page_title: Chūō-ku, Niigata
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Chūō-ku, Niigata / History
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 1955年の新潟大火で全焼したラジオ新潟（現在のBSN新潟放送）社屋（大和デパート屋上）。その直後に民放連が発刊したパンフレットの表紙。『民間放送十年史』に引用。
context_page_description: Chūō-ku is one of the eight wards of Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, in the Hokuriku region of Japan. It comprises much of the city centre. As of 1 September 2018, the ward had an estimated population of 183,231 in 87,162 households and a population density of 4,900 persons per km². The total area of the ward was 37.75 square kilometres.
context_section_description: The area of present-day Chūō-ku was part of ancient Echigo Province, and developed as a port town for Nagaoka Domain under the Edo period Tokugawa Shogunate. Niigata was one of the ports opened to foreign trade by the 1858 Harris Treaty. Modern Niigata city was created with the establishment of the municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The Hokuetsu Railway commented Niigata to Tokyo in 1897, and the first Bandai Bridge across the Shinano River was completed in 1908, shortly before the city was destroyed by a fire. The city escaped serious damage in World War II; however, much of the city burned down in a fire in 1955 and again suffered from damage in the 1964 Niigata earthquake.
  Niigata became a government-designated city on April 1, 2007 and was divided into wards, with the new Chūō Ward consisting of much of the central business portion of the city.
caption: Picture shown by aftermath of 1955 Great Niigata Fire in downtown area, according to the official confirmed report, kills one person with injuries 235
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