Okayama

Industrial port and old castle town in the southwest of Honshu island on the Asahi River, Japan, 120 km/75 mi west of Kobe; population (2005) 674,700. The main industries are cotton spinning and the manufacture of rubber, chemicals, agricultural implements, and tatami and hanamushiro, types of Japanese matting. The nearby Koraku-en public garden is one of the most important traditional gardens in Japan.

Okayama is the seat of the prefectural government, and a centre of education and commerce for southwestern Japan. The temples of note are Sogenji (c. 1700), which has a fine garden, and the Kannon-in at Saidaiji, where the Naked Festival is held on the third Saturday in February. There is a 16th-century castle, and the town is home to Okayama University (1949).