Ōi River
Kanaya was developed from the Edo period as Kanaya-juku, a post town on the Tōkaidō. Located on the west bank of the Ōi River, Kanaya prospered from the Tokugawa Shogunate's policy of not allowing any bridge or ferry to be established on the Ōi River in order to strengthen Edo's defenses. Travellers waiting to cross the river on foot were often trapped in Kanaya for days, if not weeks, waiting for the river to become shallow enough to ford.