Suzuka, Mie

Suzuka is a city in northeastern Mie Prefecture, in the northern Kii Peninsula, bordered by Ise Bay to the east, with parts of its territory inside the Ise-no-Umi Prefectural Natural Park and the Suzuka Quasi-National Park. Suzuka as a place name appears in the Nara period chronicle Nihon Shoki, the ancient Tōkaidō passed through it and the provincial capital of the Nara period lay within its borders. In the Edo period much of the area belonged to the Kanbe Domain, ruled by the Honda clan from 1732, and two post stations, Ishiyakushi-juku and Shōno-juku, prospered on pilgrimage traffic to the Ise Grand Shrine. The town of Kanbe, formed in 1889, merged with thirteen villages on 1 December 1942 to create the city of Suzuka, which annexed further villages in 1954. As of 2020 it had an estimated 197,977 residents on 194.46 square kilometres.