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Kodama, Saitama

Kodama (児玉町) was a town located in Kodama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 21,252 and a density of 401.06 persons per km2. The total area was 52.99 km2.

On January 10, 2006, Kodama was merged into the expanded city of Honjō and no longer exists as an independent municipality.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Kodama, Saitama


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Kamikawa, Saitama

Kamikawa (神川町) is a town located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 13,369 in 5774 households and a population density of 280 persons per km2. The total area of the town is 47.40 sqkm.

Geography
Kamikawa is located on the extreme western border of Saitama Prefecture, separated from Gunma Prefecture by the Kanna River, and isolated from the remainder of Saitama by the Chichibu Mountains.

Surrounding municipalities
Saitama Prefecture Gunma Prefecture
 * Honjō
 * Chichibu
 * Kamisato
 * Minano
 * Fujioka

Climate
Kamikawa has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kamikawa is 12.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2028 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.3 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Kamikawa has remained relatively steady over the past 70 years.

History
The area around Kamikawa was part of ancient Musashi Province. The village of Tanshō was created within Kami District, Saitama and the villages of Wakaizumi and Aoyagi were created within Kodama District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Kami District was abolished in 1896, becoming part of Kodama District. On December 1, 1949, Wakaizumi split into Watarase and Aguhara. On May 3, 1954, the Tanshō and Aoyagi merged to form the village of Kamikawa. Kamikawa annexed Watarase on May 3, 1957, and was elevated to town status on October 1, 1987. On January 1, 2006, Kamikawa merged with neighboring Kamiizumi village.

Government
Kamikawa has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 12 members. Kamikawa, together with the city of Honjō and town of Kamisato, contributes two members to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Saitama 11th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy
Kamikawa has some light manufacturing; however, many people commute to neighboring Honjō.

Education
Kamikawa has four public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Railway
JR East - Hachikō Line
 * Tanshō

Local attractions

 * Kanasana Shrine
 * Mizube Koen
 * Sanba Gorge
 * Shimokubo Dam
 * Shinsui Dam

title: Kamikawa, Saitama


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Kamiizumi, Saitama

Kamiizumi (神泉村) was a village located in Kodama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the village has an estimated population of 1,315 and a density of 54.23 persons per km2. The total area is 24.25 km2.

On January 1, 2006, Kamiizumi, was merged into the expanded town of Kamikawa.

title: Kamiizumi, Saitama


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Finial

A finial (from finis, end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.

In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, tower, roof, or gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. A finial is typically carved in stone. Where there are several such elements they may be called pinnacles. The very top of a finial can be a floral or foliated element called a bouquet.

Smaller finials in materials such as metal or wood are used as a decorative ornament on the tops or ends of poles or rods such as tent-poles or curtain rods or any object such as a piece of furniture. These are frequently seen on top of bed posts or clocks. Decorative finials are also commonly used to fasten lampshades, and as an ornamental element at the end of the handles of souvenir spoons. The charm at the end of a pull chain (such as for a ceiling fan or a lamp) is also known as a finial.

On roofs
Decorative roof-finials are a common feature of Malaysian religious and residential architecture. In Malacca, Malaysia, there are 38 mosques with traditional roof finials, with layered and crown-shaped designs, which are known as Makhota Atap Masjid. On mosques built after the 20th century, these finials have been replaced by "bulbous domes". Other terms for roof finials include: Tunjuk Langit and Buah Buton (East Coast) as well as Buah Gutung (Kelantan and Terengganu). The Makhota Atap Masjid finials are made of mixed concrete, and the Buah Buton are made of wood.

In Japanese architecture, chigi are finials that were used atop Shinto shrines in Ise and Izumo and the  imperial palace.

In Java and Bali, a rooftop finial is known as mustaka or kemuncak.

In Thailand finials feature on domestic and religious buildings. Hti is a kind of finial found on Burmese Buddhist temples and pagodas. On Buddhist stupas, the layered umbrella (Skt. chhatra; Pali: chhatta) tiers have cosmological significance as representing the realms of heavens or the trunk of a cosmic tree. Even the stupa itself (comparatively smaller) can be a finial to a Stupa or other Buddhist religious structure.

The kalasha is a finial on Hindu temples. In the Dravidian style of temple architecture, the kalasha is placed on top of a dome with an inverted lotus flower shape in between. There may also be lotus petals at the top, before the kalasha narrows to a single point, or bindu.

There are two guldastas, or finials, per facade at Humayun's Tomb.

Finials are decorative elements in a variety of American domestic architectural styles, including French colonial, Georgian, Victorian, and Romanesque Revival.

Roof finials can be made from a variety of materials including clay, metal, or wood.

A folklore tradition in the eastern United States portrays finials as discouraging witches on broomsticks from landing locally.

Flagpoles
A "ball-style" finial is often mounted to the top of a stationary flagpole. The United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard employ a variety of different finials depending on the flag in question, the Marines and Coast Guard deferring to the Navy's protocols.

Bed posts and curtain rods
Public garden (park) railings often end in finials, and wooden posts tend to have turned wood finials. Turned wood finials are used on various pieces of furniture. While the purpose of finials on bed posts is mostly decorative, they serve a purpose on curtain rods, providing a way to keep a curtain from slipping off the end of a straight rod.

Curtain rod finials can be seen to act much like a barometer of public taste. Many designs hark back to the Gothic and Neogothic of architectural finials, while other contemporary finials reflect minimalist, Art Nouveau, and other traditional styles of decor. The use of different materials is as wide as the range of designs with brass, stainless steel, various woods, and aluminum being employed with a variety of finishes such as 'satin steel' and 'antique brass'. The durability, strength, and machinability of modern alloys have lent themselves to increasingly intricate and dazzling designs.

Use as headgear
During the various dynasties in China, a finial was worn on the tops of the hats civil or military officials wore during formal court ceremonies. The finial was changed to a knob for other daily usage (including semi-formal ceremonies). The Pickelhaube is a Central European military helmet with a finial topped by a spike.

title: Finial


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Kamisato, Saitama

Kamisato (上里町) is a town located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 30,836 in 13,055 households and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the town is 29.18 sqkm.

Geography
Kamisato is located on the extreme northwestern border of Saitama Prefecture, separated from Gunma Prefecture by the Kanna River, and isolated from the remainder of Saitama by the Chichibu Mountains.

Surrounding municipalities

 * Saitama Prefecture
 * Honjō
 * Kamikawa
 * Gunma Prefecture
 * Takasaki
 * Fujioka
 * Tamamura

Climate
Kamisato has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kamisato is 12.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1532 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.3 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Kamisato has recently plateaued after a long period of growth.

History
The area of Kamisato was part of ancient Musashi Province. The villages of Jimbohara, Kami, Shichihongi and Nagahata were created within Kodama District with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Kamisato village was created on May 3, 1954 by the merger of these four villages. Kamisato was elevated to town status on November 3, 1971.

Government
Kamisato has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 14 members. Kamisato, together with the city of Honjō and town of Kamikawa, contributes two members to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Saitama 11th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy
Kamisato has a large industrial park in the southeastern corner; however, many people commute to neighboring Takasaki or Fujioka.

Education
Kamisato has five public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

There is also an international school, the Instituto Educacional TS Recreação Brazilian school.

Railway
JR East – Takasaki Line
 * Jimbohara

Highway

 * – Kamisato IC

title: Kamisato, Saitama


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Kodama District, Saitama

Kodama (児玉郡) is a district located in Saitama, Japan.

As of October 1, 2004, the district has an estimated population of 79,096. The total area is 163.10 km2.

There are three towns located side by side with the city of Honjō.
 * Kamikawa
 * Kamisato
 * Misato

Municipal Timeline

 * On January 1, 2006 the village of Kamiizumi merged with the old town of Kamikawa to form the new town of Kamikawa.

 * On January 10, 2006 the town of Kodama merged with the old city of Honjō to form the new city of Honjō.

title: Kodama District, Saitama


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Tsuki

Tsuki (突き) derives from the verb tsuku (突く), meaning "to thrust". The second syllable is accented, with Japanese's unvoiced vowels making it pronounced almost like "ski" (but preceded by a "t" sound). In Japanese martial arts and Okinawan martial arts, tsuki is used to refer to various thrusting techniques.

Tsuki in Karate

In karate and its variants, the term tsuki is used as a part of a compound word for any one of a variety of thrusting techniques (usually punches). It is never used as a stand-alone term to describe a discrete technique. For example, gyaku seiken chudan-tsuki, more commonly referred to as chudan-tsuki (段突), refers to a mid-level (chudan) punch (tsuki) executed with the rear (gyaku) arm. Note that in a compound word, where tsuki does not come first, its pronunciation and writing changes slightly due to rendaku, and it is pronounced as "zuki" (and is sometimes transliterated that way).

Performing a Choku-Tsuki (Straight Punch) in Karate
The choku-tsuki (直突き) – straight punch—is a basic karate technique. It is performed by closing the hand in a fist. Target contact is made with the first two knuckles of the fore-fist, with the fist rotated slightly, both externally and downwards, so as to align the wrist directly behind the first two knuckles. For a right choku-tsuki, the right fist is chambered at a preparatory position, at the hips or by the ribs, with the palm side of the fist pointed upwards. At the same time, the left arm is extended in front of the left hip. To perform the choku-tsuki technique, the right fist is thrust forward in a direct path toward the target, with the elbow directly behind the fist and tracing the fist's path. At the same time, the left fist is pulled back to a chambered position at the hip or at the rib cage. The extending fist remains palm up until the last two inches of the punch, during which it rotates to face down. The elbow remains pointed down, since allowing the elbow to rotate to the side or upwards exposes it to injury from either self-inflicted hyperextension, or from a stiff block by the opponent. Ideally, the fist contacts the target in a vertical to a 45 degree rotated position, with the rest of the fist's rotation taking place following initial contact.

Karate gives special emphasis to the withdrawing hand – hikite (引き手) – which pulls back as the thrusting arm punches. Practitioners are advised to pay as much attention to the pullback action as to the extension of the main punch. Different karate styles will have slightly different pullback chambering positions, varying from as low as on top of the hip, to as high as the armpit.

A straight punch executed from a front stance (zenkutsu-dachi) is called gyaku-tsuki (逆突き, reverse punch) if the advanced leg and fist are on opposite sides, or oi-tsuki (追い突き, forward punch or lunge punch) if the leg and fist are on the same side.

