The story is set in Kamiyama City, a fictional city in Gifu Prefecture that the author based on his real hometown of Takayama, also in Gifu.
Takayama | Takayama, Gifu | Cyril Takayama | Takayama Main Line | Takayama Castle |
He proceeds to enact a plan to get rid of Takayama by first faking a truce and then publicly humiliating him at the school by depicting old stock photos of the atrocities Japan committed against the Chinese during the Second Sino-Japanese War, such as the Nanking massacre.
The road generally follows the route of JR Central's Takayama Main Line, except for a few locations around the cities of Takayama and Hida.
Takayama usually used a "vest-pocket" Kodak camera (a very compact folding model taking 127 film) with a single-element lens (a tangyoku lens in Japanese).
Today, he (alongside Hiroyuki Sanada who played Ryuji Takayama in Ringu) the most credited and popular male character in the Ringu series.
Players assume the role of Gamu Takayama, a member of the fighting force XIG, as he combats evil creatures with the power of Ultraman Gaia.
Now the line primarily functions as a way to access the scenic areas of Hida (ancient Hida Province), in the rugged mountains of northern Gifu Prefecture, such as Gero onsen (hot spring), Takayama, Shirakawa-gō, and the "Japan Rhine" (Kiso River).
When he was a young man, his parents returned to Korea, leaving him to earn a living alone in Japan: "At that time," Takayama said in 1998, "I had no choice but to join the Japanese gangster world. This is because segregated people at that time had no way to survive in Japan."