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Arakawa, Tokyo — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Arakawa is a special ward of Tokyo named for a river that never touches it, with the Sumida River along one edge.
About Arakawa
Where to stay in Arakawa
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Arakawa keeps its beds local. Rooms sit among ordinary streets rather than a visitor quarter, and the reasons to choose this side of Tokyo are the Sumida River bank, the Shirahige Bridge crossing and the ward's own small museums. Five wards press in around it. Adachi, Kita, Bunkyo, Taito and Sumida all adjoin Arakawa, so a night here trades the pull of a famous district for short hops into whichever of them the day needs.
About Arakawa
What are the main landmarks in Arakawa?
Memorial collections do the work here. The Yoshimura Akira Commemorative Museum of Modern Literature and the Ichiyo Memorial Museum give the district two of them, while the Arakawa Furusato Museum carries the ward's own name and its own collection. Shirahige Bridge crosses the Sumida River at the boundary, and the Mikawashima Water Reclamation Center makes the least ornamental entry on any list of what Arakawa City has to show.
What is the history of Arakawa?
A name outlived its river. Arakawa took its title from the Arakawa River, yet that water runs neither through the ward nor along it, and the river at its edge is the Sumida instead. The Sumida once formed the lower course of the Arakawa itself, which is how the two came to share a name that now sits on the wrong bank.
The ward dates from 1943. In English it is styled Arakawa City.
Where is Arakawa?
The ward runs along the Sumida River between Adachi, Kita, Bunkyo, Taito and Sumida, while the Arakawa River it is named for stays outside its edge.
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Updated September 2026