is one of the 18 wards of the city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the ward had an estimated population of 273,418 and a density of 7,640 persons per km2. The total area was 35.70 km2. Geography Totsuka Ward is located in eastern Kanagawa Prefecture, and in the center-western area of the city of Yokohama. The area is largely flatland, with scattered small hills. The Kashio River passes through the Ward. Surrounding municipalities Sakae Ward Hodagaya Ward Minami Ward Asahi Ward Kōnan Ward Izumi Ward Kamakura Fujisawa History The area around present-day Totsuka Ward has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found ceramic shards from the Jōmon period at numerous locations in the area. There are numerous keyhole tombs from the Kofun period in Totsuka, including one on the grounds of Tomizuka Hachiman Shrine, from which the ward's name is derived. Under the Nara period Ritsuryō system, it became part of Kamakura District and Kōza District in Sagami Province. By the Heian period it was part of a shōen controlled by the Sudō clan, but came under the control of the Kamakura clan (of which Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa was the most illustrious member) by the start of the Kamakura period. During the Kamakura period, it was largely farmland, supporting the population of nearby Kamakura; however by the Muromachi period it had become a contested territory divided between the Hatakeyama clan, Miura clan, Oba clan, and others until their territories were seized by the Later Hōjō clan from Odawara in the late Sengoku period. After the defeat of the Hōjō at the Battle of Odawara, the territory came under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It was administered as tenryō territory controlled directly by the Tokugawa shogunate, but administered through various hatamoto. The area prospered in the Edo period as Totsuka-juku, a post station on the Tōkaidō connecting Edo with Kyoto. After the Meiji Restoration, the area was transferred to the new Kanagawa Prefecture, with Totsuka-shuku becoming the capital of the Kamakura District. In the cadastral reform of April 1, 1889, Totsuka Town was established; two years after the completion of Totsuka Station on the Tōkaidō Main Line railway connecting Tokyo with Osaka. During the Meiji period the area prospered as a center of meat production to supply the foreign population of nearby Yokohama. In April 1939, Totsuka and neighboring villages were annexed by the neighboring