The , formally was an arsenal in the Koishikawa

Koishikawa

is a locality within Bunkyo, Tokyo. It consists of five sub-areas, . It is located nearby with the same name are two well regarded gardens: the Koishikawa Botanical Garden in Hakusan, and the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden in Korakuen....

 area of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, on the grounds of today's Tokyo Dome City

Tokyo Dome City

Tokyo Dome City is an entertainment complex in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan.It includes the world's largest roofed baseball stadium known as Tokyo Dome , an amusement park known as Tokyo Dome City Attractions , and Korakuen Hall...

 and the Koishikawa Kōrakuen Garden

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden

is in Koishikawa, Bunkyō, Tokyo, adjacent to Tokyo Dome City. It is one of two surviving Edo period clan gardens in modern Tokyo, the other being Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden, and one of the oldest and best preserved parks in Tokyo....

. It was located on the ground of the former residence of the Prince of Mito

Mito Domain

was a prominent feudal domain in Japan during the Edo period. Its capital was the city of Mito, and it covered much of present-day Ibaraki Prefecture. Beginning with the appointment of Tokugawa Yorifusa by his father, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, in 1608, the Mito branch of the Tokugawa clan...

.
The arsenal was inaugurated in 1871, soon after the Meiji restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

. One of its main early productions was the Murata rifle

Murata rifle

The Murata Rifle was the first indigenously produced Japanese service rifle adopted in 1880 as the Murata Type 13. The 13 referred to the adoption date, the year 13 in the Meiji period according to the Japanese calendar....

, the first locally-produced Japanese rifle. As of 1893, it was producing about 200 rifles and 200.000 cartridges daily. The arsenal was especially active between the two World Wars, as the Arisaka

Arisaka

Arisaka is a family of Japanese military bolt action rifles, in production from approximately 1898, when it replaced the Murata rifle, until the end of World War II in 1945...

 was produced there.

The arsenal also produced airplanes after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 for the Japanese army, and also for the Imperial Russian Army

Imperial Russian Army

The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...

, which placed an order for 10 airplanes before 1916.

Discipline and organization at the arsenal are thought to have been extremely strict, leading to the development of labor disputes in which the Koishikawa arsenal took a leading role in Japan.

The arsenal suffered considerable destruction during the Great Kantō Earthquake on 1 September 1923. Complete reconstruction was deemed too expensive, so that the arsenal was transferred to Kokura

Kokura

is an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyūshū, Japan, guarding, via its suburb Moji, the Straits of Shimonoseki between Honshū and Kyūshū. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound Sanyo Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR Kyūshū and an important part of the...

 in Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

(小倉工廠) in October 1935, after 66 years of operation.