Takatsuki

Takatsuki is a city in the northeastern part of Osaka Prefecture, Japan, set between Osaka and Kyoto and about 21 kilometres from the centre of each. It covers 105.29 square kilometres, rising from the Yodo River in the south to the Hokusetsu mountains in the north, and had an estimated population of 348,020 on 31 March 2023. The area has been settled continuously since the Paleolithic period, and the Imashirozuka Kofun burial mound, from which haniwa clay figurines of warriors were recovered, is its best known monument. The place name first appears around the 14th century in a list of manors of Kasuga Shrine in Nara, and in the Edo period a castle town grew around Takatsuki Castle. The municipality began as a village in 1889, became a town in 1898 and a city on 1 January 1943. Today it is a major commuter town for both larger cities and holds a large jazz festival every Golden Week.