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History of Odawara


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The area around present day Odawara has been settled since prehistoric times, and archaeological evidence indicates that the area had a high population density in the Jomon period. From the Ritsury? system of the Nara period, the area became part of Ashigarashimo District of Sagami Province. It was divided into sh?en during the Heian period, mostly controlled by the Hatano clan and its various branches. During the Gempei War between the Heike clan and Minamoto no Yoritomo, the Battle of Ishibashiyama was fought near present-day Odawara. During the Sengoku period, Odawara developed as a castle town and capital of the domains of the late H?j? clan, which covered most of the Kant? region. The H?j? were defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the Battle of Odawara in 1590, despite the impregnable reputation of Odawara Castle, and the territory came under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Odawara became a Odawara Domain, a feudal han ruled by a succession of daimy?. The castle town prospered as Odawara-juku, a post station on the T?kaid? highway connecting Edo with Kyoto. After the Meiji Restoration, Odawara Domain briefly became �Odawara Prefecture�, which was merged with the short-live �Ashigara Prefecture� before joining Kanagawa Prefecture in 1876. During this period, the center of economic and political life in Kanagawa shifted to Yokohama, and Odawara suffered a strong decline in population, which was made more severe when the original route of the T?kaid? Main Line bypassed the city in favor of the more northerly route via Gotemba.

The epicenter of the Great Kant? earthquake in 1923 was deep beneath Izu ?shima Island in Sagami Bay. It devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka Prefectures, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kant? region. Ninety percent of the buildings in Odawara collapsed immediately, and fires burned the rubble along with anything else left
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