Asuka, Nara

Asuka is a village in Takaichi District in Nara Prefecture, Japan, with an estimated population of 5,681 across 24.08 square kilometers as of April 2017. It occupies the area where the ancient Asuka palaces stood during the Asuka period of Japanese history, and in 1966 was designated a historic town under Japanese preservation law alongside Kyoto, Nara city and Kamakura, with a national historic park built there between 1966 and 1994; a 1980 law compensates residents for the strict construction rules the designation imposes. The village, formed by a 1956 merger of three communities, contains numerous kofun burial mounds, including the Ishibutai Kofun, and carved granite megaliths of uncertain purpose.