is a district located in central Kanagawa Prefecture,

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 ...

. It currently consists of only one town, Aikawa, and one village, Kiyokawa. The city of Atsugi was formerly part of Aikō District.

Towns and villages

* Aikawa * Kiyokawa

History

Aikō District was one of the ancient subdivisions of Sagami Province, extending from central Sagami north to the border of

Musashi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, S ...

between the Sagami River and the Tanzawa Mountains. The district offices were located in what is now part of Atsugi. The area was part of a vast ''

shōen A was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the private, ...

'' controlled by the Ōe clan, and their descendants, the Mōri clan of Chōshū from the Heian period through the Sengoku period. It later became a contested area between the later Hōjō clan of Odawara and the Takeda clan of Kai. In the Edo period, it was nominally part of Odawara Domain, although large portions were '' tenryō'' territory controlled by the '' shōgun'' in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

through various '' hatamoto''. From 1706, a branch of the

Ōkubo clan The were a ''samurai'' kin group which rose to prominence in the Sengoku period and the Edo periods.Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit."Universität Tübingen (in German) Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the Ōkubo, as heredita ...

in Odawara was permitted to establish the Ogino-Yamanaka Domain on a portion of the district. Other portions of the district came under control of Karasuyama Domain of Shimōsa Province. With the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Ogino-Yamanaka Domain came under the control of Shizuoka Domain, while remaining territories became part of the new Kanagawa Prefecture. With the abolition of the han system in 1871, former Ogino-Yamanaka Domain became Ogino-Yamanaka Prefecture, and subsequently part of the short-lived Ashigaru Prefecture. It merged with Kanagawa Prefecture in 1876.

Timeline

* The new Aikō and Tsukui Districts were established in 1878. * In 1889, Aikō District was administratively divided into the following municipalities: ** one town (Atsugi) ** 16 villages (Koayu, Tamagawa, Nanmori, Mita, Tanasawa, Shimokawairi, Tsumada, Oikawa, Hayashi, Echi, Ogino, Aikawa, Takamine, Nakatsu, Susugaya and Miyagase) * In 1940, Aikawa Village was elevated to town status. * In 1946, Mutsuai Village was created through the merger of six villages (Mita, Tanasawa, Shimokawairi, Tsumada, Oikawa and Hayashi). * In 1955: ** January 15 – The village of Takamine was absorbed into Aikawa. ** February 1 – The village of Mutsuai merged with the town of Atsugi and three other villages (Koayu, Tamagawa and Nanmori) to form the city of Atsugi. ** July 8 – The village of Echi was absorbed into Atsugi. * In 1956: ** September 30 – Kiyokawa Village was created through the merger of two villages (Susugaya and Miyagase). ** September 30 – The village of Nakatsu was absorbed into Aikawa. ** September 30 – The village of Ogino was absorbed into Atsugi.

Merger table

Districts in Kanagawa Prefecture {{Kanagawa-geo-stub