Warabi City

Japan's smallest city, once a post town.

Warabi-juku

Photo by Souka Kinmei (CC0)

01 ／ Post town

The second stop out of Nihonbashi,with two honjin facing each other.

Warabi-juku (蕨宿) opened around 1612 as the second post town on the Nakasendō counting from Nihonbashi in Edo. Along about 1 km of street stood two honjin (inns for lords), one waki-honjin and 23 hatago inns, and Princess Kazu (皇女和宮) rested at the Kahei honjin. The honjin site is open today, and every 3 November the post-town festival is held on the old Nakasendō.

Opened around 1612
2 honjin, 23 inns
Post-town festival every 3 November

02 ／ Weaving

A weaving shop begun on a dreammade this a town of cloth.

蕨市立歴史民俗資料館分館.jpg — Photo by Souka Kinmei (CC0)

In 1826 Takahashi Shingorō (高橋新五郎) of Tsukagoshi village started a weaving business after a revelation in a dream, and his aoshima striped cloth became popular in Edo. Futako-ori (双子織), woven from two twisted imported threads, made Warabi's textiles boom, and Shingorō and his wife are enshrined as gods of weaving. A cloth broker's shop built in 1887 still stands on the Nakasendō as an annex of the city museum.

Weaving begun in 1826
Futako-ori cloth
An 1887 shop survives

03 ／ Painter

A painter of ghosts and skeletons,kept alive by his great-granddaughter.

Kawanabe Kyōsai (河鍋暁斎), a painter active from the end of the Edo period into Meiji, became a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi at seven, also trained in the Kanō school, and painted everything from Buddhist images to comic pictures of ghosts and dancing skeletons. The Kawanabe Kyosai Memorial Museum (河鍋暁斎記念美術館) in Minamimachi was opened in 1977 by his great-granddaughter Kawanabe Kusumi, who converted her home. It holds over 3,000 items, mainly sketches and drafts, and changes its displays every one or two months.

Opened 1977
Over 3,000 items
New displays every 1–2 months

Living here

About 4 km from one end of the city to the other.

about 70,000 people

At 5.11 km², and about 4 km from end to end, Warabi is the smallest city in Japan by area and the most densely populated. It is also where the coming-of-age ceremony began: in 1946 it held a seinen-shiki (成年式) ahead of the rest of the country. Its one station is Warabi Station on the JR Keihin-Tōhoku Line, a 14-minute walk from City Hall via the west exit. The city has more than 40 city parks.

People living here: 74,283people
Area: 5.11km²
Households: 36,827households
Rent (average for rentals): 64,659yen
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 50 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —13 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.

Warabi City in Japan35.826°N 139.680°E

to ŌmiyaJR Keihin-Tohoku Line15min

Travel times follow 市公式の子育てしたいまち情報冊子『わらびStyle』（蕨市ガイドブック・2024-12-26 増刷の版）の路線図に載っている、蕨駅から午前7時台の値 (checked 2026-09-24). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 3 municipalities.

Territory of Warabi City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

2.4km

川口市, 戸田市, さいたま市

Warabi City isthis kind of town.

01The smallest city in Japan at 5.11 km², it was Warabi-juku, the second post town on the Nakasendō from Nihonbashi
02Takahashi Shingorō started weaving here in 1826, and futako-ori cloth made it a textile town
03A memorial museum opened by Kawanabe Kyōsai's great-granddaughter holds over 3,000 items, mainly sketches and drafts

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Warabi City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