Understand
When Japan's prefecture system was inagurated in the first years of the Meiji era, most of the modern prefectures were made out of one or two of the old Japanese provinces Hiroshima was once the provinces of Bingo and Aki, Nara was once the province of Yamato. Hyogo, however, inherited three whole provinces and sections of two others. These include:
Tajima - In the north of Hyogo along the Sea of Japan
Harima - In the southwest of Hyogo along the Inland Sea, home to Himeji
Awaji Island - At the entrance of the Inland Sea, culturally linked to Shikoku
Tamba - Shared with Kyoto Prefecture, in the northweast of Hyogo
Settsu - Shared with Osaka Prefecture, home to Kobe and the Hanshin area
While these provinces no longer exist in any administrative sense, they came in to Hyogo with distinct regional dialects and identities. This combination has made Hyogo one of the most geographically and culturally diverse prefectures in Japan, and the only one to span the width of the central island of Honshu.
