Kanagawa Prefecture

Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県, Kanagawa-ken) is a prefecture located in southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital of the prefecture is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. Kanagawa Prefecture is home to Kamakura and Hakone, two highly popular side trip destinations from Tokyo.

History

The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jomon period (around 400 BCE). About 3,000 years ago, Mount Hakone produced a volcanic explosion which resulted in Lake Ashi on the western area of the prefecture.

It is believed that the Yamato Dynasty ruled this area from the 5th century onwards. In the ancient era, its plains were very sparsely inhabited.

Kamakura in central Sagami was the capital of Japan during the Kamakura period (1185–1333).

In medieval Japan, Kanagawa was part of the provinces of Sagami and Musashi.

During the Edo period, the western part of Sagami Province was governed by the daimyo of Odawara Castle, while the eastern part was directly governed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo (Tokyo).

Kanagawa (disambiguation)

The word "Kanagawa" may refer to:

Places

People

See also

17683 Kanagawa

17683 Kanagawa, provisional designation 1997 AR₁₆, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, about 22 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 10 January 1997, by Japanese astronomer Atsuo Asami at the Hadano Astronomical Observatory (355), located 60 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, Japan.

The C-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.5–3.5 AU once every 5 years and 2 months (1,883 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 18 degrees from the plane of the ecliptic.

In 2009, a photometric light-curve analysis at the Wise Observatory in Israel, rendered a well-defined rotation period of 7000589500000000000♠5.895±0.004 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.4 in magnitude. According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid has a low albedo between 0.030 and 0.062, and a diameter in the range of 16.8 to 22.1 kilometers. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.033 with a diameter of 22.1 kilometers.