Gyoda行田

A perfect integration of historical sites, parks, and nature, including a rare row of ancient burial mounds.

Gyoda City is located in northern Saitama, and developed as a castle town for Oshi Castle, built in 1490. Nine large ancient tombs built before the 7th century remain in the pastoral Sakitama area.

Sakitama Fudoki-no-oka Hill is a vast, 300,000-square-meter historic park dotted with large ancient tombs, including a tomb of ancient potentates on Mt. Maruhaka-yama, one of the largest round burial mounds in Japan. At Mt. Shogun-yama, a 91-meter-long burial mound that is square at the head and rounded at the foot, there is a display room of its interior where the stone cave hut and excavated articles have been restored to their original conditions in the 5th to 7th centuries. Every spring, residents celebrate a fire festival, which symbolizes the myth that the ancient goddess of Japan gave birth in fire.

The traditional industry of Gyoda is production of 'tabi' socks that are indispensable in the kimono culture of Japan; Gyoda's market share is nearly 50%. You can learn details of the history and culture of Gyoda at the Gyoda City Provincial Museum, where there is an exhibition on the everyday life of the castle town in the past and the tabi-making process with actual materials and panels.