Tsuki Power Generation
The mechanism of power generation in thrusting techniques varies with karate style. Various karate styles and, in particular, Okinawan karate, emphasize the use of the entire body to generate the power that is delivered through the punch. This can include sequencing the activation of muscles, from lower body to upper body, to create a "wave" of power. In those styles, the body is typically well aligned and relaxed throughout the strike. On the other hand, Japanese karate styles, such as Shotokan, emphasize the movement of the hips as the main mean for generating power: The hips twist as the withdrawing (non-punching) hikite arm is pulled back while the punching arm is pushed forward, and the karateka is taught to tense the whole body and to push down his or her rear leg as the punch makes contact.

Other Examples of Tsuki Techniques
Other examples of basic tsuki techniques in karate include the following:

 * Age-tsuki (上げ突き), rising punch
 * Kagi-tsuki (鉤突き), hook punch
 * Mawashi-tsuki (回し突き), roundhouse punch
 * Morote-tsuki (双手突き), augmented punch using both hands
 * Jun-tsuki (順突き), punch with the lead arm when stationary or moving back/away
 * Tate-tsuki (立て突き), vertical fist punch into the middle of the chest (short-range)
 * Ura-tsuki (裏突き), upside-down fist punch into solar plexus area (short-range)
 * Yama-tsuki (山突き) or Rete-zuki, two-level double punch (combination of ura-zuki and jodan oi zuki)

Tsuki in Aikido and Aiki-jo
In aikidō, choku-zuki (straight punch, as described above) is a basic thrusting attack from which throwing and pinning skills are taught. However, because in most aikidō schools the straight punch is the predominant punch from which defensive techniques are taught, there is little need to differentiate it from any other punch. Thus, it is shortened and simply called tsuki.

In the aiki-jō practiced in some systems of aikido and utilizing a four-foot wooden staff (jō), tsuki is used literally as part of the name of numerous thrusting techniques with the jō. With the student standing in hidari katate-gamae, the weapon is lifted to the right hand, which slides to the bottom end of the weapon. The student shuffle steps forward (suri-ashi) and the right hand pushes the weapon for the strike, allowing it to slide in the left hand, and coming to rest with the left hand gripping the jō one third the distance from the bottom end. Picture striking a billiard ball with a cue stick, except both hands grip the jō with palms down, and thumbs forward.

Tsuki in Kendo
Tsuki is one of the five target areas (datotsu-bui) in kendo (along with men, do, hidari kote and migi kote). It is a thrust of the point of the shinai to the throat. The target area (datotsu-bui) for tsuki is the tsuki-bu, a multi-layered set of flaps, attached to the men (helmet) that protects the throat.

Tsuki is most often done with a two handed grip (morote-zuki (諸手突き)) and less often with only the left hand (katate-zuki (片手突き)).

Tsuki is often disallowed for younger and lower graded players in free practice and in competition (shiai) due to the higher risk of injury, as a missed tsuki attack can hit the opponent’s unprotected neck and hurt his or her windpipe.

While variants of tsuki exist in other martial arts, in kendo it has no variants—the target is always the same.

Unlike most other martial arts that use this term, in kendo, tsuki is a comprehensive term for both the movement and the target. Unlike with other strikes in kendo, the kiai for this strike is not the name of the target (the neck, or kubi) but rather the name of the attack (tsuki).

title: Tsuki


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User:Click me

This is Tuzla sign made by Dragiša Trifković

title: User:Click me


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Ōsato, Saitama

Ōsato (大里町) was a town located in Ōsato District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 8,325 and a density of 534.34 persons per km2. The total area was 15.58 km2.

On October 1, 2005, Ōsato, along with the town of Menuma (also from Ōsato District), was merged into the expanded city of Kumagaya and no longer exists as an independent municipality.

title: Ōsato, Saitama


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Kōnan, Saitama

Kōnan (江南町) was a town located in Ōsato District, Saitama, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 13,826 and a density of 605.08 persons per km2. The total area is 22.34 km2.

On February 13, 2007, Kōnan was merged into the expanded city of Kumagaya and no longer exists as an independent municipality.

title: Kōnan, Saitama


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Ushas

Ushas (Vedic Sanskrit: उषस्,, nominative singular उषाः ) is a Vedic goddess of dawn in Hinduism. She repeatedly appears in the Rigvedic hymns, states David Kinsley, where she is "consistently identified with dawn, revealing herself with the daily coming of light to the world, driving away oppressive darkness, chasing away evil demons, rousing all life, setting all things in motion, sending everyone off to do their duties". She is the life of all living creatures, the impeller of action and breath, the foe of chaos and confusion, the auspicious arouser of cosmic and moral order called the Ṛta in Hinduism.

Ushas is the most exalted goddess in the Rig Veda, but not as important or central as the three male Vedic deities Agni, Soma, and Indra. She is on par with other major male Vedic deities. She is portrayed as a beautifully adorned young woman riding in a golden chariot or a hundred chariots, drawn by golden red horses or cows, on her path across the sky, making way for the Vedic sun god Surya, who is referred either as her husband or her son. Some of the most beautiful hymns in the Vedas are dedicated to her. Her sister is "Nisha" or Ratri, the deity of night.

Etymology
Vedic  is derived from the word uṣá which means "dawn". This word comes from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hušā́s ("ušā" in Avestan), which in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éusōs ("dawn"), and is related to "ēṓs" in Greek and "aušrà" in Lithuanian. It is also the basis for the word "east" in Indo-European traditions, state Mallory and Adams.

Uṣás is an s-stem, i.e. the genitive case is , whereby it connotes "dawn goddess" in Indo-European languages. Ushas is related to the Proto-Indo-European goddess . Her cognates in other Indo-European pantheons include the Greek goddess Eos, the Roman goddess Aurora, the Lithuanian goddess Aušrinė, and the English goddess Ēostre (OE: ēastre), whose name is probably the root of the modern English word "Easter."

Description
Ushas is the prominent goddess of dawn in the Vedas. She is depicted as the one who imbues life to all beings, as the "life of all life" and "breath of all breaths", according to Jones and Ryan. She is revered as the deity who revivifies earth each day, drives away the chaos and the darkness, sets all things in motion, sends all living beings to do their duties in the Vedas.

Ushas is the most important goddess in the Vedic literature, but she is not as important as the three central male deities named Agni, Soma, and Indra. She is mentioned in far fewer hymns than these three, but at least as much as all other male and female deities in the Vedas.

Rigveda
Ushas is mentioned in numerous hymns of the Rigveda. Forty of its hymns are dedicated to her, while her name appears in other additional hymns. She is thanked for and petitioned for driving away darkness in hymns 7.78, 6.64 and 10.172; bringer of light urged by Surya in hymn 3.61, and the chaser of evil demons in hymn 8.47. The Rigvedic hymn 1.48 describes her as drawn in a hundred chariots, revealed by the daily arrival of light, one who sets all motion to life and all life to motion, rousing people off to their duties. She is revered for giving strength in hymn 1.44, to Ṛta in hymn 3.61 and 7.75, and participating in daily restoration of order and fighting chaotic forces that threaten the world in hymn 1.113.

Ushas is described in Vedic texts as riding in a shining chariot drawn by golden-red horses or cows, a beautiful maiden bedecked with jewels, smiling and irresistibly attractive, who brings cheer to all those who gaze upon her. She dispels darkness, reveals treasures and truths that have been hidden, illuminates the world as it is. Hymn 6.64 associates her with wealth and light, while hymn 1.92 calls her the "mother of cows" and one, who like a cow, gives to the benefit of all people. Hymn 1.113 calls her "mother of the gods", while hymn 7.81 states her to be the mother of all living beings who petition her. She is the goddess of the hearth, states hymn 6.64. She symbolizes reality, is a marker of time and a reminder to all that "life is limited on earth". She sees everything as it is, and she is the eye of the gods, according to hymns 7.75–77.

She is variously mentioned as the sister of Ratri (night), Aditya and one who goes about her ways closely with deities Savitri and Surya. She is also associated with Varuna (sky, water) and Agni (fire).

In RV 6.64.1-2 (trans. Jamison), Ushas is invoked as follows:

Vedic: 1. úd u śriyá uṣáso rócamānā ásthur apā́ṃ nórmáyo rúśantaḥ kr̥ṇóti víśvā supáthā sugā́ny ábhūd u vásvī dákṣiṇā maghónī 2. bhadrā́ dadr̥kṣa urviyā́ ví bhāsy út te śocír bhānávo dyā́m apaptan āvír vákṣaḥ kr̥ṇuṣe śumbʰámānóṣo devi rócamānā máhobhiḥ

English translation:

1. The shining Dawns have arisen for splendor, glistening like the waves of the waters. She makes all pathways, all passages easy to travel. She has appeared— the good priestly gift, the bounteous one. 2. Auspicious, you have become visible; you radiate widely. Your flare, your radiant beams have flown up to heaven. You reveal your breast as you go in beauty, goddess Dawn, shining with all your might.

In the "family books" of the Rig Veda (e.g. RV 6.64.5), Ushas is the divine daughter—a  —of Dyaus Pita ("Sky Father").

5. Convey (it)—you who as the unsurpassable one with your oxen convey the boon at your pleasure, Dawn, you who are a goddess, o Daughter of Heaven. Become worthy to be seen with your munificence at the early invocation!

Contemporary reverence
The revered Gayatri mantra, states George Williams, remains a daily reminder of Ushas in contemporary Hinduism.

According to Sri Aurobindo, Ushas is "the medium of the awakening, the activity and the growth of the other gods; she is the first condition of the Vedic realisation. By her increasing illumination the whole nature of man is clarified; through her [mankind] arrives at the Truth, through her he enjoys [Truth's] beatitude."

Ushas is regionally worshipped during the festival of Chhath Puja, in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (India), and in Nepal.

title: Ushas


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Menuma, Saitama

Menuma (妻沼町) was a town located in Ōsato District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 27,522 and a density of 758.81 persons per km2. The total area was 36.27 km2.

On October 1, 2005, Menuma, along with the town of Ōsato (also from Ōsato District), was merged into the expanded city of Kumagaya. As such, the town no longer exists as an independent municipality.

title: Menuma, Saitama


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Okabe, Saitama

Okabe (岡部町) was a town located in Ōsato District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2005, the town had an estimated population of 18,754 and a density of 613.07 persons per km2. The total area was 30.59 km2.

On January 1, 2006, Okabe, along with the towns of Hanazono and Kawamoto (all from Ōsato District), was merged into the expanded city of Fukaya.

title: Okabe, Saitama


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Kawamoto, Saitama

Kawamoto (川本町) was a town located in Ōsato District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2005, the town had an estimated population of 12,120 and a density of 556.7 persons per km2. The total area was 21.77 km2.

On January 1, 2006, Kawamoto, along with the towns of Hanazono and Okabe (all from Ōsato District), was merged into the expanded city of Fukaya.

title: Kawamoto, Saitama


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Hanazono, Saitama

Hanazono (花園町) was a town located in Ōsato District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2004, the town had an estimated population of 12,740 and a density of 805.31 persons per km2. The total area was 15.82 km2.

On January 1, 2006, Hanazono, along with the towns of Kawamoto and Okabe (all from Ōsato District), was merged into the expanded city of Fukaya.

title: Hanazono, Saitama


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Yorii, Saitama

Yorii (寄居町) is a town in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 32,851 in 14,689 households and a population density of 510 persons per km2. The total area of the town is 64.25 sqkm.

Geography
Located in northwestern Saitama Prefecture, Yorii is on the central reaches of the Arakawa River, just downstream of Nagatoro, and is approximately 70 kilometers from downtown Tokyo.

Surrounding municipalities
Saitama Prefecture
 * Fukaya
 * Misato
 * Ranzan
 * Ogawa
 * Minano
 * Nagatoro
 * Higashichichibu

Climate
Yorii has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ageo is 13.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1746 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.2 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Yorii peaked around the year 2000 and had declined since.

History
Yorii developed as a post station on the pilgrimage route to the temples of the Chichibu area from the Kamakura period, and was a castle town to Hachigata Castle during the Sengoku period. The town of Yorii was created within Hanzawa District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Hanzawa District was abolished in 1896, becoming part of Ōsato District.

In February 1955, the town expanded by annexing the neighboring villages of Orihara, Hachigata, Obusuma, and Yodo.

Government
Yorii has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 16 members. Yorii, together with the town of Misato and city of Fukaya, contributes three members to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Saitama 11th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy
Honda has an automobile assembly plant in Yorii, which is a major local employer.

Education
Yorii has six public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education.

Railway
Chichibu Railway - Chichibu Main Line Tobu Railway – Tōbu Tōjō Line JR East – Hachikō Line
 * Sakurazawa – Yorii – Hagure
 * Minami-Yorii – Obusuma - Hachigata - Tamayodo| - Yorii
 * Orihara - Yorii - Yōdo

Sister city relations

 * 🇺🇸 Marysville, Ohio since 2013.

Local attractions

 * Hachigata Castle
 * Saitama Museum of Rivers
 * Tamayodo Dam
 * Tsuburada Dam

Noted people from Yorii

 * Chizuru Arai, Olympic gold medal judoka
 * Kazuichi Hanawa, Mangaka

title: Yorii, Saitama


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Ōsato District, Saitama

Ōsato (大里郡) is a district located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 130,305 and a population density of 629.34 persons per km2. The total area is 207.05 km2.

Towns

 * Yorii

Mergers

 * On October 1, 2005, the towns of Ōsato and Menuma merged into the city of Kumagaya.
 * On January 1, 2006, the towns of Hanazono, Kawamoto and Okabe merged into the city of Fukaya.
 * On February 13, 2007, the town of Kōnan merged into the city of Kumagaya.

title: Ōsato District, Saitama


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Kisai, Saitama

Kisai (騎西町) was a town located in Kitasaitama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 20,105 and a density of 702.97 persons per km2. The total area was 28.60 km2.

On March 23, 2010, Kisai, along with the towns of Kitakawabe and Ōtone (all from Kitasaitama District), was merged into the expanded city of Kazo. Kitasaitama District was dissolved as a result of this merger.

title: Kisai, Saitama


text:
Minamikawara, Saitama

Minamikawara (南河原村) was a village located in Kitasaitama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

On January 1, 2006, Minamikawara was merged into the expanded city of Gyōda.

As of 2003, the village had an estimated population of 4,098 and a density of 704.12 PD/sqkm. The total area is 5.82 sqkm.

title: Minamikawara, Saitama


text:
Kawasato, Saitama

Kawasato (川里町) was a town located in Kitasaitama District, Saitama, Japan.

As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 7,909 and a density of 477.02 persons per km2. The total area is 16.58 km2.

On October 1, 2005, Kawasato, along with the town of Fukiage (from Kitaadachi District), was merged into the expanded city of Kōnosu.

title: Kawasato, Saitama


text:
Kitakawabe, Saitama

Kitakawabe (北川辺町) was a town located in Kitasaitama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of June 1, 2009, the town had an estimated population of 12,763 and a density of 608 persons per km2. The total area was 21.00 km2.

On March 23, 2010, Kitakawabe, along with the towns of Kisai and Ōtone (all from Kitasaitama District), was merged into the expanded city of Kazo. Kitasaitama District was dissolved as a result of this merger.

title: Kitakawabe, Saitama


text:
Ōtone, Saitama

Ōtone (大利根町) was a town located in Kitasaitama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of January 1, 2008, the town had an estimated population of 14,855 and a density of 607.07 persons per km2. The total area was 24.47 km2.

On March 23, 2010, Ōtone, along with the towns of Kisai, Kitakawabe (all from Kitasaitama District), was merged into the expanded city of Kazo. Kitasaitama District was dissolved as a result of this merger.

title: Ōtone, Saitama


text:
Kita-Saitama District, Saitama

Kita-Saitama District (北埼玉郡) was a district located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

Prior to its abolition, Kita-Saitama District had three towns:
 * Town of Kisai (騎西町; Kisai-machi)
 * Town of Kitakawabe (北川辺町; Kitakawabe-machi)
 * Town of Ōtone (大利根町; Ōtone-machi)

On March 23, 2010, all three towns merged with the city of Kazo to newly create the city of Kazo and the district dissolved. As a result, it was the first district to dissolve within Saitama Prefecture since the districts were reorganized in 1896.

Timeline

 * January 1, 1971 - The village of Ōtone becomes the town of Ōtone.(2 towns, 3 village)
 * April 1, 1971 - The village of Kitakawabe becomes the town of Kitakawabe.(3 towns, 2 village)
 * May 1, 2001 - The village of Kawasato becomes the town of Kawasato. (4 towns, 1 village)
 * October 1, 2005 - The town of Kawasato merged into the city of Kōnosu. (3 towns, 1 village)
 * January 1, 2006 - The village of Minamikawara merged into the city of Gyōda. (3 towns)
 * March 23, 2010 - The towns of Kisai, Kitakawabe, and Ōtone merged with the city of Kazo to newly form the city of Kazo. Kita-Saitama District was dissolved the same day.

title: Kita-Saitama District, Saitama


text:
Miyashiro, Saitama

Miyashiro (宮代町) is a town located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 33,823 in 15,234 households and a population density of 2100 persons per km2. The total area of the town is 15.95 sqkm.

Geography
Miyashiro is located in central-west Saitama Prefecture.

Surrounding municipalities
Saitama Prefecture
 * Kasukabe
 * Shiraoka
 * Kuki
 * Sugito

Climate
Miyashiro has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Miyashiro is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1408 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.7 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Miyashiro has recently plateaued after a long period of growth.

History
The villages of Monma and Suka were created within Minamisaitama District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The two villages were merged on July 20, 1955 to form the town of Miyashiro. Ina was elevated to town status on November 1, 1970. The origin of the town's name comes from the shrines of the largest villages. "Miya" was taken from Himemiya shrine (姫宮神社) in Himemiya village and "shiro" from Konoshiro shrine (身代神社) in Suka village.

Government
Miyashiro has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 14 members. Miyashiro, together with the city of Shiraoka, contributes one member to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Saitama 11th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy
The economy of Miyashiro is primarily agricultural.

Education

 * Nippon Institute of Technology
 * Miyashiro has four public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Railway
Tōbu Railway - Tōbu Isesaki Line/Tōbu Skytree Line Tōbu Railway - Tōbu Nikkō Line
 * Himemiya - Tōbu-Dōbutsu-Kōen - Wado
 * Tōbu-Dōbutsu-Kōen

Highway
Miyashiro is not located on any national highway or expressway.

Local attractions

 * Tobu Zoo (東武動物公園), a zoological-amusement park complex which is owned by the Tōbu Group.

Noted people and animals from Miyashiro

 * Mariko Kouda, voice actress
 * Grape-Kun (グレープ君 / Gurēpu-kun), Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)

title: Miyashiro, Saitama


text:
Shiraoka, Saitama

Shiraoka (白岡市) is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 52,431 in 21,997 households and a population density of 2100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is 24.92 sqkm.

Geography
Shiraoka is located slightly south of the center of the Kanto Plain in the flatlands eastern Saitama Prefecture and has an almost flat terrain. The highest point in the city is 16 meters above sea level. The Motoara River runs along the city border with Hasuda. Shiraoka is approximately 40 kilometers from downtown Tokyo.,

Surrounding municipalities

 * Saitama Prefecture
 * Kasukabe
 * Saitama
 * Kuki
 * Hasuda
 * Miyoshi

Climate
Shiraoka has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Shiraoka is 14.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1352 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.77 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Shiraoka has increased from the 1980s.

History
The villages of Shinozu and Oyama were created within Minamisaitama District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On September 1, 1965, Shinozu and the neighboring village of Hikachi, together with a part of Oyama merged to form the town of Shiraoka. Shiraoka was elevated to city status on October 1, 2012.

Government
Shiraoka has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 18 members. Shiraoka, together with the town of Miyashiro, contributes one member to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Saitama 13th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Mayors

 * Suguru Kojima (2012-2020)
 * Eiichiro Fujii (from 2020)

Economy
Shiraoka remains primarily an agricultural community; however due to its location, it is increasingly becoming a bedroom community for neighboring Saitama City and the Tokyo metropolis.

Education
Shiraoka has six public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education.

Railway
JR East – Utsunomiya Line
 * Shiraoka - Shin-Shiraoka

Local attractions

 * Shiraoka Hachiman-gu

Noted people from Shiraoka

 * Hiroshi Narahara, professional baseball player
 * Yusuke Suzuki, professional soccer player

title: Shiraoka, Saitama


text:
Shōbu, Saitama

Shōbu (菖蒲町) was a town located in Minamisaitama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 21,837 and a density of 797.84 persons per km2. The total area was 27.67 km2. Shobu is well known among other parts of Saitama for housing the large shopping complex Mallage, which is a source of shopping and enjoyment for many of Shobus' citizens, and has put Shobu on the map. There is a large road, Ken-O expressway which is being built through Shobu at this present time. The famous conservationist, Honda Seiroku, who designed many of Japan's city and National parks was born in Shobu.

