History of Yoshikawa city
In ancient times, the area in and around Yoshikawa was situated deep at the bottom of Tokyo bay. People started living at low ground after the sea started to retreat. According to one of the poems in the famous anthology, "the Manyou-shu", a collection of tanka poems written in the 7th and 8th century, people started farming after that time in the Katsushika area, including this region.
Since then, the Yoshikawa area passed centuries as an agricultural district. In the late 14th century, more than 50 households of Yoshikawa-gou and Hikonari-gou , and less than 50 households in the south of the region were put together and were called "Nigouhanryou" a term which is still in use today for this area.
In the Edo era, (modern times) this region became Edo government-controlled land, and thus, it was ruled by the magistrate's office. As a result of this reclamation, the surrounding area of Yoshikawa became a prominent paddy field and was also developed as a production center of "Wase rice". Moreover, the shipping industry grew. The Naka river was used to transport rice to Tokyo, and the Yoshikawa & Hiranuma banks flourished as a product trading center. The excellent straw products of Yoshikawa, were shipped from these banks to Tokyo constantly. Thus the tradition that was used to produce the circle of the sumo ring was still alive in recent years.
