Nishimurayama District, Yamagata


Nishimurayama District is a rural district located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.
As of October 2013, the district has an estimated population of 41,272 and an area of 796.26 km². The city of Sagae and a portion of the city of Shirataka were formerly part of Nishimurayama District.

Towns and villages

Murayama County was an ancient place name in part of Dewa Province, occupying the area of modern Mogami, Kitamurayama, Higashimurayama and Nishimurayama districts. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the area of Nishimurayama district was a complicated mosaic. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled 42 villages directly as tenryo; 60 villages were part of Dewa-Matsuyama Domain, 6 villages were part of Tatebayashi Domain, 5 villages were under Tanakura Domain, 5 villages were under Matsumae Domain, 4 villages were part of Shinjō Domain, 3 villages were ecclesiastical territory and 4 villages were split between two or more domains.
The area became part of Yamagata Prefecture in 1876. At that time, Nishimurayama District consisted of 125 villages.
With the establishment of the municipality system on April 1, 1889, the district was consolidated into 21 villages.