is one of the 18 wards of the city of

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

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 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 n ...

. As of 2010, Hodogaya Ward had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 205,887 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematicall ...

of . The total area was .

Geography

Hodogaya Ward is located in eastern Kanagawa Prefecture, and near the geographic center of the city of Yokohama. The area is largely flatland, with scattered small hills.

Surrounding municipalities

* Kanagawa Ward * Nishi Ward *

Minami Ward Minami (kanji 南, hiragana みなみ) is a Japanese word meaning "south". Places Japan There are several Minami wards in Japan, most of them appropriately in the south part of a city: * Minami, Tokushima, a village in Tokushima Prefectur ...

* Asahi Ward * Totsuka Ward * Midori Ward

History

The area around present-day Hodogaya has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found stone tools from the

Japanese Paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC; although any date of human presence before 35,000 BC ...

period and ceramic shards from the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

at numerous locations in the area. Under the

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 c ...

Ritsuryō , , is the historical law system based on the philosophies of Confucianism and Chinese Legalism in Japan. The political system in accord to Ritsuryō is called "Ritsuryō-sei" (律令制). ''Kyaku'' (格) are amendments of Ritsuryō, ''Shiki' ...

system, it became part of Tachibana District and Tsutsuki District in

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, ...

. By 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 Japan ...

it was part of a huge ''

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

Ise Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inner ...

and administered by the Hangaya clan, a subsidiary of the

Hatakeyama clan The was a Japanese samurai clan. Originally a branch of the Taira clan and descended from Taira no Takamochi, they fell victim to political intrigue in 1205, when Hatakeyama Shigeyasu, first, and his father Shigetada later were killed in battle ...

. By the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle b ...

, the Hatakeyama clan ruled as local warlords until their territories were seized by 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 ...

from

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 ...

in the late

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by ...

. After the defeat of the Hōjō at the Battle of Odawara, the territory came under the control of

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

. It was 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' ...

'' territory controlled 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 ...

, but administered 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 ...

''. The area prospered 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 character ...

Hodogaya-juku was the fourth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in Hodogaya-ku in the present-day city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Occasionally, it is also written as . History Hodogaya-juku was established in 1601, an ...

, a post station on the Tōkaidō connecting

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 ...

with

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

. After 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 ...

, the area was transferred to the new

, and Hodogaya Town was established on April 1, 1889, two years after the completion of

Hodogaya Station is a passenger railway station located in Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Hodogaya Station is served by the Yokosuka Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line and is 31.8 kil ...

on the

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

railway connecting

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 37.46 ...

with

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

. Hodogaya suffered severe damage from the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

. On October 1, 1927 it was annexed by the neighboring city of Yokohama, becoming Hodogaya Ward. The area suffered greatly again during the Yokohama air raid of May 29, 1945. In a major administrative reorganization of October 1, 1969, Hodogaya gave up a large area the new Asahi Ward, and gained a portion of the territory of Kōhoku Ward.

Economy

Hodogaya Ward is largely a regional commercial center and

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for central Yokohama and Tokyo. Formerly a number of chemical, glass and electronics companies maintained factories in Hodogaya, but with the exception of the head offices of Furakawa Battery Company Ltd., all have relocated to less densely populated areas. There is some residual agriculture in Hodogaya Ward, primarily potatoes and cabbage.

Transportation

Railroads

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

Yokosuka Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The Yokosuka Line connects Tokyo Station with in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. Officially, the name Yokosuka Line is assigned to the 23.9 km segment between an ...

/ Shōnan-Shinjuku Line ** * Sotetsu Main Line ** - - - - *The

Tōkaidō Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 19 ...

and

pass through Hodogaya, but without any stations.

Bus services

* Yokohama City Transportation Bureau Municipal Bus * Sagami Railway Bus *

Kanagawa Chuo Kotsu 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. Kanagaw ...

Highways

Expressways

Shuto Expressway is a network of toll expressways in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is operated and maintained by the . Most routes are grade-separated (elevated roads or tunnels) and central routes have many sharp curves and multi-lane merges that requi ...

Kanagawa No. 2 Mitsuzawa Line **- Hodogaya IC *Shuto Expressway Kanagawa No. 3 Kariba Line **Kariba IC - *

Yokohama Shindō The Yokohama Shindō (横浜新道) is a major highway located entirely in the city of Yokohama in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is signed as a bypass of National Route 1 as well as being partially designated as an expressway numbered E83. ...

