Origins to the Meiji Era
Tools found in western Kobe demonstrate that the area was populated at least from the J?mon period. The natural geography of the area, particularly of Wada Cape in Hy?go-ku, led to the development of a port, which would remain the economic center of the city. Some of the earliest written documents mentioning the region include the Nihon Shoki, which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jing? in AD 201.
During the Nara and Heian periods, the port was known by the name ?wada Anchorage (?wada-no-tomari) and was one of the ports from which imperial embassies to China were dispatched. The city was briefly the capital of Japan in 1180 when Taira no Kiyomori moved his grandson Emperor Antoku to Fukuhara in present-day Hy?go-ku. The Emperor returned to Kyoto after about five months. Shortly thereafter in 1184, the Taira fortress in Hy?go-ku and the nearby Ikuta Shrine became the sites of the Genpei War battle of Ichi-no-Tani between the Taira and Minamoto clans. The Minamoto prevailed, pushing the Taira further.
As the port grew during the Kamakura period, it became an important hub for trade with China and other countries. In the 13th century, the city came to be known by the name Hy?go Port. During this time, Hy?go Port along with northern Osaka composed the province of Settsu. Later, during the Edo period, the eastern parts of present-day Kobe came under the jurisdiction of the Amagasaki Domain and the western parts under that of the Akashi Domain, while the center was controlled directly by the Tokugawa shogunate. It was not until the abolition of the han system in 1871 and the establishment of the current prefecture system that the area became politically distinct.
Hy?go Port was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Osaka on January 1, 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin war and the Meiji restoration. The region has since been identified with the
