The area around present-day Fujisawa city has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found stone tools and shell middens from the Japanese Paleolithic period and ceramic shards from the Jomon period, and graves from the Kofun period at numerous locations in the area. The area is mention in the Nara period Nihon Shoki chronicles. By the Heian period, central Sagami Province was divided into shoen controlled by the Muroaoka, Oe, and other local warlords. During the Kamakura period, Fujisawa was the setting for a number of battles to overthrown the Kamakura shogunate as mentioned in the late 14th century Taiheiki. During the Muromachi period, Fujisawa developed around Yugyo-ji, a Buddhist temple, which was established in 1325. With the Edo period, Fujisawa prospered as Fujisawa-shuku, a post station on the T?kaid? highway connecting Edo with Kyoto. Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu built a palace in Fujisawa as a rest stop between Edo and Sunpu.
Following the Meiji Restoration, the area was divided into numerous villages within Koza District and Kamakura District in Kanagawa Prefecture. The Koza District office was located in Fujisawa from 1878. The area developed rapidly after the opening of Fujisawa Station of T?kaid? Main Line in 1887. During the cadastral reform of April 1, 1889, Fujisawaosaka town (Koza District) and Fujisawaotomi town (Kamakura District) were created through the merger of numerous local hamlets. Emperor Meiji visited Fujisawa in 1891 to watch military maneuvers, and the IJA 49th Infantry Regiment under the IJA 1st Division was stationed in Fujisawa from 1907. During the same year, Fujisawaosaka town annexed Fujisawaotomi town, and expanded further in 1908 by annexing neighboring Kugenuma village, and Meiji village, renaming itself Fujisawa town.
The Great Kant? earthquake of 1923 caused severe damage to Fujisawa, with some 4,000 houses destroyed. An Imperial Japanese Navy Artillery School was established in Tsujido in 1926
