Hiratsuka

Sister cities

• Alytus
• Hanamaki

History

The area around Hiratsuka has been settled since prehistoric times, and mention of the area as part of ancient Ōsumi District, Sagami Province is found in Nara period records. From the Heian period through Kamakura period, the area was divided into shōen controlled by various samurai clans and in the Sengoku period was the site of several battles between the later Hōjō clan of Odawara and the Miura clan. After the defeat of the Odawara at the Battle of Odawara by Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the area came under the control of Ieyasu Tokugawa, who built a summer palace (the Nakahara Goten) in 1596 at the site now occupied by the Hiratsuka City Nakahara Elementary/Primary School. Hiratsuka was retained as tenryō territory after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, and flourished as Hiratsuka-juku, a post town on the Tōkaidō connecting Edo with Kyoto. As the 7th station, it is often depicted in the series of ukiyo-e about the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō made among others by artists such Hokusai and Hiroshige. After the Meiji Restoration, Hiratsuka town was founded on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the municipalities system, as part of the new Naka District within Kanagawa Prefecture. It merged with neighboring Suma Town on April 1, 1929, and was proclaimed Hiratsuka City on April 1, 1932. Prior to World War II, Hiratsuka was the location of the of the Imperial Japanese Navy and , a Nissan group military aircraft factory. Hiratsuka was largely destroyed on July 16, 1945, during the Bombing of Hiratsuka in World War II. Due to its strategic location and wide beaches, it was also one of the targets for the planned invasion of Japan during the final stages of World War II. The city quickly rebuilt after the war, annexing several neighboring villages in the mid-1950s to…

Geography

Hiratsuka is located in the Shōnan area on the right bank (west side) of the Sagami River, almost in the center of Kanagawa Prefecture, and faces Sagami Bay to the south. The area from the Sagami River to the Kaname River is a plain to the northern end of the city area, and the urban area extends to the south. The west side of the Kaname River is a hilly area that is part of the Oiso Hills, and there is a lot of greenery. It is approximately midway between Tokyo and Mount Fuji. Kanagawa Prefecture *Atsugi *Chigasaki *Hadano *Isehara *Nakai *Ninomiya *Oiso *Samukawa Hiratsuka has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Hiratsuka is 14.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2144 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.2 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.4 °C.

Most-observed species

• Brown-eared Bulbul

  Hypsipetes amaurotis (Temminck, 1830) · Aves
  6,250
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow

  Passer montanus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,660
• White Wagtail

  Motacilla alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,622
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,329
• Large-billed Crow

  Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler, 1827 · Aves
  5,244
• White-cheeked Starling

  Spodiopsar cineraceus (Temminck, 1835) · Aves
  4,742
• Oriental Turtle-Dove

  Streptopelia orientalis (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  4,715
• Cinereous Tit

  Parus cinereus Vieillot, 1818 · Aves
  4,609

Most recent

• M 5.7 — 2026-06-26
  7 km N of Oshino, Japan
• M 5.5 — 2026-06-16
  4 km NW of Noda, Japan
• M 4.2 — 2026-05-29
  3 km ESE of Mobara, Japan
• M 4 — 2026-05-24
  3 km W of Fussa, Japan
• M 4.4 — 2026-05-06
  4 km NW of Hachiōji, Japan
• M 4.5 — 2026-04-23
  4 km NE of Yotsukaidō, Japan