Nerima
Nerima is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It is mainly a residential ward, located in the northwest of the Wards Area of Tokyo. In English, the ward translates "ward" as "city" and refers to itself as Nerima City, as do some of the other special wards of Tokyo. In Japanese, it still refers to itself as Nerima Ward. It is the 23rd and the newest ward in Tokyo.
Nerima Ward is nicknamed "the town of animation", because the earliest anime studios started up in the ward, like Toei Animation and Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production, making it the birthplace of anime, of the first color anime feature film The White Snake Enchantress, and of the first anime TV series Astro Boy., Nerima has the largest concentration of anime studios in Japan, followed by the neighboring Suginami Ward. Nerima has also served as the setting for several popular anime and manga series, including Doraemon, Ranma ½, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Tokyo Ghoul, and Digimon Adventure.
, the ward has an estimated total population of 749,451 people. It has 399,800 households, and 21.6% of the ward's population is elderly. The total area of the ward is 48.08 km2, which gives a population density of 15,591 persons per km2.
Geography
Nerima is located within the Wards Area of Tokyo, in the north part of the West of the Palace area. Neighboring wards are Itabashi Ward, Toshima Ward, Suginami Ward, and Nakano Ward. To the west it neighbors two cities in the Tama Area of Tokyo: Musashino, and Nishitōkyō. To the north lie three cities in Saitama Prefecture: Wakō, Asaka and Niiza.The ward is roughly rectangular, measuring 10km east to west and 4km to 7km north to south, with an area of 48.08km. It accounts for about 7.7% of the total area of the 23 wards, making it the 5th largest of the 23 wards.
To the northwest, there is a small exclave called Nishi-Ōizumimachi, enclaved within the city of Niiza in Saitama Prefecture. The ward is working to incorporate the exclave into Saitama Prefecture, but residents are opposed to the plan.
Terrain
The entire ward lies within the Musashino Plateau and features soil composed of loam formed from volcanic ash. The highest point in the 23 wards is in Nerima Ward, around Musashi-Seki Park. There are two peaks in the plateau at an altitude of about 58m in Sekimachi-Minami 4th Street and Sekimachi-Kita 4th Street.Water Bodies
The main rivers are the Shakujii River and the Shirako River, and the difference in elevation is small. In the past, the Naka-Arai River, the Senkawa Aqueduct, and the Tagara Irrigation Canal flowed through the ward, but have dried out since. Groundwater from the Musashino Plateau surfaces as springs, creating the Sambōji Pond, Shakujii Pond, and Fujimi Pond.Class A Rivers">Classification of rivers in Japan">Class A Rivers
- Shakujii River
- Shirako River
Ponds
- Sambōji Pond
- Shakujii Pond
- Fujimi Pond
Extinct Water Bodies
- Naka-Arai River
- Senkawa Aqueduct
- Tagara Irrigation Canal
- Nukui Pond
- Igashira Pond
Neighborhoods
The neighborhoods are as follows, arranged by postal code and postal area:
Nerima Area
Shakujii Area
Ōizumi Area
Hikarigaoka Area
Postal Code
In Nerima Ward, the first three digits of the postal code are either 176, 177, 178, or 179, depending on the area.- 〒176-00XX: Nerima Post Office
- 〒177-00XX: Shakujii Post Office
- 〒178-00XX: Ōizumi Post Office
- 〒179-00XX: Hikarigaoka Post Office
Climate
These temperature variations, combined with drainage from local rivers and irrigation canals, create ideal conditions for agriculture. Nerima has become renowned for its specialty crops, including Nerima daikon, cabbage, blueberries, and grapes.
Annual precipitation typically ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 millimeters, showing no clear long-term trends.
Parks
- Hikarigaoka Park
- Shakujii Park
- Ōizumi Central Park
- Musashiseki Park
- Jōhoku Central Park
- Takamatsu Park
Facilities
Museums
- Ward art museum
- Iwasaki Chihiro illustrated book museum
- Tōei Animation Museum
Amusement Parks
Toshimaen
was an amusement park in Nerima Ward. The majority of the former Toshimaen site was purchased by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government after its closure, and is planned to be developed as a large park that serves as a base for use in event of a disaster. Another part of it was used to reopen as The Making of Harry Potter - Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo.The Making of ''Harry Potter'' - Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo
Toshimaen reopened as Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter, announced in August 2020 and opened on June 16, 2023, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter is the second such park in the world, after the one in London, which opened in 2012. It is located in Nerima Ward, on part of the now-defunct Toshimaen amusement park site. Similar to its counterpart in London, the 30,000 square-meter attraction in Tokyo offers visitors a walking tour through some of the recreated famous film sets including the Great Hall, the Forbidden Forest, and the Diagon Alley. It also displays film sets, costumes, and props that were used in the Harry Potter films. In addition to Harry Potter, it also covers the Fantastic Beasts spin-offs. Steam locomotive 4920 Dumbleton Hall, which is identical to the locomotive used in the Harry Potter movies, will be an exhibit.History
People first began living in Nerima during the Paleolithic period. Archaeological evidence that bears witness to this has been discovered throughout the ward, such as the Paleolithic spear-point stone tools excavated from the Musashi-Seki site, which are registered as cultural property of the ward.File:Shakujii Castle.jpg|thumb|Ruins of Shakujii Castle, Kamakura/Muromachi-era seat of the Toshima clan's territory
During the Heian period, most of Nerima was part of Toshima District, which included the city of Edo, in Musashi Province. By the end of the Heian period, the Toshima clan had control of the district.
