is a

rural district Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the Ad ...

located in

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. As of January 2015, the district had an estimated population of 56,994 and an area of 1,278.55 km², with a population density of 44.6 people per square kilometer.

Towns and villages

# former Agatsuma (now part of Higashiagatsuma) # former

Azuma Azuma may refer to: Places * Azuma, historical name for eastern Japan, now called Kantō region, Kantō and Tōhoku region * Azuma, Gunma (Agatsuma), former village in Agatsuma District, Gunma Prefecture, Japan * Azuma, Gunma (Sawa), former villag ...

(now part of Higashiagatsuma) # Kusatsu # former Kuni (now part of Nakanojō) # Takayama #

Tsumagoi 250px, Mount Shirane from Manza Onsen is a village located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 9,546 in 3,999 households, and a population density of 28 persons per km². The total area of the village is . G ...

# Nakanojō # Naganohara

History

The area of Agatsuma District was formerly part of

Kōzuke Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered by Echigo, Shinano, Musashi and Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Kōzuke was ran ...

, and per a census conducted at the start of the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, consisted of 42 villages administered as ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

'' directly by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

and four towns and 44 villages administered as ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

''-territory, primarily by the Oguri-clan. With the establishment of the municipality system on April 1, 1889, the area was organized into three towns (Nakanojō, Hara and Naganohara) and ten villages file:Gumma Agatsuma-gun 1889.png, Historic Map of Agatsuma District in 1889:
1. Nakanojō, 2. Hara, 3. Azuma, 4. Ōta, 5. Sakanoue, 6. Iwashima. 7. Nakanohara, 8. Tsumagoe, 9. Kusatsu, 10. Sawada, 11.Isuma, 12.Nakuta, 13. Kuga *1896, April 1 – Takayama village was transferred from Nishigunma District to Agatsuma District; Kuga Village was transferred to Tone District, Gunma, Tone District *1900, July 1 – Kusatsu Village was reorganized into Kusatsu Town and Kuni Village *1955, March 1 – Ōta, Iwajima and Sakanoue villages were merged into Hara Town *1955, April 15 – Sawada, Isama and Nakuta villages were merged into Nakanojō Town *1956, February 1 – Hara Town was merged into Agatsuma Town * 2006, March 27 – the town of Agatsuma, and the village of

were merged to form the new town of Higashiagatsuma. *2010, March 28 – the village of Kuni merged into the town of Nakanojō. {{Authority control Districts in Gunma Prefecture