On March 23, 2010, Shōbu, along with the towns of Kurihashi and Washimiya (both from Kitakatsushika District), was merged into the expanded city of Kuki.

At Shōbu, there was Shobu-Kuki transmitter, one of the largest stations for AM and shortwave broadcasting in Japan.

title: Shōbu, Saitama


text:
Figure of Insensitivity

Figure of Insensitivity (F of I) is an inverse scale of measure of the impact sensitivity of an explosive substance. In this particular context the term 'Insensitivity' refers to the likelihood of initiation/detonation by impact, friction, electrostatic discharge, application of flame, etc. It is a quantitative measure of the level of stimulus required to cause explosive decomposition.

The figure of insensitivity is determined from impact testing, typically using a drop-weight tower. In this test, a small sample of the explosive is placed on a small steel anvil which is slotted into a recess in the base of the drop tower. A cylindrical, 1 kilogram steel weight (mounted inside a tube to accurately guide its descent to the impact point in the centre of the anvil) is then dropped onto the test specimen from a measured height. The specimen is monitored both during and after this process to determine whether initiation occurs. This test is repeated many times, varying the drop height according to a prescribed method. Various heights are used, starting with a small distance (e.g. 10 cm) and then progressively increasing it to as high as 3 metres. The series of drop heights and whether initiation occurred are analysed statistically to determine the drop height which has a 50% likelihood of initiating the explosives. The intention of these tests is to develop safety policies/rules which will govern the design, manufacturing, handling and storage of the explosive and any munitions containing it.

A reference standard sample of RDX is currently used to calibrate the drop tower, so that the drop height to produce 50% likelihood of initiation in this material is measured and recorded. The drop height required to initiate other explosives can then be related to the RDX standard, so that a ready comparison of impact sensitivity between different explosives can be made. By convention, explosives having a 50% initiation drop height equal to that of RDX are given a F of I of 80.

The scale was originally defined using TNT as the reference standard, with TNT having, by definition, an F of I of exactly 100. On this original scale, RDX yielded an F of I of around 80. Following World War II, when more complex explosive compositions replaced pure TNT as the most common energetic component of weapon systems, RDX was adopted as the reference standard.

Sensitivity should not be confused with Sensitiveness which is a measure of how easy it is to detonate an explosive. In this context an explosive with more sensitiveness requires a smaller detonator or gayne to detonate it.

title: Figure of Insensitivity


text:
Minami-Saitama District, Saitama

Minami-Saitama (南埼玉郡) is a district located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

, the district has an estimated population of 33,405 and a density of 2,090 persons per km2. The total area is 15.95 km2.

Towns and villages

 * Miyashiro

District timeline

 * 1871 (first wave of prefectural mergers): The part of Saitama District that would later become Minami-Saitama becomes completely part of Saitama Prefecture which is named after the district.
 * 1879 (reactivation and reorganization of ancient provincial districts as modern prefectural subdivision): Saitama District is split into North- (Kita-) and South (Minami-) Saitama, the district government of South Saitama is set up in Iwatsuki
 * 1889 (Great Meiji mergers & introduction of modern municipalities): Minami-Saitama is subdivided into 6 towns and 44 villages
 * 1923: The Minami-Saitama district assembly is abolished.
 * 1926: The Minami-Saitama district government is abolished, and it becomes a purely geographical unit.
 * November 3, 1954
 * The town of Iwatsuki gained city status.
 * The town of Koshigaya was created by merging with 2 towns and 8 villages.
 * January 1, 1955 - The town of Washinomiya merged with the village of Sakurada from Kitakatsushika District to form the town of Washinomiya in Kitakatsushika District.
 * July 20, 1955 - The villages of Momoki and Suka merged to form the town of Miyashiro.
 * August 1, 1955 - The village of Kawayanagi merged into the town of Soka in Kitaadachi District (now the city of Soka).
 * November 3, 1955 - Parts of the town of Soka in Kitaadachi District merged into the town of Koshigaya.
 * January 1, 1956 - Parts of the city of Iwatsuki merged into the town of Hasuda.
 * September 28, 1956
 * Parts of the village of Hachijo merged with the villages of Yawata and Shiodomari to form the village of Yashio.
 * The remaining parts of Hachijo merged into the town of Soka in Kitaadachi District.
 * November 3, 1958 - The town of Koshigaya gained city status.
 * October 1, 1964 - The village of Yashio gained town status.
 * October 1, 1971 - The town of Kuki gained city status.
 * January 15, 1972 - The town of Yashio gained city status.
 * October 1, 1972 - The town of Hasuda gained city status.
 * March 23, 2010 - The town of Shōbu, along with the towns of Kurihashi and Washimiya, both from Kitakatsushika District, merged with the city of Kuki to form the new city of Kuki.
 * October 1, 2012 - The town of Shiraoka gained city status. This leaves Minami Saitama District with one municipality.

title: Minami-Saitama District, Saitama


text:
Kurihashi, Saitama

Kurihashi (栗橋町) was a town located in Kitakatsushika District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 26,125 and a density of 1,655.58 persons per km2. The total area was 15.78 km2.

On March 23, 2010, Kurihashi, along with the town of Washimiya (also from Kitakatsushika District), and the town of Shōbu (from Minamisaitama District), was merged into the expanded city of Kuki.

title: Kurihashi, Saitama


text:
Washimiya, Saitama

Washimiya (鷲宮町) was a town located in Kitakatsushika District, Saitama, Japan.

In 2003, the town had an estimated population of 33,739 and a density of 2,427.27 /sqkm. The total area is 13.90 sqkm.

On March 23, 2010, the town of Washimiya, along with the town of Kurihashi (also from Kitakatsushika District), and the town of Shōbu (from Minamisaitama District), was merged into the expanded city of Kuki.

Washimiya was famous for Washinomiya Shrine, one of the oldest shrines in the Kanto Region.

title: Washimiya, Saitama


text:
Talk:Aljaž Tower

IMHO this content should be integrated as a subsection in the Triglav article, as both subjects are quite inseparable. --Romanm 08:54, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Aljaž Tower


text:
Walters Art Museum

Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially by major American art and sculpture collectors, including William Thompson Walters and his son Henry Walters. William Walters began collecting when he moved to Paris as a nominal Confederate loyalist at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, and Henry Walters refined the collection and made arrangements for the construction what ultimately was Walters Art Museum.

After allowing the Baltimore public to occasionally view his father's and his growing added collections at his West Mount Vernon Place mansion during the late 1800s, Henry Walters arranged for an elaborate stone palazzo-styled structure to be built for this purpose in 1905–1909, located a block south of the Walters mansion on West Monument Street/Mount Vernon Place, on the northwest corner of North Charles Street at West Centre Street.

The mansion and gallery were also just south and west of the landmark Washington Monument in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood, just north of the downtown business district and northeast of Cathedral Hill. Upon his 1931 death, Henry Walters bequeathed the entire collection of then more than 22,000 works, the original Charles Street Gallery building, and his adjacent townhouse/mansion just across the alley to the north on West Mount Vernon Place to the City of Baltimore, "for the benefit of the public". The collection includes masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master European and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, Art Deco jewelry, and ancient Near East, Mesopotamian, or ancient Middle East items. Dorothy Miner became its first Keeper of Manuscripts in 1934 and held the post until her death in 1973.

In 2000, "The Walters Art Gallery" changed its long-time name to "The Walters Art Museum" to reflect its image as a large public institution and eliminate confusion among some of the increasing out-of-state visitors. The following year, "The Walters" (as it is often known locally) reopened its original main building after a dramatic three-year physical renovation and replacement of internal utilities and infrastructure. The Archimedes Palimpsest was on loan to the Walters Art Museum from a private collector for conservation and spectral imaging studies.

Starting on October 1, 2006, the museum was enabled to make admission free to all, year-round, as a result of substantial grants given by Baltimore City and the surrounding suburban Baltimore County arts agencies and authorities. In 2012, "The Walters" released nearly 20,000 of its own images of its collections on a Creative Commons license, and collaborated in their upload to the world-wide web and the Internet on Wikimedia Commons. This was one of the largest and most comprehensive such releases made by any museum.

Ancient art
The Walters' collection of ancient art includes examples from Egypt, Nubia, Greece, Rome, Etruria and the Near East. Highlights include two monumental 3,000-pound statues of the Egyptian lion-headed fire goddess Sekhmet on long-term loan from the British Museum; the Walters Mummy; alabaster reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II; Greek gold jewelry, including the Greek bracelets from Olbia on the shores of the Black Sea; the Praxitelean Satyr; a large assemblage of Roman portrait heads; a Roman bronze banquet couch, and marble sarcophagi from the tombs of the prominent Licinian and Calpurnian families.

Art of the ancient Americas
In 1911, Henry Walters purchased almost 100 gold artifacts from the Chiriqui region of western Panama in Central America, creating a core collection of ancient American native art. Through subsequent gifts of art and loans, the museum has added works, mostly in pottery and stone, from Mexico, Central America and South America, including pieces from the Mesoamerican Olmec, Aztec, and Maya cultures, as well as the Moche and Inca peoples of South America.

Asian art
Highlights of the Asian art collection assembled earlier by Baltimorean father and son collectors William T. and Henry Walters include Japanese arms and armor, and Chinese and Japanese porcelains, lacquers, and metalwork. Among the museum's outstanding works of Asian art is a late-12th- or early-13th-century Cambodian bronze of the eight-armed Avalokiteshvara, a Tang dynasty earthenware camel, and an intricately painted Ming dynasty wine jar. The museum owns the oldest surviving Chinese wood-and-lacquer image of the Buddha (late 6th century AD). It is exhibited in a gallery dedicated solely to this work.

The museum holds one of the largest and finest collections of Thai (Siam/Thailand) bronze, scrolls, and banner paintings in the world.

