Arakawa, Tokyo to the southwest, Bunkyo. South of Arakawa is Taito, and southeast is Sumida. The area was mainly agricultural in the Edo period. In 1651, Kozukappara, the Tokugawa's largest execution ground (now located next to Minami-Senju station), was built. Beginning in the Meiji era, the area became industrial as factories were built on the water front. In 1932, it became one of the 35 wards of Tokyo City. MIAT Mongolian Airlines's Tokyo Branch Office is on the fifth floor in the Tachibana Building in Arakawa. Iseki, a tractor and engine equipment manufacturer has its Tokyo head office in the ward. Arakawa
Japanese gunboat Sumida (1903) the Allies. "Sumida" saw combat service in the Second Sino-Japanese War, beginning with the First Shanghai Incident in 1931. "Sumida" continued to operate on the Yangtze River in China during the early 1930s, but was already considered obsolete, and was struck from the navy list on March 1, 1935. She was scrapped on March 31, 1935 at Shanghai. Japanese gunboat Sumida (1903) "Sumida" was the first gunboat in the Imperial Japanese Navy inventory designed specifically for inland river service. The need for such a vessel to operate on the rivers of the Asian mainland to protect Japanese commercial interests at