on the north shore of Osaka Bay. It is part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kyoto. The Kobe city centre is located about 35 km 0 abbr=on west of Osaka and 70 km 0 abbr=on southwest of Kyoto.

The earliest written records regarding the region come from the [[Nihon Shoki]], which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingu