Isezakichō

Isezakichō (伊勢佐木町) is a district of Naka Ward in Yokohama, Japan, consisting mainly of the Isezakichō Shopping Street (伊勢佐木町商店街, Isezakichō shōtengai). The shopping street is 1.2 km (0.75 mi) long, running from Isezakicho 1-chōme (-１丁目, -icchōme) in the northeast, to Isezakicho 7-chōme (-７丁目, -nanachōme) in the southwest, approximately parallel to the course of the Ōoka River.

Destinations

Isezaki Mall is a special designation given to the 1-chōme (１丁目, icchōme) and 2-chōme (２丁目, nichōme) portions only, which is a car-free zone. The largest shops and businesses are in the Isezaki Mall area in the northeast end, closer to Kannai Station. As you walk along the Isezakicho Shopping Street towards 7-chōme in the southwest end, the shops become gradually smaller and the pedestrian traffic tapers off. On the other end, walking past the northeast end of the pedestrian zone, passing Kannai Station, the street continues into the Bashamichi Street.

The site of Isezaki Mall was created by a project that filled in a small bay which started in 1656 and was completed in 1667, creating an island named Yoshida Shinden connected by bridges to the rest of Yokohama. After the Convention of Kanagawa was signed in 1854, Yokohama became one of the first treaty ports, established in 1859, and additional land reclamation projects expanded the site to its present size. Initially, foreign settlements were established in the eastern part, named Kannai, separated from the western areas by a gate; Kannai was connected to the port via the Yoshida-bashi Bridge, completed in 1869 by Richard Henry Brunton as Japan's first Western-style iron bridge.

Until the 1960s, Isezakicho was the only large shopping area in Yokohama catering to local residents.