During the beginning of the Muromachi period, the Toshima clan, who had power at the mouth of the Arakawa River, expanded their territory along the Shakujii River, and eventually built Nerima Castle and Shakujii Castle. The Toshima clan continued to rule until Toshima Yasutsune, the lord of Shakujii Castle, was defeated on April 28, 1477, by Ōta Dōkan, a vassal of the Uesugi clan who built Edo Castle.
The leyend has it that when Dōkan launched his final assault on Shakujii Castle, the castle's lord Toshima Yasutsune faced inevitable defeat. Yasutsune placed a golden saddle, a treasured heirloom of the Toshima clan, on his snow-white horse and rode to the cliff behind the castle. With Dōkan's soldiers watching from below, he spurred his horse over the edge, plunging into the waters of Sanbōji Pond, where both horse and rider drowned. Yasutsune had a beautiful second daughter called Princess Teruhime, who was so saddened by her father's death that she threw herself into the same pond and drowned with him. Moved by compassion for the princess, Dōkan ordered a memorial mound built in her honor. Local folklore says that those who climb the old pine tree near Teruhime's mound can glimpse the golden saddle still gleaming at the bottom of the pond. This tree is called Teruhi-no-Matsu. Today, Nerima Ward commemorates the princess with an annual festival called the Teruhime Matsuri.
After the defeat of the Toshima clan, the area came under the influence of the Ōta clan, and then the Hōjō clan, before transitioning into the Tokugawa era.
During the Edo period, Nerima developed as a major suburban farming village in Toshima District, that supplied the city of Edo with daikon, burdock, and potatoes, among other products. During this period, the area's specialty, Nerima daikon developed. The earliest reference of Nerima daikon is from the 1683 geography book Murasak-no-Ippon One of the legends about its origin is related to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the 5th shogun of the Edo shogunate, who built a villa in the village of Shimo-Nerima before becoming shogun, and brought seeds of Miyashige daikon from Owari to a vacant lot within the villa and cultivated them. The Senkawa Aqueduct, which is now almost a culvert, was developed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1696 and became a valuable water resource for agriculture in Nerima at the time.
After the Boshin War, the city of Edo was removed from Toshima District, and was renamed Tokyo City. In 1878, during the abolition of the han system in the Meiji era, the rest of Toshima District was divided into Kita-Toshima District and Minami-Toshima District. Nerima was incorporated into Kita-Toshima District under the District, Town and Village Organization Act of 1878.
After the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, population began to flow from the city center into the Nerima area.
On October 1, 1932, Kita-Toshima District merged into Tokyo City as part of Itabashi Ward, including the town of Nerima and the villages of Kami-Nerima, Naka-Arai, Shakujii, and Ōizumi.
During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army operated Narimasu Airfield in the Nerima area in Itabashi Ward. At its peak, the earthworks were rushed, with 3,000 people working in day and night shifts each day. The Imperial Japanese Army's 47th Air Squadron, 43rd Airfield Battalion, and the Narimasu Detachment Maintenance Unit of the Tachikawa Branch of the Air Arsenal were based there.
Towards the end of the war, it became a place for the Southern Operation Squadron to regain its fighting strength, and the 48th and 231st Shinbu Special Attack Units were stationed here and used it as a training ground. In addition, the 101st, 102nd, and 103rd Air Squadrons were also relocated there.
Remnants of its wartime infrastructure can still be seen today. Concrete bunkers that once housed aircraft remain visible in Hikarigaoka Park, and the runway is now the main street in front of the IMA department store in Hikarigaoka.
During the occupation of Japan, the occupying Allied forces renamed the former Narimasu Airfield to Grant Heights on March 3, 1947. On April 5, the construction of family quarters for the United States Army Air Forces began, and was finished in June, 1948.
In 1946, shortly after the end of the war, the local government system was reviewed by a memorandum of the Allied Forces. One of the measures was to merge the then 35 wards of Tokyo into 22 wards. The people of the Nerima area in Itabashi Ward had long been troubled by the distance of the Itabashi Ward Office. Since the establishment of Itabashi Ward in 1932, there have been several talks about separating the Nerima region, but they had not been successful. During the review of the ward system, the town council presidents, ward assembly members, and various organization leaders of Nerima, Shakujii, and Ōizumi got together to try to make Nerima independent from Itabashi Ward, but the purpose of the occupying forces was to merge wards, not create new ones. In March, 1947, the wards of Tokyo were merged into 22 wards, with Nerima still being part of Itabashi Ward. After much campaigning, five months after the establishment of the 22 special wards, on August 1st, Nerima Ward was established and declared independent from Itabashi Ward, becoming the 23rd special ward of Tokyo. Nerima Ward's independence day is commemorated annually.
When the Allied occupation of Japan ended in 1952, the Japan Self-Defense Forces established a base in Nerima Ward. The first division of the eastern group of the Ground Self-Defense Force has its headquarters there.
In 1973, the United States Forces Japan returned Grant Heights to Japanese control.