Japan · Kanagawa · Yokohama
Isogo-ku, Yokohama — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Isogo-ku is a coastal ward of Yokohama holding the Santonodai Site, the Yokohama Tram Museum, and the Equine Museum of Japan.
About Isogo-ku
Where to stay in Isogo-ku
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Isogo-ku is a residential ward of Yokohama rather than a hotel core, so most visitors sleep in the central city and ride out for the day to reach its museums and prehistoric hilltops. Rooms here are few. Base yourself near the Yokohama Tram Museum if the old streetcars are your reason for the trip, since the preserved depot anchors the reclaimed flats close to the bay, while the ridge around the Santonodai Site keeps quieter streets inland above the harbour.
The Equine Museum of Japan draws the seaward edge. Pick by whether you want the water or the hills at the door.
About Isogo-ku
What are the main landmarks in Isogo-ku?
The ward's sights run from deep prehistory to the age of the tram. On its central ridge the Santonodai Site preserves an excavated village of pit dwellings, and the Yokohama City Santonodai Archaeological Museum keeps the pottery and tools lifted from that soil, while nearby the burial mound of 室の木古墳 raises its earthwork above the streets. Older ground lies to the south.
The dig at 雑色杉本遺跡 traced settlement layers under the inland slopes, and the Equine Museum of Japan gathers the story of the horse beside the bay. Streetcars fill the last stop. The Yokohama Tram Museum lines up the retired cars that once crossed the city.
What is the history of Isogo-ku?
People settled these hills long before Yokohama had a name. The excavated pit dwellings of the Santonodai Site show a village worked on the central ridge across the prehistoric ages, and the dig at 雑色杉本遺跡 turned up older layers under the southern slopes, while the mound of 室の木古墳 marks a burial raised on the high ground. The sea then remade the ward.
Reclamation pushed factories and rail onto the flats along the bay, the streetcars now kept at the Yokohama Tram Museum ran through those years, and Isogo-ku settled into its place among the wards of Yokohama.
Where is Isogo-ku?
Isogo-ku covers roughly 19 square kilometres of Yokohama, its wooded ridges holding the Santonodai Site above reclaimed flats that run down to the bay. The land drops toward the water.
Good for
More areas in Yokohama
Updated July 2026