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rural district Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of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

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 22,972 and an area of 365.82 km², with a population density of 62.8 people per square kilometer.

Towns and villages

* Kanra * Shimonita * Nanmoku Parts of the city of

Takasaki is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 372,369 in 167,345 households, and a population density of 810 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Takasaki is famous as the hometown of th ...

and all of the city of Tomioka were formerly part of the district.

History

The area of Kanra 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 appears in

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

records, such as the 711 AD ''

Shoku Nihongi The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the ''Six National Histories'', coming directly after the '' Nihon Shoki'' and followed by ''Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi ...

'' as . Its etymology indicates that it was an area settled by large numbers of people from the

Korean peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. Per a census conducted at the end of 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 characteriz ...

, the area was divided into three towns and 79 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 ...

, 21 villages under the control of

Nanokaichi Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kōzuke Province (modern-day Gunma Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Nanokaichi ''jin'ya'' in what is now part of the city of Tomioka, Gunma. Parts of the ''jin ...

and 32 villages under the control of

Obata Domain 270px, Rakusan-en Konmei Pond, part of the surviving gardens of the ''jin'ya'' of Obata Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kōzuke Province (modern-day Gunma Prefecture), Japan. It was cente ...

. Two more villages were under the shared control of Obata Domain and the Tokugawa shogunate. On December 7, 1878, the area was divided into Minamikanra District (which became Tano District and Kitakanra District (present-day Kanra District). With the establishment of the municipality system on April 1, 1889 the area was organized into five towns (Tomioka, Ichinomiya, Myōgi, Shimonita and Fukushima) and 18 villages. file: Gumma Kanra-gun 1889.png , Historic Map of Kanra District in 1889:

1. Tomioka, 2. Kuroiwa, 3. Ichinomiya, 4. Nyu, 5. Takada, 6. Myōgi, 7. Kosaka, 8. Nishimaki, 9. Ozawa, 10. Tsukigata, 11.Iwado, 12.Aokura, 13. Shimonita, 14. Mayama, 15. Yoshida, 16. Takase, 17. Nukabe, 18. Akihata, 19. Obata, 20. Fukushima, 21. Niiya, 22. Iwadaira, 23. Ono

Modern timeline

*1925, May 10 – Obata village was raised to town status *1950, April 1 – Kitakanra District was renamed Kanra District *1954, April 1 – Ono, Kuroiwa, and Takase villages and Ichinomiya town were merged into Tomioka, which was then raised to city status. *1955, January 15 – Iwadaira village is annexed by Yoshii Town in Tano District *1955, March 10 - Shimonita annexed the villages of Kosaka, Nishimaki, Aokura and Mayama *1955, March 15 – Akihata village was annexed by Obata Town *1955, March 20 – Taka village was annexed by Myōgi Town *1955, April 1 – Yoshida village was annexed by Tomioka City *1959, February 1 – Fukushima and Niiya villages were into Obata Town, which was renamed Kanra Town *1960, April 1 – Nyu village was merged into Tomioka City *2006, March 27 - Myōgi town merged into the city of Tomioka Districts in Gunma Prefecture {{Gunma-geo-stub