Okegawa City

Safflower, once second only to Yamagata.

Okegawa safflower

Photo by 京浜にけ (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Safflower

Stone lanterns bear the namesof 24 safflower merchants.

Safflower seeds were brought here by Edo merchants in the Tenmei and Kansei eras (1781–1801), and the dye became known as Okegawa enji (桶川臙脂). It could be picked in June, earlier than in Yamagata, so traders prized it, and in the late Edo period it sometimes fetched higher prices than Mogami safflower. A pair of stone lanterns donated by 24 safflower merchants in 1857 still stands before the hall of the Inari Shrine (稲荷神社).

Second in Japan by output, late Edo period
Stone lanterns donated in 1857
24 safflower merchants

02 ／ Post town

Where Princess Kazu stayed,an 1852 inn still stands.

Okegawa-juku (桶川宿) was the sixth post town on the Nakasendō from Nihonbashi, with 36 inns in the Tenpō era. In 1861 Princess Kazu (皇女和宮) stayed at the honjin, the official inn, on her way to Edo, and it was extensively rebuilt for her. Its remains are the only surviving honjin on the Nakasendō in the prefecture. The Takemura Ryokan (武村旅館), an inn built in 1852, also still faces the old road.

Sixth from Nihonbashi
Princess Kazu stayed, 1861
Takemura Ryokan, 1852

03 ／ Flight school

A flight school that sent off tokkō pilotsis now a peace memorial.

In 1937 the Okegawa branch of the Kumagaya Army Flight School was set up here, and some 1,500 to 1,600 airmen learned to fly before it closed in February 1945. Late in the war it became a training ground for special attack (tokkō) units, and in April that year it sent 12 pilots to Chiran. After the war it housed repatriates. Its five remaining buildings were restored and opened in 2020 as the Okegawa Flight School Peace Memorial Museum (桶川飛行学校平和祈念館).

Opened 1937
1,500–1,600 trainees in all
Peace memorial since 2020

Living here

48 minutes to Tokyo, 44 to Shinjuku.

about 70,000 people

From Okegawa Station on the JR Takasaki Line, it is 48 minutes to Tokyo Station on the Ueno-Tokyo Line, 44 minutes to Shinjuku on a Shonan-Shinjuku Line special rapid, and about 14 minutes to Ōmiya. City Hall is a 9-minute walk from the station's west exit. Two interchanges on the Ken-Ō Expressway lie within the city.

People living here: 74,748people
Area: 25.35km²
Households: 30,918households
Rent (average for rentals): 57,617yen
Healthcare: 2 hospitals ／ 46 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —12 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Okegawa City in Japan36.003°N 139.559°E

to TokyoJR Ueno-Tokyo Line and Takasaki Line48min
to ShinjukuJR Shonan-Shinjuku Line special rapid44min
to ŌmiyaJR Takasaki Line14min

Travel times follow 市公式の魅力発信サイト OKE-KOI「桶川市へのアクセス」（2020-02-21 更新・秘書広報課）の「桶川駅から…東京駅まで48分…新宿駅まで44分」「大宮駅まで約14分」。JR東日本の桶川駅の時刻表（2026年10月版・平日上り）の列車ごとの停車駅一覧で、乗り換えの無い列車の値を確かめた (checked 2026-09-24). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 7 municipalities.

Territory of Okegawa City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

8.9km

上尾市, 北本市, 川島町, 久喜市, 伊奈町, 鴻巣市, 蓮田市

Okegawa City isthis kind of town.

01In the late Edo period it was Japan's second-largest safflower producer after Yamagata, and stone lanterns donated by 24 safflower merchants remain
02Okegawa-juku on the Nakasendō, where Princess Kazu stayed at the honjin, keeps an inn built in 1852
03The buildings of an army flight school that also sent off tokkō pilots have been restored as a peace memorial

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Okegawa City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