(a bypass of Route 1) **Hodogaya IC - Tokiwadai IC - Mineoka IC - Hoshikawa IC - Fujitsuka IC - Shin-Hodogaya IC - Imai IC - *Hodogaya Bypass (a bypass of Route 16) ** - Shin-Sakuragaoka IC - Shin-Hodogaya IC *

Yokohama Yokosuka Road is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

National Highways

Route 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads number ...

* Route 16 * Route 466 (Daisan Keihin Road)

Prefecture roads

*Kanagawa Prefecture Road 21 Yokohama-Kamakura Line *Kanagawa Prefecture Road 109 Aoto-Kamihoshikawa Line *Kanagawa Prefecture Road 201 Hodogaya Stop Line

City roads

*Yokohama Loop Line 2

Education

University: *

Yokohama National University , abbreviated to or YNU, is a national university located in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Founded in 1876, it became a national university in 1949, and currently comprises five graduate schools and four undergraduate faculties. The univ ...

Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education The is the board of education for Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. The board consists of six members; one of them is elected as the chair, and one of them is appointed by the board as the superintendent. The board administers municipal education and ...

operates prefectural high schools. Prefectural senior high schools: * * * Municipal high schools of the : Private high schools: * The board of education operates public elementary and junior high schools. Junior high schools: *Arai (新井) *Hodogaya (保土ケ谷) *Iwaihara (岩井原) *Iwasaki ( 岩崎) *Kamisugeta ( 上菅田) *Miyata (宮田) *Nishiya (西谷) *Tachibana ( 橘) Additionally Karuisawa Junior High School (軽井沢中学校), which has its campus outside of Hodogaya-ku, has a zone that includes portions of Hodogaya-ku. Elementary schools:
From this link
/ref> *Arai (新井) *Bukkō (仏向) *Fujimidai ( 富士見台) *Fujizuka (藤塚) *Gontazaka (権太坂) *Hatsunegaoka (初音が丘) *Hodogaya ( 保土ケ谷) *Hoshikawa (星川) *Imai ( 今井) *Iwasaki (岩崎) *Kamihoshikawa (上星川) *Kamisugeta Sasa no Oka ( 上菅田笹の丘) *Katabira ( 帷子) *Kawashima ( 川島) *Mine (峯) *Sakamoto (坂本) *Sakuradai ( 桜台) *Setogaya (瀬戸ケ谷) *Tokiwadai (常盤台) Former: *Sasayama Additionally, the zones of Higashi Shinano Elementary (東品濃小学校), Mitsuzawa Elementary ( 三ツ沢小学校), Miyagaya Elementary ( 宮谷小学校), and Sakaigi Elementary ( 境木小学校), schools not in Hodogaya-ku, include portions of Hodogaya-ku.

Noted people from Hodogaya Ward

* Setsuko Hara, actress *

Kanako Mitsuhashi is a Japanese actress and voice actress from the Hodogaya-ku ward of Yokohama. Mitsuhashi is best known for her roles as Killua Zoldyck from ''Hunter × Hunter'', Rico from ''Gunslinger Girl'', and Suzuka Asahina from '' Suzuka''. She was marri ...

, voice actress *

Risa Niigaki is a Japanese actress and singer. She was a fifth-generation member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2001 along with 3 others- Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa. She grew up in Yokohama after movin ...

, singer *

Akira Terao is a Japanese musician, singer and movie actor. As of 2012, he is the only male actor to have received both the Japan Record Award and the Japan Academy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Early life Terao was bor ...

, actor * Hiroshi Yamamoto, Olympic medal archer *

Masahiro Matsuoka is a Japanese drummer and actor. He is a member of Tokio, a Johnny Entertainment musical group. His nicknames are Mabo and Maa-kun. He starred as Shinichi Ozaki in '' Godzilla: Final Wars'', and comedy series ''Yasuko to Kenji''. Career As a ...

, idol

Song of Ward

* "Waga Machi Hodogaya" (Our Town, Hodogaya): Lyrics by Monami Kaihara, Music by Masaoki Okajima

References

* Kato, Yuzo. ''Yokohama Past and Present''. Yokohama City University (1990).

External links

Hodogaya Ward Office Official Website
in English * {{Authority control Wards of Yokohama