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17-754: It passes through the Kita , Adachi , Arakawa , Sumida , Taitō , Kōtō and Chūō wards of Tokyo . What is now known as the "Sumida River" was previously the path of the Ara-kawa. Toward the end of the Meiji era, the Ara-kawa was manually diverted to prevent flooding, as the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda is nearby. Sumida Gawa pottery was named after the Sumida River and was originally manufactured in

34-538: A whole, e.g. today's Hiroshima City ( -shi ) was then Hiroshima-ku ; the three major cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto were each subdivided into several such wards. In Tokyo Prefecture, this created 15 wards (listed below) and six counties/districts. In 1888, the central government created the legal framework for the current system of cities ( shi ) that granted some basic local autonomy rights – with some similarities to Prussia's system of local self-government as Meiji government advisor Albert Mosse heavily influenced

51-516: Is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan . The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is City of Kita . The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 340,287, and a population density of 16,510 persons per km . The total area is 20.61 km . The area was a collection of rural villages and towns until

68-518: The Asakusa district near Tokyo by potter Inoue Ryosai I and his son Inoue Ryosai II. In the late 1890s, Ryosai I developed a style of applied figures on a surface with flowing glaze, based on Chinese glazes called "flambe." Sumida pieces could be teapots, ash trays, or vases, and were made for export to the West. Inoue Ryosai III, grandson of Ryosai I, moved the manufacturing site to Yokohama in 1924, but

85-526: The 1880s, when it was connected by rail to central Tokyo ( Oji Station opening in 1883). Parts of the area joined Tokyo City in 1932 as the Ōji (former Ōji and Iwabuchi towns) and Takinogawa (former Takinogawa town) Wards. Kita was officially formed in 1947 by the merger of these wards. The name Kita, meaning "north," reflects the location among the wards of Tokyo. To its north lie the cities of Kawaguchi and Toda in Saitama Prefecture . To

102-682: The Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Penguin Classics, 1967). The Sumida River appears in a haiku by Issa from 1820: Harusame ya Nezumi no nameru Sumida-gawa spring rain— a mouse is lapping Sumida river The Sumida runs through Tokyo for 27 kilometers, under 26 bridges spaced at about one bridge per kilometer. Amongst these, the principal ones are: 35°43′07″N 139°48′26″E  /  35.71861°N 139.80722°E  / 35.71861; 139.80722 Kita-ku, Tokyo Kita ( 北区 , Kita-ku , "Northern ward")

119-563: The States) are high, even for pieces in less than perfect condition." The Noh play Sumida-gawa , which the British composer Benjamin Britten saw while visiting Japan in 1956, inspired him to compose Curlew River (1964), a dramatic work based on the story. The kabuki play, Sumida-gawa — Gonichi no Omokage , is perhaps better known by the title Hokaibo , which is the name of

136-748: The central character. This stage drama was written by Nakawa Shimesuke, and it was first produced in Osaka in 1784. The play continues to be included in kabuki repertoire in Japan; and it is also performed in the West. It was recreated by the Heisei Nakamura-za in the Lincoln Center Festival in New York in the summer of 2007, with Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII leading the cast. The Sumida River Fireworks , which are recognized as one of

153-638: The east, south and west lie other special wards: Adachi , Arakawa , Itabashi , Bunkyō , and Toshima . Four rivers run through Kita: The head office of Seiyu Group is in Kita. The city's public elementary and middle schools are operated by the City of Kita Board of Education . The city's public high schools are operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education . The following private domestic schools are in

170-577: The establishment of Tokyo Metropolis on 1 July 1943. The historical boundaries of Tokyo City are now occupied by the special wards of Tokyo . The defunct city and its prefecture became what is now Tokyo, also known as the Tokyo Metropolis or, ambiguously, Tokyo Prefecture. In 1868, the city of Edo , seat of the Tokugawa government, was renamed Tokyo, and the offices of Tokyo Prefecture ( -fu ) were opened. The extent of Tokyo Prefecture

187-548: The government began to appoint a separate mayor of Tokyo City in 1898, but retained ward-level legislation, which continues to this day in the special ward system. From 1926, the mayor was elected by the elected city council/assembly from its own ranks. The city hall of Tokyo was located in the Yūrakuchō district, on a site now occupied by the Tokyo International Forum . Tokyo became the second-largest city in

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204-506: The oldest and most famous firework displays in Japan, are launched from barges across the river between Ryōgoku and Asakusa . During summer, a festival is also held at the same time. The poet Matsuo Bashō lived by the Sumida River, alongside the famous banana tree (Japanese: bashō) from which he took his nom de plume . See, for example, the opening lines of "Records of a Weather Exposed Skeleton," published in The Narrow Road to

221-492: The organization of local government. But under a special imperial regulation, Tokyo City, like Kyoto City and Osaka City, initially did not maintain a separate mayor; instead, the (appointed) governor of Tokyo Prefecture served as mayor of Tokyo City. The Tokyo city council /assembly ( Tōkyō-shikai ) was first elected in May 1889. Each ward also retained its own assembly. City and prefectural government were separated in 1898., and

238-607: The pieces continued to be identified as Sumida ware. The pottery has been subject to various myths, such as being manufactured on the make-believe island of Poo, which was washed away by a typhoon, or being manufactured by Korean prisoners of war. Sandra Andacht wrote in 1987, "Sumida gawa wares have found great popularity with collectors, dealers and investors. The motifs conform to the general Western concepts of what Oriental designs are expected to depict; writhing dragons, Buddhist disciples, mythological and legendary beings and creatures. Thus, these wares are sought after and prices (here in

255-436: The ward: The following international schools are in the ward: The following universities are in the ward: Kita has a sister city relationship with Xuanwu District, Beijing , China. It is also twinned with the following cities in Japan. Tokyo City Tokyo City ( 東京市 , Tōkyō-shi ) was a municipality in Japan and capital of Tokyo Prefecture (or Tokyo-fu ) which existed from 1 May 1889 until

272-578: The world (population 4.9 million) upon absorbing several outlying districts in July 1932, giving the city a total of 35 wards. In 1943, the city was abolished along with Tokyo Prefecture to form Tokyo Metropolis and Tokyo Metropolitan Government , which was functionally a part of the central government of Japan: the governor of Tokyo became a Cabinet minister reporting directly to the Prime Minister . This system remained in place until 1947 when

289-474: Was initially limited to the former Edo city, but rapidly augmented to be comparable with the present Tokyo Metropolis. In 1878, the Meiji government's reorganization of local governments subdivided prefectures into counties or districts ( gun , further subdivided into towns and villages , later reorganized similar to Prussian districts ) and districts or wards ( ku ) which were in ordinary prefectures cities as

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