Omiya, Saitama
Encyclopedia
was a city in Saitama Prefecture
Saitama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Saitama.This prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, and most of Saitama's cities can be described as suburbs of Tokyo, to which a large amount of residents commute each day.- History...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. In 2001 it merged with two other cities to form the city of Saitama
Saitama, Saitama
' is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture in Japan, situated in the south-east of the prefecture. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance...

. Since 1 April 2003, the area of former Ōmiya city is Kita-ku
Kita-ku, Saitama
is a ward of Saitama city, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, occupying the northern part of the city. It is surrounded by Minuma-ku , Ōmiya-ku , Nishi-ku of Saitama city and Ageo city .-History:...

, Minuma-ku
Minuma-ku, Saitama
is a ward of Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, occupying the northeastern part of the city. It is surrounded by Iwatsuki-ku , Midori-ku , Urawa-ku , Ōmiya-ku , Kita-ku of Saitama city and cities of Ageo and Hasuda .-History:Until May 1, 2001 it was an eastern part of Ōmiya city...

, Nishi-ku
Nishi-ku, Saitama
is one of the ten wards of Saitama located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.-External links:*...

, and Ōmiya-ku
Omiya-ku, Saitama
is a ward of Saitama city, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It is in the Greater Tokyo Area and about 25 km north of central Tokyo. Ōmiya-ku is surrounded by Nishi-ku , Kita-ku , Minuma-ku , Urawa-ku , Chūō-ku , and Sakura-ku of Saitama city.Ōmiya-ku is the most active commercial and business centre in...

 of Saitama city.

Origin and pre-modern history

Ōmiya is an indigenous Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 word which can be decomposed to Ō (大, kun'yomi (Japanese reading) おお: large, great) and miya (宮, kun'yomi み-や: noble or holy - house; palace or shrine) after the Hikawa Shrine.

The town was on the Nakasendō
Nakasendo
The , also called the , was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo to Kyoto in Japan. There were 69 stations between Edo and Kyoto, crossing through Musashi, Kōzuke, Shinano, Mino and Ōmi provinces...

, a main national road in the feudal Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 and the predecessor to a part of National Highway Route 17
Route 17 (Japan)
National Route 17 is a highway on the island of Honshū in Japan. It originates at Nihonbashi in Chūō, Tokyo and terminates in the city of Niigata , where it meets Routes 7, 8, 49, 113 and 116)....

, and the Takasaki Line
Takasaki Line
The is a Japanese railway line which runs between Ōmiya Station in Saitama, Saitama Prefecture and Takasaki Station in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. It is owned and operated by the East Japan Railway Company ....

. Its name was derived from the famous shrine.

Modern Ōmiya

The town
Towns of Japan
A town is a local administrative unit in Japan. It is a local public body along with prefecture , city , and village...

 of Ōmiya as a modern municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 was founded in 1899.

After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kanto earthquake
The struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST on September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthquake was between 4 and 10 minutes...

 bonsai nurseries relocated from Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 and formed the bonsai village
Omiya Bonsai Village
is the nickname for the bonsai nursery precinct in , Kita-ku, Saitama, Japan.Bonsai Village is located near Ōmiya-kōen Station on the Tobu Noda Line...

.

In 1940, the town merged with several surrounding villages
Villages of Japan
A is a local administrative unit in Japan.It is a local public body along with , , and . Geographically, a village's extent is contained within a prefecture....

 to form the city of Ōmiya.

Saitama City era

On 1 May 2001 it merged with Urawa
Urawa, Saitama
was a city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, until it merged into the city of Saitama together with two other cities, Omiya and Yono, on May 1, 2001. In 2003, the former area of Urawa became Urawa-ku, Midori-ku, Minami-ku, and Sakura-ku, which are wards of the city of Saitama...

 and Yono
Yono, Saitama
was a city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. The town of Yono began on April 1, 1889. On July 15, 1958, Yono became a city. The city existed between cities of Urawa and Ōmiya. On May 1, 2001 it merged with Ōmiya and Urawa to form the new capital City of Saitama...

 to form Saitama city.

On 1 April 2003, when Saitama became a designated city
City designated by government ordinance (Japan)
A , also known as a or , is a Japanese city that has a population greater than 500,000 and has been designated as such by an order of the cabinet of Japan under Article 252, Section 19 of the Local Autonomy Law.-Overview:...

, the former area of Ōmiya city was sectored into Kita-ku, Minuma-ku, Nishi-ku and Ōmiya-ku.

External links

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