Editing Akashi, Hyōgo (section)

==History==
Akashi is mentioned in a ''waka'' (five-line, 31-syllable poem) written by [[Kakinomoto no Hitomaro]] in the 7th century and it is the setting for one of the chapters of the 11th-century novel ''[[The Tale of Genji]]''. It developed as the [[jōkamachi|castle town]] of [[Akashi Domain]] during the [[Edo Period]], from 1617 to 1871 due to its  location dominating the [[San'yōdō]] highway connecting the [[Kinai region]] with western Japan. The famous swordsman [[Miyamoto Musashi]] is claimed to have laid out the design of the castle town. The town of Akashi was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to city status on November 1, 1919. The city annexed the neighboring villages of Hayashizaki on February 11, 1942 and Okubo, Uozumi and Futami on January 10, 1951 to reach its present dimensions. A proposal to merge with the city of Kobe was rejected by a referendum in 1955. The city suffered from  the [[Great Hanshin earthquake]] of 1995 with 4,839 houses were completely or partially destroyed and nine fatalities.

On July 21, 2001, [[Akashi pedestrian bridge accident|11 people were killed and 247 were injured]] during a [[crowd crush]] after a fireworks show. Five city officials were subsequently convicted of negligence in connection with the incident.<ref>[[Kyodo News]], "[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120120a2.html Ex-Cop Pleads Not Guilty in Fatal '01 Akashi Crush] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121030755/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120120a2.html |date=21 January 2012 }}", ''[[Japan Times]]'', 20 January 2012, p. 1.</ref>

Akashi became a  [[Core cities of Japan|Core city]] on April 1, 2018 with increased local autonomy.