Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and

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. Kana ...

which flows into the Bay of Sagami of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

The Sakai River

The Sakai River has with the length of 52.1 km and the basin size of 210.7 square km. It starts from Aihara-machi (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 相原町),

Machida, Tokyo is a Cities of Japan, city located in West Tokyo, the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 428,851, and a population density of 6,000 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography ...

, to Katase,

Fujisawa, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 439,728 and a population density of 6300 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Fujisawa is in the central part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It f ...

, near Enoshima Island. It is called "Sakai", meaning "border", because it flows on the border of the former provinces of Musashi and

Sagami Sagami may refer to: * Sagami, an 11th-century ''waka'' poet *Sagami Province, an old province in Japan *Sagami River, a river in Kanagawa and Yamanashi *Sagami Bay, a bay south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshū *Sagami Line, a railway roughly along ...

. As the Sakai River and its tributaries are prone to flooding (especially in spring and during the typhoon season), as a protection they were encased in concrete during the postwar period. The rivers continue to flood, but do not overflow their banks as frequently as in the past.

Aliases

The river often used to be called the Takakura River () because it flowed through

Kōza District, Kanagawa is a district located in central Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It currently consists of only one town, Samukawa. The entire cities of Chigasaki, Fujisawa, Yamato, Ayase, Ebina, Zama; and parts of the city of Sagamihara, were formerly part of Kō ...

(

: 高座郡), the Kun'yomi reading of the two "Kōza"

Kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

characters being Takakura. Also, the short section of the river from the point where it is joined by the

Kashio River The is a Class B river in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. It begins in Kashio, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama at the confluence of the Akuwa River (阿久和川) and the Hiradonagaya River (平戸永谷川) and flows fo ...

to the mouth of the river is sometimes called the Katase River.

Recreation

There are walking and bicycle routes along the banks of the Sakai River, from

, to the river mouth in Fujisawa, Kanagawa.Sakai River Bicycle Route
/ref> Mooring of pleasure boats in the river is now prohibited.

Katase River

The is a segment of the Sakai River in

Shōnan is the name of a region along the coast of Sagami Bay in Kanagawa Prefecture, central Japan. Centered on Sagami River, about 60 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, the Shōnan region stretches from Ninomiya in the west to Fujisawa in the east, i ...

, central

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 ...

, about 50 kilometers southwest of

. The Katase is an approximately 3-kilometer-long segment of the Sakai River from ( 川名), Fujisawa, where the Sakai River and

join, to a point at

Enoshima is a small offshore island, about in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River which flows into the Sagami Bay of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Administratively, Enoshima is part of the mainland city of Fujisawa, and is linked to ...

Island, where the river flows into

Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the ...

. The river's name comes from Fujisawa City's Katase area through which it flows, at the foot of Kataseyama ( 片瀬山), and goes under the Katase Bridge of Route 134, before it meets Sagami Bay beside Katase Fisheries Port.

References

External links

(mouth) {{Authority control Rivers of Tokyo Rivers of Kanagawa Prefecture Rivers of Japan