[2] Today's Tsuruoka is the result of the fusion of several neighborhoods around the center of the city such as Atsumi, Asahi, Fujishima, Kushibiki, and Haguro in 1953.

[3] Tsuruoka is located on the coast of Yamagata Prefecture bordering the Sea of Japan and has some locally popular beaches such as Yunohama and Sanze.

After the start of the Meiji period, the area organized as Tsuruoka Town under Nishitagawa District, Yamagata Prefecture in 1878.

[9][10] Tsuruoka has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 24 members.

In terms of national politics, the city is part of Yamagata District 3 of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

East Japan Railway Company - Uetsu Main Line Tsuruoka is mostly known for its "Three Mountains of Dewa", which refers to Mt.

Yamabushi wear checkered vests and blow trumpet shells to communicate with their peers and to keep the bad spirits away.

Haguro, people can experience a symbolic "death" and "rebirth", after which they can access to the world of the dead represented by Mt.

"food for spiritual elevation"), a vegan food traditionally consumed by Yamabushi, uses no animal product but sansai 山菜 ("Mountain vegetables") instead, as well as local rice, handmade gomadôfu (sesame-flavoured tôfu), bamboo sprouts, vinegared chrysanthemum flowers and mushrooms.

There exists many different types of shôjin ryôri depending on the shukubo (temples that also welcome travellers for the night) that serves it, but it usually consists of many small dishes accompanied with miso soup and white rice.

Its more than 50 species of "ancestral food" (zairai sakumotsu 在来作物) that exist and remain intact for several centuries now are one of the reasons why the city has received this title.

Among these there are: minden nasu 民田なす (a round eggplant with a long and thin hat), karatori imo からとりいも (spiciness-sweetener potato), atsumi kabu 温海かぶ (Atsumi turnip, a red turnip that grows on sharp slopes), ootaki carrot 大滝ニンジン,[12] etc.

Tsuruoka's most known specialties are: kandarajiru 寒鱈汁 (a soup containing black cod fished during the winter – the period when it is supposed to be tastier), gomadôfu ごま豆腐 (sesame-flavoured tôfu), tochimochi とちもち (chestnut flavoured pound rice cake), kitsunemen キツネ面 (fox mask shaped black sugar biscuit), etc.

Tsuruoka is known for dadacha-mame (だだちゃ豆), a species of soybean, which have been called "the king of edamame"; they are also used for other products such as nattō and in manjū.

[15] Dadachamame are used in any kind of meal: sweet, salty, spicy, bitter, sour, just boiled, crushed, grilled, and in sauces.

Among all the local sea foods you can find in Tsuruoka, there are: Cherry salmon, Japanese seabream, blue crab, littlemouth flounder, flatfish, black rockfish, tonguefish, flying squid, oyster, sea robin, sandfish, Japanese codfish, and others.