Urawa, Saitama

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Urawa (浦和市; -shi) used to be a distinct city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, until it merged into the city of Saitama together with two other cities, Omiya and Yono, on May 1, 2001. In 2003 Urawa's area was sectored into Urawa-ku (浦和区), Midori-ku, Minami-ku and Sakura-ku which are wards of Saitama City. The Saitama city hall and the prefectural government are located in Urawa-ku.

[edit] History

In the Edo period, the area of modern-day Urawa-ku flourished as a posting station of national high way Nakasendō, which connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto. But it was not so big a town as Iwatsuki, which was the only castle town in the area of modern-day Saitama City. In 1869 (Meiji period in Japan), the Prefectural Government of Urawa Prefecture was set up, and the Government's Office was located in Urawa Town. In1871, Iwatsuki, Urawa, and Oshi Prefectures mergerd to form Saitama Prefecture, and Urawa Town became the capital of this new Prefecture. After the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, Tokyo and many other cities near Tokyo was heavily damaged. Urawa Town is not so far from Tokyo, and yet was not so entirely damaged compared to Tokyo, Yokohama, and other cities in Kanto area, so many intellectuals, especially painters, moved to Urawa, and so this old posting station started to change into a modern city. After that several neighboring villages were merged to Urawa, and in 1934, Urawa Town became a city. The city existed up until the 2001 merger with Ōmiya and Yono to form Saitama. At that time the city had a population of 488 thousand.