Islamic art
Islamic art in all media is represented at the Walters. Among the highlights are a 7th-century carved and hammered silver bowl from Iran, (ancient Persia); a 13th-century candlestick made of copper, silver, and gold from the Mamluk era in Egypt; 16th-century mausoleum doors decorated with intricate wood carvings in a radiating star pattern; a 17th-century silk sash from the Mughal Empire in India; and a 17th-century Turkish tile with an image of the Masjid al-Haram ("Great Mosque of Mecca"), the center of Islam in Mecca, (modern Saudi Arabia). The Walters Museum owns an array of Islamic manuscripts. These include a 15th-century Koran from northern India, written at the height of the Timurid Empire; a 16th-century copy of the "Khamsa of Nizami by Amir Khusraw, illustrated by a number of famous artists for the Emperor Akbar; and a Turkish calligraphy album by Sheikh Hamadullah Al-Amasi, one of the greatest calligraphers of all time. Walters Art Museum, MS W.613 contains five Mughal miniatures from an important "Khamsa of Nizami" made for the Emperor Akbar; the rest are in London, Great Britain.

Medieval European art
Henry Walters assembled a collection of art produced during the Middle Ages in all the major artistic media of the period. This forms the basis of the Walters' medieval collection, for which the museum is best known internationally. Considered one of the best collections of medieval art in the United States, the museum's holdings include examples of metalwork, sculpture, stained glass, textiles, icons, and other paintings. The collection is especially renowned for its ivories, enamels, reliquaries, early Byzantine silver, post-Byzantine art, illuminated manuscripts, Georgian illuminated Gospel manuscript, and the largest and finest collection of Ethiopian Orthodox Church art outside Ethiopia.

The Walters' medieval collection features unique objects such as the Byzantine agate Rubens Vase that belonged to the painter Rubens (accession no. 42.562) and the earliest-surviving image of the "Virgin of Tenderness", an ivory carving produced in Egypt in the 6th or 7th century (accession no. 71.297). Sculpted heads from the royal Abbey of St. Denis are rare surviving examples of portal sculptures that are directly connected with the origins of Gothic art in 12th-century France (accession nos. 27.21 and 27.22). An ivory casket covered with scenes of jousting knights is one of about a dozen such objects to survive in the world (accession no. 71.264).

Many of these works are on display in the museum's galleries. Works from the medieval collection are also frequently included in special touring exhibitions, such as Treasures of Heaven, an exhibition about relics and reliquaries that was on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art in (Cleveland, Ohio), the Walters Art Museum, and the British Museum in London in 2010–11.

Works in the medieval collection are the subject of active research by the curatorial and conservation departments of the museum, and visiting researchers frequently make use of the museum's holdings. In-depth technical research carried on these objects is made available to the public through publications and exhibitions, as in the case of the Amandus Shrine (accession no. 53.9), which was featured in a small special exhibition titled The Special Dead in 2008–09.

There are also Late Medieval devotional Italian paintings by these painters at the Walters: Tommaso da Modena, Pietro Lorenzetti, Andrea di Bartolo (Resurrection), Alberto Sotio, Bartolomeo di Tommaso (Death of Saint Francis), Naddo Ceccarelli, Master of Saint Verdiana, Niccolo di Segna (Saint Lucy), Orcagna, Olivuccio di Ciccarello, Master of Panzano Triptych and Giovanni del Biondo.

Renaissance, Baroque and 18th-century European art
The collection of European Renaissance and Baroque art features holdings of paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, metal work, arms and armor. The highlights include Hugo van der Goes' Donor with Saint John the Baptist, Heemskerck's Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World, Giambattista Pittoni's Sacrifice of Polyxena, the Madonna of the Candelabra, from the studio of Raphael, Veronese's Portrait Of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia, El Greco's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Bernini's "bozzetto" of Risen Christ, Tiepolo's Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva, and The Ideal City attributed to Fra Carnevale. The museum has one of ten surviving examples of the Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship from the 1750s and 1760s.

19th-century European art
William and Henry Walters collected works by late-19th-century French academic masters and Impressionists. Highlights of the collection include Odalisque with Slave by Ingres (a second version); Claude Monet's Springtime; Alfred Sisley's panoramic view of the Seine Valley; and Édouard Manet's realist masterpiece, The Café Concert.

Henry Walters was particularly interested in the courtly arts of 18th-century France. The museum's collection of Sèvres porcelain includes a number of pieces that were made for members of the Royal Bourbon Court at Versailles Palace outside of Paris. Portrait miniatures and the examples of goldsmiths' works, especially snuffboxes and watches, are displayed in the Treasury, along with some exceptional 19th- and early-20th-century works. Among them are examples of Art Nouveau-styled jewelry by René Lalique, jeweled objects by the House of Fabergé, including two Russian Imperial Easter eggs, and precious jewels by Tiffany and Co. of New York City.

The Walters' collection presents an overview of 19th-century European art, particularly art from France. From the first half of the century come major paintings by Ingres, Géricault, and Delacroix. William Walters stayed in Paris with his family during the Civil War, because of his notorious Southern-leanings, and he soon developed a keen interest in contemporary European painting. He either commissioned directly from the artists or purchased at auctions such major works by the Barbizon masters, including Jean-François Millet and Henri Rousseau; the academic masters Jean-Léon Gérôme and Lawrence Alma-Tadema; and even the modernists Monet, Manet and Sisley.

Charles Street – Old Main Building (1905–1909)
Henry Walters' original gallery was designed by architect William Adams Delano and erected between 1904 and 1909, facing South Washington Place (at the northwest corner with West Centre Street) and attached by an overhead bridge/passageway across the back alley from his adjacent townhouse/mansion to the north on West Mount Vernon Place (facing the Washington Monument to the northeast). Its exterior was inspired by the Renaissance-revival-style Hôtel Pourtalès in Paris and its interior was modeled after the 17th-century "Collegio dei Gesuiti" (now the Palazzo dell'Università) built by the Balbi family for the Jesuits in Genoa. The arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, French decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries, and manuscripts and rare books are now exhibited in this palazzo-style structure.

Centre Street Annex Building (1974)
Designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott, in the "Brutalist" poured-concrete style prevailing in the 1960s, (one of the few others in the region of this extremely modernistic style in the city – such as the recently razed Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in downtown Charles Center on the southwest corner of Charles and Baltimore Streets from 1967), this annex building (which has several horizontal lines paralleled with features in the 1909 structure) to the west along West Centre Street and rear of the original main gallery, extending to Park Avenue, opened in 1974. It was substantially altered in 1998–2001 by another firm of Kallmann McKinnell and Wood, Architects, to provide a four-story glass atrium, with a suspended staircase at the juncture between the older and newer buildings with a new entrance lobby along Centre Street. The new lobby, which also provides easier ground-level handicapped access along with enhanced security provisions for both collections and visitors is also providing a café, an enlarged museum and gift store and a reference library. The ancient, Byzantine, medieval, Ethiopian, and 19th-century European collections are housed in this building, with its large display walls and irregular corridors and galleries. Also here is the museum's famed art conservation laboratory, which is one of the oldest in the country.

Hackerman House (1850/1991)
This Greek Revival style townhouse/mansion, one of the most elaborate in the city, was designed by famed local architect John Rudolph Niernsee (1814–1885), and erected between 1848 and 1850 for John Hanson Thomas, was long regarded as the most "elegant" house along Mount Vernon Place or Washington Place. It sits on the southwest corner of the circle surrounding the Washington Monument and was later owned by the families Jencks and Gladding (and the house has been known as the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding Mansion). Considered in its premiere landmark municipal location to be used for Baltimore City's Official Mayor's Residence (similar to other major American cities mayor's mansions such as Gracie Mansion in a river-front park on New York City's east side of Manhattan, facing the East River), when it was briefly acquired by the city in the late 1950s and then being considered to be razed for an unfortunately poorly-conceived and planned northern expansion of the Gallery engendered local preservationists' protests before being finally re-sold to the Gladding family of a well-known public-spirited local Chevrolet auto dealership, who promised to restore and preserve the noted mansion.

Among the original owning family of the Thomas's distinguished guests of the mid-19th century were the Prince of Wales (eldest son of Queen Victoria), the future King Edward VII (reigned 1901–1910); and General Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894), the then famous Hungarian freedom fighter, president of an early, brief Hungarian republic, veteran of the European Revolutions of 1847–1848 and the "Father of modern Hungary". Since the mid-1980s when, the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding Mansion was reacquired by the city under Mayor William Donald Schaefer (1921–2011), who served the city from 1971 to 1987, and future governor of Maryland (1987–1995) from the Gladding family with a donation by the mayor's friend and local businessman Willard Hackerman, and transferred to the purposes of "The Walters". Since additional renovations with the addition of a connecting gallery with domed skylight and corridor constructed through the top of the old rear carriage house/garage to the south end of the house, and across the east–west alley to the old 1909 Main Building's north side. Reopened in 1991, the newly renamed "Hackerman House" has been devoted to The Walters' recently expanded holdings of Asian art. As "Thomas-Jencks-Gladding House", the building was designated a Baltimore City Landmark in 1975.

Anti-Labor Hostility
Throughout 2021, director Julia Marciari-Alexander, advised by union-busting law firm Shaw Rosenthal LLP, refused to meet with Walters employees, stalling the advance of a wall-to-wall unionization effort. In October 2021, when directed by the Baltimore City Council and Comptroller Bill Henry to meet with employees and allow a vote on unionization, Marciari-Alexander refused, claiming that meeting with her employees constitutes interference. It was later stated that if the unionization effort was successful, workers would be represented by AFSCME Council 67, which would also represent workers at Baltimore Museum of Art and Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Gallery
This is a list of selected works from the museum collection.

Additional sources

 * The Walters Art Gallery, Guide to the Collections, 1997, Scala Books, ISBN 978-0911886481
 * Gruelle, R. B., Collection of William Thompson Walters (Boston 1895)
 * Bushnell, S. W., Oriental Ceramic Art Collections of William Thompson Walters (New York 1899)
 * Bushnell, S. W., Oriental Ceramic Art Collections of William Thompson Walters (New York 1899)

title: Walters Art Museum


text:
Sugito, Saitama

Sugito (杉戸町) is a town located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 44,402 in 19,409 households and a population density of 1500 persons per km². The total area of the town is 30.03 sqkm.

Geography
Sugito is located in far eastern Saitama Prefecture, in the middle of the Kantō Plain, with an average altitude of 15 meters above sea level. The Edo River flows through the town.

Surrounding municipalities
Saitama Prefecture Chiba Prefecture
 * Kasukabe
 * Kuki
 * Satte
 * Miyashiro
 * Noda

Climate
Sugito has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sugito is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1408 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.8 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Sugito peaked around the year 2000 and has declined slightly in the decades since.

