page_title: Kawaguchi, Saitama
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kawaguchi, Saitama / History
caption_attribution_description: Part of the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, no. 020, part 1: Spring.
context_page_description: Kawaguchi is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 March 2018, the city had an estimated population of 600,388, and a population density of 9,691.49 persons per km². Its total area is 61.95 square kilometres. It is the Greater Tokyo Area's 8th most populated city, and second largest in Saitama Prefecture.
context_section_description: After the last ice age, during early and middle Jōmon period, most of the area which is now Kawaguchi was under sea level except for the area which is now Omiya Tableland. Ancient peoples living in this area left several shell middens, in which shells, Jōmon pottery, and pit houses have been discovered by archaeologists. Many Kofun period  barrows were also found in Kawaguchi, however many have also been destroyed by urban development. From the Heian period onwards, Kawaguchi was part of Musashi Province. The name "Kawaguchi" appears in the Kamakura period chronicle Gikeiki, but it is not proven that this name designated current area of Kawaguchi.
  During the Edo period, Kawaguchi-juku developed as a post station on the Nikkō Onari Kaidō, a highway used by the Tokugawa shōgun and daimyō to visit Nikkō Tōshō-gū. Towards the Bakumatsu period and into the Meiji period, the demand for metal products increased. Because of proximity to Tokyo and convenient water transportation using Arakawa River, Kawaguchi became the center of metal casting industry, for which it has remained famous until modern times.
  The modern town of Kawaguchi was established within Kitaadachi District, Saitama on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the municipalities system. Kawaguchi was elevated to city status on April 1, 1933 by the merger of Kawaguchi with the neighboring villages of Aoki, Minami-Hirayanagi and Yokozone. The city expanded by annexing the town of Hatogaya and villages of Shiba, Kamine and Shingō in 1940. However, Hatogaya separated from Kawaguchi in 1948 in accordance with the results of a referendum.
  Kawaguchi has experienced many disasters, including flood, earthquake and war. The Arakawa River has inundated Kawaguchi countless times and ruined agriculture, which resulted in famines. Also, the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake damaged buildings in Kawaguchi, killing 99 people.
  Currently, the population of Kawaguchi continues to increase, and many tall apartment buildings are being built around train stations. This is because many casting foundries moved to suburban industrial parks and the former sites were turned into residential areas.
  On April 1, 2001, Kawaguchi was designated a special city, with increased local autonomy.
  On October 11, 2011, Kawaguchi re-absorbed the city of Hatogaya.
caption: An ukiyo-e woodblock print from the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo series by Utagawa Hiroshige, depicting the crossing of the Arakawa River at Zenkō-ji Temple (1857).
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