The is a river in the
Kantō region
The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...
of
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. It splits from the
Tone River
The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...
at the northernmost tip of
Noda City in the Sekiyado district, crosses through
Nagareyama and
Matsudo, and empties into
Tokyo Bay
is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...
at
Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. The Edo forms the borders between
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
,
Chiba, and
Saitama prefectures. The Edo River is long.
The course of the Edo River was originally the lower course of the Tone River. The Tone was diverted in 1654 by the
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
to protect the city of
Edo from flooding. The Edo was used to connect the north and east of the Kantō region to the capital at Edo, specifically to transport large amounts of cargo from
Chōshi and other cities on the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
coast inland to the capital.
Before the industrialization of the Tokyo region the river was also used to cultivate
lotus roots.
Inland transportation ended in the early 20th century due to the development of an extensive rail cargo network in the Kantō region, but the Edo River remains an important source of water for industrial production as well as drainage for the densely populated areas of metropolitan Tokyo.
Tokyo Disneyland
is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney park t ...
is located on
landfill
A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...
adjacent to a diverted branch of the Edo River known as the Kyū Edo River which empties into Tokyo Bay between
Urayasu, Chiba and the Minamikasai district of
Edogawa, Tokyo
is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. It takes its name from the Edo River that runs from north to south along the eastern edge of the ward. In English, it uses the name Edogawa City.
The easternmo ...
.
The Edo river has distance markers at every 250 meters that mark the distance from the river mouth that meets with the Tokyo Bay.
References
External links
(mouth)
Rivers of Ibaraki Prefecture
Rivers of Chiba Prefecture
Rivers of Tokyo
Rivers of Saitama Prefecture
Rivers of Japan
Geography of the Kanto region
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