north-west, including the Nara Basin, representing a density of 1,531 people per km . To the contrast, the combined district Gojō and Yoshino District occupies almost 64% of

1485-504: The power it had before but became a de facto regional chief of Yamato Province. With the reconstruction of Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji , a town was growing again near the two temples. The Nanboku-chō period , starting in 1336, brought more instability to Nara. As Emperor Go-Daigo chose Yoshino as his base, a power struggle arose in Kōfuku-ji with a group supporting the South and another siding

1530-547: The prefecture, and a decrease of 72 registered foreigners. Net domestic migration has turned into a continuous outbound trend since 1998. The largest destinations of migration in 2005 were the prefectures of Kyoto, Tokyo, and Hyōgo, with respectively a net of 1,130,982 and 451 people moving over. The largest inbound migration was from Niigata Prefecture , contributing to a net increase of 39 people. 13.7% of its population were reported as under 15, 65.9% between 15 and 64, and 20.4% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 52.5% of

1575-694: The second largest architectural practice in the world. As of 2019, the group employs 2,685 workers and has completed more than 25,000 projects in more than 50 countries. Nikken Sekkei's International offices are in Tokyo , Shanghai, Beijing , Dalian , Seoul , Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City , Singapore , Dubai , Riyadh , Moscow , Barcelona ; Bangkok ; while the Japanese branches are located in: Osaka , Nagoya , Fukuoka , and Sendai . The newest office opened in 2023 in Dubai , UAE. Nikken Sekkei dates its origins back to 1900, as an offspring of Sumitomo Corporation . Under

1620-514: The sixth to eighth centuries. Others simulate later designs with the shinbashira resting on a beam on the second floor or suspended from the fifth. Compared with a model with no shinbashira at all, Ishida finds that the one with a central column anchored to the ground survives longest, and is at least twice as strong as any other shinbashira arrangement. Studies about shinbashira and their quake resistant attributes have been many. These studies are now materializing even in brick-and-mortar buildings like

1665-545: The start of the Heian period . The temples in Nara remained powerful beyond the move of political capital, thus giving Nara a synonym of "Nanto" (meaning "South Capital") as opposed to Heian-kyō, situated in the north. Close to the end of Heian period, Taira no Shigehira , a son of Taira no Kiyomori , was ordered by his father to depress the power of various parties, mainly Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji , who were backing up an opposition group headed by Prince Mochihito . The movement led to

1710-579: The time) named Nara was established in the Meiji Restoration in 1868 as successor to the shogunate administration of the shogunate city and shogunate lands in Yamato. After the 1871 Abolition of the han system , Nara was merged with other prefectures (from former han, see List of Han#Yamato Province ) and cleared of ex-/enclaves to encompass all of Yamato province. In 1876, Nara was merged into Sakai which in turn became part of Osaka in 1881. In 1887, Nara became independent again, with Saisho Atsushi as

1755-454: The whole province of Yamato got drawn into the confusion of the Sengoku period . Tōdai-ji was once again set on fire in 1567, when Matsunaga Hisahide , who was later appointed by Oda Nobunaga to the lord of Yamato Province, fought for supremacy against his former master Miyoshi family . Followed by short appointments of Tsutsui Junkei and Toyotomi Hidenaga by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to the lord,

1800-424: Was a mere 1.0%, only above mining, which is quasi-inexistent in Nara. The culture of Nara is tied to the Kansai region in which it is located. However, like each of the other prefectures of Kansai, Nara has unique aspects to its culture, parts of which stem from its long history dating back to the Nara period. There are large differences in dialect between the north/central region of the prefecture, where Nara city

1845-475: Was developed on the basis that pagodas rarely topple during earthquakes. More recently in San Francisco the renovation of 680 Folsom Street, a fourteen-story 1960s steel building, inspired an ultra-modern iteration of the shinbashira: an 8-million-pound structural concrete core that can freely pivot atop a single sliding friction-pendulum bearing during a large earthquake. Tipping Mar, the engineering firm behind

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1890-419: Was its political center. Ancient capitals of Japan were built on the land of Nara, namely Asuka-kyō , Fujiwara-kyō (694–710) and Heijō-kyō (most of 710–784). The capital cities of Fujiwara and Heijō are believed to have been modeled after Chinese capitals at the time, incorporating grid layout patterns. The royal court also established relations with Sui and then Tang dynasty China and sent students to

1935-405: Was officially created in 1887 when it became independent of Osaka Prefecture . Historically, Nara Prefecture was also known as Yamato-no-kuni or Yamato Province. From the third century to the fourth century, a poorly documented political force existed at the foot of Mount Miwa , east of Nara Basin. It sought unification of most parts in Japan. Since the historical beginning of Japan, Yamato

1980-479: Was only established in 1898 when Nara Town from Soekami District was made district-independent to become Nara City (see List of mergers in Nara Prefecture and List of mergers in Osaka Prefecture ). The economic dependency to Osaka even characterizes today's Nara Prefecture, for many inhabitants commute to Osaka to work or study there. Nara Prefecture is part of the Kansai , or Kinki, region of Japan, and

2025-480: Was ¥3.8 trillion, an 0.1% growth over previous year. The per capita income was ¥2.6 million, which is a 1.3% decrease from previous year. The 2004 total gross prefecture product (GPP) for Nara was ¥3.8 trillion, an 0.1% growth over previous year. Manufacturing has the biggest share in the GPP of Nara with 20.2% of share, followed by services (19.1%) and real estates (16.3%). The share of agriculture including forestry and fishery

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