Giyoda-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about seventy-nine thousand (78,617 in 2020). Its course is a gentle decline. From 86,308 in 2000, through 84,720 in 2005, 85,786 in 2010 and 82,113 in 2015, to 78,617 in 2020, it fell by about eight thousand over twenty years.

Looking inside the figures, a form typical of a town on the northern lowland of the Kanto plain appears. The share aged 65 and over rose roughly twofold over twenty years, from 15.8% (2000) to 31.8% (2020), passing three in ten. The household-with-children share is 19.0% (2020), and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.66 in fiscal 2023 — a level covering about two-thirds of expenditure with its own tax revenue, middling for a small-to-mid city. The figure of a town where the prefecture’s name was born and that supplied tabi to the nation, gently losing population while deepening its aging, appears in the numbers. Why it took this form cannot be read without going back over the history of kofun, a castle town, and home side work.

This town’s skeleton is set by several layers piled together: the kofun ground where the prefecture’s name was born, a Warring States castle town, and the tabi side work that took root in that castle town. The oldest layer is the kofun. In this town remain a cluster of nine large kofun, including a great round kofun and a keyhole-shaped kofun said to be the largest in Musashi Province. The name of this kofun ground, raised from the late fifth to the early seventh century, is said to be the place where the present prefecture’s name was born, and is sung even in the ancient poetry. From an early age, the cluster of kofun tells that this land was the center of its region.

The next layer is the castle town. In the Muromachi era a castle was built in this land, and in the Warring States period the warrior band of this land made that castle its base. In the wars of the Toyotomi unification, this castle was attacked by a great army, but the castle, into whose lowland water had been drawn, did not fall easily and is said to have withstood the water siege. In the Edo era it became the castle town of a domain centered on this castle. And what took root in that castle town was the work of making split-toed footwear. Begun in the mid-Edo era as the side work of low-ranking samurai whose lives were hard, this work was mechanized with the coming of the Meiji era, and the town became a major production center. At its most flourishing, the footwear made in this town came to account for eighty percent of what was made in the nation, and buildings that stored the products in storehouses lined the town. A castle that withstood a water siege was built on the kofun ground where the prefecture’s name was born, and the tabi side work took root in its castle town — this town’s form stands upon the many histories the northern lowland of the Kanto plain held.

What characterizes Gyoda-shi is that, while bearing the history of a tabi production center, it gently loses population and deepens its aging. From 86,308 in 2000 to 78,617 in 2020, it fell by about eight thousand over twenty years. The tabi industry, which at its most flourishing made eighty percent of the nation’s footwear, gradually lost demand as people’s footwear shifted to Western styles. With the shrinking of the tabi industry that had supported the town, and under the location of a lowland a little removed from the great cities, the inflow of a young generation has not fully made up for the decline of population, and the town can be read as having gently lost population. That the share aged 65 and over passed three in ten at 31.8% in 2020 is its expression too.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.66 is a level covering about two-thirds of expenditure with its own tax revenue, middling for a small-to-mid city. The garment and food industries that the town moved into from tabi, and the income of its residents, can be read as supporting the tax source at a middling level. A shrinking population, deepening aging, and yet finances that do not collapse from the middle — the northern Kanto town that supplied tabi to the nation holds these three at once. Following any single line alone, the town’s expression does not surface.

Gyoda holds several functions within a single lowland. One is the old layer, where a cluster of kofun remains — including a keyhole-shaped kofun said to be the largest in Musashi Province — and the name of that ground is said to be the place where the prefecture’s name was born. Another is the history of a castle said to have withstood the water siege of a great army in the Warring States period, and of the tabi side work that took root in its castle town, keeping the character of a production center that at its most flourishing made eighty percent of the nation’s footwear. And the location of a lowland caught between the Tone River and the Arakawa River layered the kofun ground, the castle and the tabi production center here.

From the kofun ground where the prefecture’s name was born, to the castle that withstood a water siege, and on to the tabi side work that made eighty percent of the nation’s footwear — the condition “opening onto the northern lowland of the Kanto plain, caught between the Tone River and the Arakawa River” called in the kofun ground, the castle, and the tabi production center. On this single point in the northern part of Saitama Prefecture, the three eras’ layers of kofun, castle town and home side work piled up in turn. The origin of the whole prefecture’s name lies here.