Nagahama is part of ancient
Ōmi Province and has been settled since at least the
Yayoi period. During the
Sengoku period, the area was contested between the
Kyogoku clan,
Azai clan and
Asakura clan. The city center was developed and renamed by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi when Hideyoshi moved the center of his administration from
Odani Castle.
Kunitomo (
国友), the northeast of the city center, had been known for the production of
arquebuses and guns since 1544. The settlement was originally called
Imahama (今濱), but Hideyoshi renamed it "Nagahama", taking one
kanji from the name of his overlord,
Oda Nobunaga. It is not related to the area of the same name in
Fukuoka City and
same name town in
Ehime Prefecture. In the
Edo period, it was largely under the control of
Hikone Domain under the
Tokugawa shogunate; however, the ''
jin'ya of Ōmi-Miyagawa Domain, a 13,000 koku''
feudal holding under a cadet branch of the
Hotta clan was located in what is now southeastern Nagahama. After the
Meiji restoration, the town of Nagahama was established within
Sakata District, Shiga with the creation of the modern municipalities system. On April 1, 1943, Nagahama annexed the neighboring villages of Kamiteru, Rokusho, Minamigori, Kitagori, Nishikuroda and Kanda to form the city of Nagahama. On February 13, 2006, the towns of
Azai and
Biwa (both from
Higashiazai District) were merged into Nagahama. On January 1, 2010, the towns of
Kohoku and
Torahime (both from Higashiazai District), and the towns of
Kinomoto,
Nishiazai,
Takatsuki and
Yogo (all from
Ika District) were merged into Nagahama. Both districts were thereby dissolved as a result of this merger. The current city thus consists of areas once within three former districts:
Sakata District,
Higashiazai District and
Ika District. ==Government==