Kariwa

Kariwa belongs to Echigo's Sea of Japan coast, where lowlands, wooded hills and waterways connect the shore with inland valleys. The name appears in medieval documents: a record of 1313 refers to Kariwa as a district settlement, and one of 1357 names Kariwa district. When the earlier district name Mishima changed to Kariwa is not known.

In the sixteenth century, Echigo was associated with the Uesugi military house and the struggles of the Sengoku era. Later Tokugawa jurisdictions linked village production with taxation and administration. Rice cultivation, coastal movement and the heavy winter snows formed part of the wider provincial setting, though the details of individual settlements varied.