History
Sugito-shuku developed as a post station on the Ōshū Kaidō and the Nikkō Kaidō from the Kamakura period through the Edo period. The town of Sugito was created within Kitakatsushika District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. In February 1955, the town expanded by annexing the neighboring villages of Tamiya, Takano, and Teigo.

Government
Sugito has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 15 members. Sugito, together with the city of Satte, contributes one member to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Saitama 14th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy
The economy of Sugito is mostly agricultural, with rice, cucumbers, eggplant, onion, Chinese cabbage and wheat among the major crops.

Education
Sugito has six public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the town government, and two public high schools operated by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education. There are also two private high schools.

Railway
Tōbu Railway - Tōbu Nikkō Line
 * Sugito-Takanodai

Sister city relations

 * 🇦🇺 Busselton, Western Australia, Australia since November 19, 1996.

Noted people from Sugito

 * Kaoru Kitamura, author
 * Kazuhiro Shoji, basketball coach

title: Sugito, Saitama


text:
Atemi

In Japanese martial arts, the term atemi (当身) designates blows or strikes to the body, as opposed to twisting of joints, strangleholds, holding techniques and throws. Atemi can be delivered by any part of the body to any part of the opponent's body. They can be percussive or use "soft" power. Karate is a typical martial art focusing on percussive atemi. The location of nerve and pressure points, such as might be used for certain acupressure methods, also often informs the choice of targets for atemi (see kyusho).

Some strikes against vital parts of the body can kill or incapacitate the opponent: on the solar plexus, at the temple, under the nose, in the eyes, genitals, or under the chin. Traditional Japanese martial arts (the ancestors of judo, jujutsu, and aikido) do not commonly practice atemi, since they were supposed to be used on the battlefield against armoured opponents. However, there are certain exceptions.

Atemi can be complete techniques in and of themselves, but are also often used to briefly break an opponent's balance (see kuzushi) or resolve. This is the predominant usage of atemi in aikido. A painful but non-fatal blow to an area such as the eyes, face, or some vulnerable part of the abdomen can open the way for a more damaging technique, such as a throw or joint lock. Even if the blow does not land, the opponent can be distracted, and may instinctively contort their body (e.g., jerking their head back from a face strike) in such a way that they lose their balance.

The development of atemi techniques arises from the evolution of the Japanese martial arts, in particular jujutsu. Early styles of jujutsu from Sengoku-era Japan were created as a means of unarmed combat for a samurai who had lost his weapons on the battlefield. The purpose of jujutsu was to disarm the opponent and use their own weapon against them. As such, strikes to the body were limited as the intended victim would have been wearing extensive body armour. However, in later styles of jujutsu from Edo-period Japan empty-handed strikes to the body became more common as full-scale military engagement began to decline. This meant that the jujutsu practitioner's opponent would not have been wearing armour and the vital points that form the crux of atemi-waza were more exposed.

Atemi waza in original judo
Kodokan judo as designed by Jigoro Kano also contained atemi waza (当て身技) or body-striking techniques from the several jujitsu styles that inspired Kano, which, however, were excluded from its sports competition repertoire, which limits itself to throws (nage waza) and holds (kansetsu waza). Although taught within self-defense, kata and sometimes used within informal randori, striking techniques are forbidden in the sport judo competitions rules.

title: Atemi


text:
Knin

Knin is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagreb and Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as the capital of both the medieval Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the self-proclaimed quasi-state Republic of Serbian Krajina within the newly independent Republic of Croatia for the duration of Croatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995.

Etymology
The name is likely derived from the Illyrian Ninia. According to an alternative explanation, offered by Franz Miklosich and Petar Skok, the name - derived from a Slavic root *tьn- ("to cut", "to chop") - has a meaning of "cleared forest". The medieval names of Knin include Tinin; Tenin; Tinum. The Latin name is still used as a titular episcopal see, the Diocese of Tinum.

Ancient
The area consisting of today's Knin, or more specifically, the Spas hill, was inhabited since the Stone Age. In the vicinity of today's Knin was once a town called Burnum, which served as a Roman military camp in the 1st century BC.

Middle Ages
The original settlement grew atop the Spas hill in the earliest history and which later formed the castle of Knin. The first church, a monastery dedicated to Saint Bartholomew, was built during the time of Trpimir I in the 9th century in Kapitul (south-east from Knin Castle, where the later bishopric was located). It was later expanded or rebuilt by a certain Duke of Croatia, probably Svetoslav, during the reign of king Stephen Držislav of Croatia in the 10th century.

Knin is first mentioned in the 10th-century work De Administrando Imperio as the centre of the Knin county (županija), and as one of the populated towns in Croatia. Around 1040, at the behest of the Croatian kings, a seat of the royal bishop was established in the nearby royal village of Biskupija (Kosovo), in the church of Saint Mary. The first "bishop of the Croats" is named Marko Giudice, and he and his successors were attached to the royal court as preachers and king's "special bishops" until 1102.

Knin became a more permanent royal residence of king Demetrius Zvonimir around 1080. Because of this, it has led to Knin being known as the "City of Croatian Kings" or "Zvonimir's City" (Zvonimirov grad) in recent times. In the following decade, during the succession crisis, the city was the permanent residence of a local lord Petar Snačić, who contested the crown of Croatia until his defeat by king Coloman of Hungary in 1096. At that point, it came into possession of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty, and since then, it ceased to be a permanent royal residence but remained as a political and administrative center of the kingdom. The parish church dedicated to king Saint Stephen is thought to have been built during this period.

In 1178, it is for the first time mentioned as "civitates" (city) in a contemporary local source. Due to the extinction of the local ruling dynasty, the Croatian bishop moved his see to Knin itself, after which he started calling himself the Bishop of Knin. This precipitated the construction of a new cathedral, which was initiated in 1203 by the son of the Duke of Knin, Dobroslav in Kapitul.

The city was visited by Queen Maria Laskarina, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor and wife of king Béla IV of Hungary, together with her retinue of nobles and a great number of soldiers in 1261 in order to introduce her son to the Croatian nobility and to negotiate their oath in recognizing him as the designated duke (herceg). In 1264, the first case of judicial function in the city was mentioned and during this time, Knin was the seat of both the Croatian ban, and the duke, who acted as a semi-independent ruler with close connection to the king and whose chancellor had been the bishop of Knin. Between 1270 and 1272, the new cathedral was consecrated on the orders of the Knin bishop Nicholas. The cathedral is described as being "magnificent" and "solemn" by subsequent documents. By this point, a new town had already developed outside the castle complex. A market square (forum) was for the first time mentioned in the second half of 13th century.

The transition from 13th to 14th century was marked in the rise of the Šubić noble family, whose members likely made Knin as one of the seats within their realm. According to the 19th century Franciscan friar and historian Donato Fabianich, the monastery of Saint Catherine was founded around this time by the Knin dignitaries and nobility which were first settled there by Mladen Šubić. Their rule over Knin came to an end at the Battle of Bliska in 1322, after which the Angevin king Charles Robert arrived in the city and imprisoned the former lord Mladen II Šubić of Bribir. Upon the departure of the king to Hungary, the noble Ivan Nelipić quickly seized Knin, and from there expelled the king's men from Croatia. Thus, these territories de facto continued to remain outside the monarchy, and the Nelipić noble family made Knin their permanent seat and ruled their territories as "Princes of Knin".

After successfully warring against their enemies, the Dalmatian cities and nobility under Juraj II Šubić of Bribir (who was imprisoned in the castle's dungeons), as well as the royal forces commanded by the Slavonian ban Mikac Prodanić, their rule came to an end when Louis I of Hungary personally led an army to re-establish royal power over Knin in 1345. During this time it became known that the castle consisted of two major parts, administered by two castellans and which was populated by houses and baths, a palace with a main hall used previously by the Nelipić's to sign an alliance with the Republic of Venice and to enforce customs on imports to the city. An annual trade fair, on Saint Bartholomew's day is known to have taken place in the settlement below since at least the 1360s and was regularly attended by the merchants from the Dalmatian cities. It is known that Knin's also burg housed a significant colony of merchants originating from these cities which also gives insight into its commercial importance. A supreme judicial body for the whole of Croatia was formed, composed of Croatian nobility, and was located on the castle grounds. A chapel dedicated to Saint Bartholomew located within the cathedral was the place of notary of the Knin See. There the noble Ivan Nelipić (son of Vladislava) had reaffirmed his rights to the estates and lands in Cetina during his stay in the city. Using the dynastic instability in the neighboring lands, the city came into the hands of the Bosnian king Tvrtko I during the year of 1388. The previous bishop had likely been expelled, where the Ragusan Mihailo took his place, and was also given the office of the king's chancellor. These actions provoked a retaliation of king Sigismund, whose armies besieged Knin in September 1390. The city, along with other territories were returned to Sigismund in 1393. Upon his return from the disastrous battle of Nicopolis in 1396, the king spent a month in Knin to consolidate his holdings and state affairs of Dalmatia and Croatia, issuing various decrees together with his ban Nikola Gorjanski. In 1401, the city was besieged by the Bosnian king Stephen Ostoja, who encamped in the adjacent Knin field (Kninsko polje), and remained there until the following year. The newly crowned king Ladislaus of Naples attained support from the castellan of Knin and issued his first decree there in 1403.

Because of frequent harassment, the citizens of Knin had to pay tribute to the duke Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, and for a short while, the city seemed to have been directly under his rule. The presence of Franciscans is for the first time mentioned in the 15th century, which were located in the old Saint Mary's church and monastery in the city. Apart from them, other religious buildings are mentioned such as the church of the Holy Spirit.

Its strategic position played an important role in many wars and power changes – the Republic of Venice often reflected on its importance as a key castle and the main entrance to Dalmatia, which it attempted to obtain during the 15th century. During these years both the city, the ban and his dignitaries played a crucial role in the struggle for dominance over the coastal cities with Venice. In 1430 Knin and the Church of St. Bartolomeo in Kapitul were the centre of the "Union and Brotherhood of the Croats" (unio et fraternitas Croatorum), a congregation of Croatian nobles formed by 12 counties of Croatia in order to "preserve the fame and old customs of the Croatian Kingdom".

