History

Kobe was briefly the capital of Japan in 1180 A.D. at the end of the Heian period. Taira no Kiyomori moved his grandson Emperor Antoku to Fukuhara. The exact location is uncertain, but is probably the neighbourhood of the same name in Hyogo-ku. The emperor returned to Kyoto after about five months.

The city was founded on April 1, 1889 and was designated on September 1, 1956 by government ordinance.

During the course of World War II, Kobe was firebombed by 331 B-29 bombers on March 17th, 1945, killing over 8,000 residents and burning the city into black ashes.

On January 17, 1995 an earthquake measured at 7.2 on the Richter Scale occurred at 05:46am JST near the city killing 6,433, making 300,000 homeless and destroying large parts of the port facilities and other parts of the city. It was one of the most costly natural disasters in modern history. The earthquake notably destroyed the Hanshin Expressway, an elevated freeway which dramatically toppled over: within Japan, the earthquake is known as the Great Hanshin Earthquake (or the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake).

Kobe was the second busiest port in the world and Asia's busiest port until the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred. Since then, the port of Yokohama became Japan's busiest port. Kobe's world ranking has dropped down to the twenty-ninth busiest port (as of 2002). Kobe has recovered to become Japan's third busiest port.

To commemorate Kobe's recovery from the 1995 quake, the city holds an annual event called the Luminarie, where every December the city hall is decorated with illuminated metal archways.e city buses (not including the City Loop) on one calendar day.