Matsusaka

Matsusaka is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. As of August 2015, the city had an estimated population of 165,166 and a population density of 265 persons per km2. The total area was 623.64 square kilometres 240.79 sq mi. The city is famous for Matsusaka beef. Matsusaka developed as a commercial center during the Sengoku period, and Oda Nobukatsu, the younger son of Oda Nobunaga built a castle in the area in 1580.

The area came under the control of Gamo Ujisato shortly thereafter, and the Gamo began construction of a castle in the Yoiho forest Yoiho no mori and named the site "Matsusaka, meaning slope covered with pines in 1588. Matsusaka Castle was the center of the short-lived Matsusaka Domain in the early Tokugawa shogunate, but for most of the Edo period, the castle was the eastern outpost of Kishu Domain based at Wakayama Castle. Matsusaka has 36 elementary schools, one private and 12 public middle schools, one private and four public high schools.