It was in 1420 that the Nelipić noble family again regained their former role in Croatia with the emergence of Ivaniš Nelipić, which again distanced these territories from the crown. These possessions were later acquired after Ivaniš's death in 1435 by Anž of the House of Frankopan through the marriage with the Nelipić nobles. Knin and the surrounding possessions were restored to the crown upon Anž's death in 1437. In 1454 an attempt between the Bosnian king and the Venetians was made to acquire the city, which was referenced as "capital and foremost place of Croatia" in their letters.

During the reign of king Matthias Corvinus, the bishops of Knin were selected as the king's principal orators abroad in collecting the help needed against the invading Ottoman Empire. The bishop was thus first secretly involved at the pope to solicit financial aid for Matthias' military campaign. The city's distant surroundings quickly became a target for Ottoman raids. As the raids were becoming more frequent, one of them reached Knin, where a Franciscan monastery has been recorded to have been destroyed in 1469.

In 1493, the first direct attempt of siege by the Ottomans was undertaken, which was followed by ban John Corvinus and his deputies invading and pillaging the Ottoman territories from the city. The Republic of Venice started to financially support the city's defences in fear for its possessions in Dalmatia. In 1501, three Ottoman spies were caught and imprisoned by the vice-ban. They were sent by the Sanjak-bey of Bosnia, and had infiltrated Knin posing as friars that were on their way to sell vestments to the market. They were to investigate the situation in the Zadar surrounding.

The last major conflict around Knin before the truce was in September 1502 when 2,000 Ottoman cavalrymen looted the area. On 20 August 1503 King Vladislaus II concluded a 7-year peace treaty with Sultan Bayezid II. The armistice was generally respected by all sides, during which Knin's defensive positions were strengthened in 1504. A period of severe famine started in 1505 that affected entire Dalmatia. In 1510 the plague halved Knin's population.

In 1510 around 1,000 Ottoman Akıncı raided the countryside of Knin. There had been word that viceban of Croatia was captured on that occasion. Baltazar Baćan (Boldizsár Batthyány), viceban of Slavonia, together with forces from the Zagreb Bishopry, managed to lift the siege of Knin in January 1513. Next year in February the Ottomans laid siege on Knin with 10,000 men from the Sanjak of Bosnia, but were unable to take the city and lost 500 troops. Knin's burg and outskirts were burned on this occasion. These clashes left Knin devastated and there was no news about the city for five years. Local population was decimated by war, hunger, plague and migration to safer places, and its economy was hindered by the seizure of crops and livestock. Due to Knin's strategic value, King Louis II responded to requests from captains of Knin, Skradin and Ostrovica and promised reinforcements of 1,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalrymen. However, it is unlikely that these forces arrived to the endangered towns.

On 29 May 1522 after the final siege of the Knin castle, it fell to the Ottoman Empire, and Croats left the town in large numbers. The Ottomans repopulated the town with new inhabitants from Bosnia.

Ottoman and Venetian period
The bishops who held the title no longer resided in Knin after it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1522. It was initially part of the Sanjak of Kilis, later the centre of the Sanjak of Kırka, was founded in 1574. By 1540, Ottomans massively populated area between Skradin and Knin with Vlachs. It was briefly captured by Venice in 1648 during Cretan War. After Venice captured the district in 1688, the Bishop of Šibenik was appointed to administer the diocese, which was united in 1828 to Šibenik. The bishopric is today the titular see of Tinum.

A century and a half later, on 11 September 1688, it was captured by the Venetian Republic. Subsequently, the Croatian population partially returned and the Franciscans built a monastery and a church there in 1708. Ottomans aimed to retake Knin during Ottoman-Venetian War, but their siege was repulsed in 1715.

Habsburg era
Knin passed on to the Habsburgs together with Dalmatia in 1797 according to the Treaty of Campo Formio. After the Peace of Pressburg in 1805, the French Empire gained the city and incorporated it into the Illyrian Provinces in 1809. By 1813, the Austrians regained control over the town. By the end of the 19th century, as a part of the Habsburg domain of Dalmatia, Knin grew steadily, becoming an important commercial as well as road and railway center. In 1867, Knin became a part of Dalmatia – a territorial entity within Cisleithania.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia and World War II
After the First World War, Knin became a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in 1918, which after a brief Italian military occupation subsequently became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (named Kingdom of Yugoslavia after 1929). Previously only connected with rail to Šibenik and Split (with narrow gauge to Drvar and Prijedor as well), in 1925 Lika railway connected Knin with Zagreb and north in general. It gradually became a busy rail hub; already in 1927 a total of 58,000 passengers departed Knin rail station.

In World War II, Knin was in the so-called second Italian occupation zone, administered by the civilian authorities of the collaborationist Independent State of Croatia led by the fascist Ustaša regime, but with heavy Italian military presence. The Italians also relied heavily on local ethnic Serb militias (Chetniks) to maintain order and suppress partisan resistance. In April 1943, Đujić's Chetniks set up a prison and execution site in the village of Kosovo (today Biskupija), near Knin. Thousands of local civilians, (both Croats and even Serb Anti-Fascists) including women and children, as well as captured Partisans, were held and mistreated at this prison, while hundreds of prisoners (as many as over 1,000 ) were tortured and killed at an execution site near a ravine close to the camp. While visiting the village of Kninsko Polje, local warlord Branko Bogunović said: "There is no salvation for the Croats, and there is no need for them to run because they cannot escape, there is no Croatian state, nor will it be, and all Croats need to be slaughtered." The entire area was the scene of the Croatian genocide campaign against the local Serb population. The Ustaša regime declared Knin the county seat of Bribir and Sidraga. After the Italian surrender in September 1943, German forces became the main factor in the region. As the war progressed and partisan forces liberated most of Dalmatia, with Germans pulling out and retreating northwards, Axis and partisan forces pitted against each other in Knin in a major battle in early December 1944. The 8th Dalmatian Corps sought to destroy the German, Ustaše and Chetnik formations in North Dalmatia and the city of Knin. With around 50,000 troops involved and more than 7,000 casualties on all sides, the Partisans liberated Knin on 9 December. Five Knin natives who fought in partisan ranks were proclaimed People's Heroes: Miro Višić, Jošo Durbaba, Boško Žunić, Stevo G. Opačić and Stevo S. Opačić.

Socialist Yugoslavia
Between 1945 and 1990, Knin saw rapid industrialization and modernization, becoming a centre of a wider region. Una railway was opened in 1948 and Knin-Zadar railway in 1967, making Knin train station one of the most important and busiest hubs in Croatia.

Croatian War of Independence
On 8 July 1989, a large Serb nationalist rally was held in Knin, during which banners threatening JNA intervention in Croatia, as well as Chetnik iconography was displayed, stunning the Croatian public. From October 1990, eight months before Croatia declared independence (25 June 1991) from Yugoslavia, Knin became the main stronghold for the Serbs in the Knin region, eventually becoming the capital city of the unrecognized self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina in 1991. The leaders of Krajina were Knin locals: Milan Martić and Milan Babić, both convicted for ethnic cleansing of Croats and other non-Serbs from Krajina by ICTY. Widespread acts of murder and violence, detention and intimidation became pervasive throughout the RSK territory from 1992 to 1995. During that time 93.9% of Croats were expelled from the town and municipality of Knin. Knin camp was a detention camp run by the Krajina Serbian Army, that held Croatian detainees, soldiers and civilians, from 1991 until 1992, during the Croatian War of Independence. Former prisoners testified that they were arrested by Serb paramilitary forces and then deported into Knin camp. The detainees were beaten, mistreated and humiliated. Serbs held the town until Croatian forces captured it during Operation Storm on 5 August 1995. The date is today marked as a Victory Day in Croatia.

In February 2015, during the Croatia–Serbia genocide case, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed the Serbian lawsuit claim that Operation Storm constituted genocide ruling that Croatia did not have the specific intent to exterminate the country's Serb minority, though it reaffirmed that serious crimes against Serb civilians had taken place. Fleeing civilians and people remaining in United Nations protected areas were subject to various forms of harassment, including military assaults and acts by Croatian civilians. On 8 August, a refugee column was shelled. Human Rights Watch reported, in 1996, that the vast majority of the abuses were committed by Croatian forces. These abuses, which continued on a large scale even months after Operation Storm, included summary executions of elderly and infirm Serbs who remained behind and the wholesale burning and destruction of Serbian villages and property. Executions of civilians took place in and around the town of Knin.

The majority of the population had already fled by the time the Croatian Army took control of Knin. At the end of the war, Knin's demographic composition changed greatly with the influx of Croat refugees from Bosnia and former Croat militia members. They replaced, to a great extent, those Serbs who fled during Operation Storm. In 2015, Amnesty International report that Croatian Serbs continued to face discrimination in public sector employment and the restitution of tenancy rights to social housing vacated during the war.

Geography
Knin is located in the northern Dalmatian region of Croatia, 56 kilometres east of the coastal town of Šibenik, at 44.03833°N, 16.19972°W.

The original Roman settlement developed on the foothills of the Dinaric Alps. It was on these foothills that the Knin Fortress was built. The source of the Krka river begins on the outskirts of the town.

Climate
Knin has a modified Mediterranean climate (Cfa, nearing the border with Csa) with hot dry summers and cool winters. Although the city is only some 50 km (31 mi) from the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean, the proximity of the Dinaric Alps to the north alters its climate. Knin is particularly known for its hot summers: temperatures reaching 40 °C (104 °F) are not uncommon in July and August. The January average temperature is about 4 °C and in August is about 24 °C

Demographics

According to 2021 census data, the population in Knin municipality was 11,755 and in town proper 8,317. 29.8% of population is of the age of 60 or older, while 18.6% of population is 20 or younger. Croatian Bureau of Statistics estimated the population of Knin municipality on 31 December 2020 to stand at 11,286. This represents a steep decline: ten years earlier, in the 2011 census, Knin municipality had a population of 15,388, while Knin (town, proper) had a population of 10,493. In the 2001 census, the population of Knin was 15,190 (whole municipality) with 11,128 in town proper. Ethnically, Croats formed the majority with 76.45% while the population share of Serbs stood at 20.8%.

Knin has recently seen a steep population decline, not least due to high emigration rates, especially since Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and its citizens consequently face few to no work and immigration restrictions. Elementary school student population in Knin (ages 6 to 14) has sharply declined by 29% between 2013 and 2019. Knin's population is also in more flux than that of other Croatian cities given that it has a major refugee problem: both with a large number of Croats from neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina who immigrated there post-1995 and Serbs from Knin who are still refugees in Bosnia-Herzegovina or Serbia. Immigrant Croats form the majority in the city with only a scattered Serb presence in the surrounding villages.

