Aikō District, Kanagawa
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is a
district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
located in central
Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanag ...
, Japan. 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 was a province of Japan located in what is today the central and western Kanagawa Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kanagawa''" at . Sagami Province bordered the provinces of Izu, Musashi, and Suruga. It had access to the Pac ...
, extending from central Sagami north to the border of Musashi Province between the
Sagami River The is a river in Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures on the island of Honshū, Japan. The upper reaches of the river in Yamanashi prefecture are also sometimes known as the , and the portion near the river mouth as the . The river overall was ...
and the
Tanzawa Mountains The are a mountain range in the Kantō region in Japan. The mountain range covers the northwestern part of Kanagawa Prefecture and touches the prefecture borders of Shizuoka Prefecture to the west and the Yamanashi Prefecture to the north. Mou ...
. The district offices were located in what is now part of Atsugi. The area was part of a vast '' shōen'' controlled by the Ōe clan, and their descendants, the
Mōri clan The Mōri clan (毛利氏 ''Mōri-shi'') was a Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's pow ...
of Chōshū from the
Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...
through the
Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...
. It later became a contested area between the
later Hōjō clan The was one of the most powerful samurai families in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region. Their last name was simply Hōjō (北条) but in order to differentiate between the earlier Hōjō clan with the s ...
of
Odawara is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 188,482 and a population density of 1,700 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Odawara lies in the Ashigara Plains, in the far western por ...
and the
Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...
of Kai. In the
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
, it was nominally part of
Odawara Domain 250px, Odawara Castle, Headquarters of the Odawara Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located primarily in western Sagami Province (modern-day Kanagawa Prefecture). It was centered on Odawara Castle in what is now the city of Oda ...
, although large portions were ''
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' ...
'' territory controlled by the ''
shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamak ...
'' in Edo through various ''
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.'' Howev ...
''. 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 was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in the Nasu region of northern Shimotsuke Province (modern-day Tochigi Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Karasuyama Castle in what is now part of the ...
of
Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area modern Chiba Prefecture, and Ibaraki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shimōsa''" in . It lies to the north of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from ...
. With the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
of 1868, Ogino-Yamanaka Domain came under the control of
Shizuoka Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The domain centered at Sunpu Castle is what is now the Aoi-ku, Shizuoka. From 1869 it was briefly called . History During the Muromachi period, Sunpu was the capital of the ...
, 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 were infantry employed by the samurai class of History of Japan#Feudal Japan, feudal Japan. The first known reference to ''ashigaru'' was in the 14th century, but it was during the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi period) that the use of ''ashigaru ...
. 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