Yamaguchi City

山口市

Yamaguchi is the administrative seat of Yamaguchi Prefecture and located on the Fushino river in the extreme southwest of the Honshû main island. The settlement was laid out in 1360 by Prince Ouchi on the pattern of Heian-kyō (Kyōto), the former capital of Japan. Yamaguchi is therefore also called “Kyōto of the West”. Around 1550, Francis Xavier founded here the first Christian community in Japan.