kanagawa prefecture

Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県; Kanagawa-ken) is a geographic and political area located in the Kanto region on Honshu island, Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Yokosuka Port commanding the mouth of Tokyo Bay is headquartered by the U.S. 7th Fleet. This prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.

History

Most of the prefecture belonged to Sagami Province and some parts of Musashi Province in ancient Japan.
In the medieval age, samurai clans in Eastern Japan took military supremacy and established the shugunate government at Kamakura in central Sagami.
In the early modern age, the western part of Sagami Province was governed by a feudal lord with a castle in Odawara, and the eastern part was directly governed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo or today's Tokyo.
Under foreign pressure, Japan opened Yokohama Port to foreign traders in 1859. Yokohama developed into a modern and prosperous port in the modern age.
Yokosuka City commanding a strategic location at the mouth of Tokyo Bay developed as a naval port during the age of militarism. The port is still headquartered by the U.S. 7th Fleet and the Japanese Self-Defence Fleet.
Urban areas including Yokohama and Kawasaki were heavily damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and the heavy bombing in 1945.

Geography

Kanagawa is a relatively small prefecture wedged between Tokyo on the north, the foothills of Mount Fuji on the northwest, and the Pacific Ocean and Tokyo Bay on the south and east. The eastern side of the prefecture is relatively flat and heavily urbanized, including the large port cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki, but becomes more relaxed to the southeast, near the Miura Peninsula, where the ancient city of Kamakura draws tourists to its temples and shrines. The western part is more mountainous and includes resort areas like Odawara and Hakone. The Tama River forms much of the boundary between Kanagawa and Tokyo. The Sagami River flows through the middle of the prefecture.