Demographic history
Before the Croatian War of Independence 87% of the population of the municipality and 79% of the city were Serbs. During the war, most of the non-Serb population was displaced from Knin, while in the last days of the war most of the Serbs left Knin, fearing incoming Croatian forces. In February 2015, during the Croatia–Serbia genocide case, the judgment of the International Court of Justice stated that it is not disputed that a substantial part of the Serb population fled that region as a direct consequence of the military actions. The Croatian authorities were aware that the operation would provoke a mass exodus; they even to some extent predicated their military planning on such an exodus, which they considered not only probable, but desirable. As a consequence of the war and population displacement, Knin municipality population has nearly halved between 1991 and 2001 (from 23 to 15 thousand).

Knin (municipality)
Besides the town of Knin itself, Knin municipality today consists of following settlements: Golubić, Kninsko Polje, Kovačić, Ljubač, Oćestovo, Plavno, Polača, Potkonje, Radljevac, Strmica, Vrpolje and Žagrović. The data below and in the population graph is based on current municipality, since in the past Knin municipality often changed its borders.

Knin (town)

Town of Knin had a small population compared to its surroundings until the aftermath of World War II. Just 15% of population of municipality lived in Knin proper; neighbouring Plavno, Oćestovo and Polača had basically the same or even larger population than Knin. With increased urbanisation and industrialization in post-WWII socialist era (1945-1991), Knin urban population rapidly increased from 2,600 to 12,300. At that point, more than a half of municipality's population lived in the town of Knin. After 1991, due to the war and population displacement, as well as transition shock and deindustrialization, population has been steadily declining.

The 1857 data shows that 75,55% of the town population was Roman Catholic. According to the Austrian Census held in 1900, the town of Knin had 1,302 residents. In 1910 the town had 1,270 citizens. After 1945, with urbanization and modernization, Knin attracted much of the countryside population which was overwhelmingly Serbian Orthodox. As a consequence, ethnic/religious composition of town changed as well. Intermarriages and a desire to straddle the divide between the communities resulted at one point in a substantial part of the population declaring themselves as Yugoslavs rather than either Croats or Serbs (22% in 1981 census). Population of the town from 1830 to 2011, based on religion, language and ethnicity was as follows:

Archeology
The recently discovered Roman town Burnum is 18 km away from Knin in direction of Kistanje. There are the remains of the biggest amphitheater in Dalmatia built in 77 AD, during the rule of Emperor Vespasian which could host 8,000 people.

The nearby villages Biskupija and Kapitul are extremely interesting archeological sites from the 10th century where many remains of medieval Croatian culture are found including churches, graves, decorations, and epigraphs.

Sport
The most successful sports in Knin lately have been track and field and martial arts. The latter is particularly popular with two taekwondo clubs active. Matea Jelić, Knin native (*1997) started practicing taekwando in Knin and later became 2020 Olympic champion in 67 kg. Track and field club "Sv. Ante" (St. Anthony) in Knin boasts Croatian 100m and 200m sprint as well as long jump national champion, Marko Čeko, who also won the Hanžeković memorial in 2020 in men's long jump.

The main football club in Knin is NK Dinara, formed in 1913. NK Dinara's colours were black and white until 2005 when the club changed its colours to red, white and blue. NK Dinara plays in the 4th, lowest division in Croatia, Šibenik-Knin County League (1. Županijska liga Šibensko-kninska).

Knin has a sports association which was formed in 1998. Basketball is also popular in Knin with an amateur women's and men's club playing in lower tiers. The Croatian National basketball team has played a match in Knin. They played against Israel in 1999 where Croatia won the match 78:68. Other sports played in Knin are rugby, handball, volleyball, kickboxing, karate, tennis and taekwondo.

In 2007 the Croatia national rugby union team beat an Irish Barbarians side to win their first ever trophy, the St. Patrick's Day Cup organised by Alan Moore in Knin.

Transport
The most important intercity roadway in Knin is the Croatian state route D1. The route makes for easy access of Knin from the major coastal city of Split. The section of D1 from Knin to A1 highway will be upgraded to the expressway level in following years (with B1 expressway).

Knin is also an important railway junction as the railroads from the rest of Dalmatia and its cities of Zadar, Split and Šibenik pass through Knin, going north to the capital city of Croatia, Zagreb, via M604 railway. There are four lines meeting in Knin station: to Perković (and then to Split or Šibenik), to Zadar, to Ogulin (and onwards to Karlovac, Zagreb) and to Martin Brod (and Bihać, Sisak, Zagreb). Only the former three lines offer passenger transport. The latter route, Knin-Bihać-Zagreb, passes through Bosnian territory, crossing the border many times, thus it is not used for passenger transport since the beginning of the war in 1991. However, it is the shortest route between Knin and Zagreb, and as such was electrified in 1984 (the catenary being subsequently destroyed by war operations in the early 1990s). Electrification had started from Yugoslav inland towards the coast and had only reached Knin, so today the Knin station sidings are equipped with overhead catenary, but lines leaving the town are not.

Towns and villages in the municipality
In the 2021 census, the municipality contained the following settlements:
 * Golubić, population 654
 * Knin, population 8,262
 * Kninsko Polje, population 758
 * Kovačić, population 628
 * Ljubač, population 51
 * Oćestovo, population 78
 * Plavno, population 121
 * Polača, population 151
 * Potkonje, population 66
 * Radljevac, population 36
 * Strmica, population 160
 * Vrpolje, population 159
 * Žagrović, population 509

Notable people

 * Ratko Adamović (b. 1942), Serbian writer
 * Marija Ilić Agapova (1895–1984), Serbian librarian and translator
 * Dragana Atlija (b. 1986), Miss Serbia 2009
 * Milan Babić (1956–2006), 1st president of quasi-state Republic of Serbian Krajina and former mayor of Knin convicted for war crimes by ICTY
 * Nemanja Bezbradica (b. 1993), Serbian basketball player
 * Darko Bjedov (b. 1989), Serbian footballer
 * Gojko Bjedov (1913–1937), Yugoslav volunteer in the Spanish Civil War
 * Kosta Bjedov (b. 1986), Serbian footballer
 * Igor Bjelan (b. 1992), Serbian badminton player
 * Valentina Blažević (b. 1994), Croatian handball player
 * Milan Borjan (b. 1987), Canadian soccer player
 * Dejan Borovnjak (b. 1986), Serbian basketball player
 * Vladimir Buač (b. 1984), Croatian footballer and coach
 * Frane Cota (1898–1951), Croatian sculptor at the 1924 Summer Olympics
 * Jovan Damjanović (b. 1982), Serbian footballer and football manager
 * Milan Damjanović (1943–2006), Yugoslav–Serbian footballer
 * Miloš Degenek (b. 1994), Australian footballer
 * Milica Deura (b. 1990), Bosnian basketball player
 * Ognjen Dobrić (b. 1994), Serbian basketball player
 * Marta Drpa (b. 1989), Serbian volleyball player
 * Momčilo Đujić (1907–1999), Serbian Orthodox priest and Chetnik commander convicted of war crimes in absentia by SFRY
 * Lazo Džepina (b. 1966), Croatian footballer and football manager
 * Electra Elite, Serbian singer and sex worker
 * Božena Erceg (b. 1981), Croatian basketball player
 * Branko Grčić (b. 1964), Croatian politician and economist
 * Aleksandar Gugleta (b. 1991), Serbian handball player
 * Marko Jelić (b. 1976), Croatian biology professor and former mayor of Knin
 * Matea Jelić (b. 1997), Croatian taekwondo athlete
 * Vojin Jelić (1921–2004), Croatian writer and poet
 * Drago Kovačević (1953–2019), Serbian politician and writer and former mayor of Knin
 * Leon Kreković (b. 2000), Croatian footballer
 * Sava Lešić (b. 1988), Serbian basketball player
 * Sasa Macura (b. 1991), Australian footballer
 * Sanda Malešević (b. 1994), Serbian footballer
 * Ljubomir Marić (b. 1977), Serbian and Kosovar politician
 * Arsen Marjan (b. 1975), Serbian footballer
 * Mirko Marjanović (1937–2006), former prime minister of Serbia
 * Milan Martić (b. 1954), 3rd president of quasi-state Republic of Serbian Krajina convicted of war crimes by ICTY
 * Bojan Miljuš (b. 1994), Serbian footballer
 * Branko Miljuš (b. 1960), Croatian footballer
 * Dejan Miljuš (b. 1994), Serbian footballer
 * Lovro Monti (1835–1898), Dalmatian Italian politician
 * Miloš Perišić (b. 1995), Serbian footballer
 * Ilija Petković (1945–2020), Serbian footballer and football manager
 * Zdravko Ponoš (b. 1962), Serbian politician, diplomat and retired general
 * Hrvoje Požar (1916–1991), Croatian engineer
 * Milan Pršo (b. 1990), Serbian footballer
 * Jovan Radulović (1951–2018), Serbian writer
 * Jovan Rašković (1929–1992), Croatian Serb psychiatrist and politician
 * Josipa Rimac (b. 1980), former mayor of Knin
 * Ljubomir Ristovski (b. 1969), Serbian footballer and football manager
 * Bojan Sanković (b. 1993), Montenegrin footballer
 * Anja Šimpraga (b. 1987), current deputy prime minister of Croatia
 * Dinko Šimunović (1873–1933), Croatian writer
 * Dalibor Škorić (b. 1971), Serbian footballer
 * Dejan Sorgić (b. 1989), Swiss footballer
 * Miloš Tintor (b. 1986), Serbian footballer
 * Janko Veselinović (b. 1965), Serbian lawyer and professor of law
 * Mladen Veselinović (b. 1992), Serbian footballer
 * Vojislav Vranjković (b. 1983), Serbian footballer
 * Soraja Vučelić (b. 1986), Serbian–Montenegrin model
 * Radomir Vukčević (1941–2014), Yugoslav footballer
 * Marija Vuković (b. 1992), Montenegrin high jumper
 * Dušan Zelenbaba (b. 1952), Croatian physician and politician
 * Vladimir Zelenbaba (b. 1982), Serbian footballer
 * Nemanja Zelenović (b. 1990), Serbian handball player
 * Milan Zorica (b. 1992), Serbian footballer

title: Knin