 The area was dominated by the Nanbu clan from the early Muromachi period.During the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate, the area was under Morioka Domain, and was divided between Ninohe District in the north and Iwate District in the south.In the early Meiji period, the village of Arasawa was created within Ninohe District on April 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system.