[3] The literal meaning of the two kanji that make up the name Hyogo is "weapons warehouse".

[5] The features of the natural harbour around Wadamisaki Peninsula has meant the port in Hyogo has been an important gateway to the Seto inland sea since the 8th-century Nara period.

[1] In the 12th century, in the latter part of the Heian period, Taira no Kiyomori recognized the strategic benefit of the location and developed the harbor,[1] including the building of Kyogashima (ja:経が島), a man-made island completed in 1173 and described as 37 hectares in size in The Tale of the Heike.

Kiyomori, the de facto ruler of Japan between 1160 and 1180, moved his official residence to Fukuhara, in what is modern-day Hyogo.

[1][8] A monument erected shortly after his death, the Kiyomori-zuka, stands in the gardens of a shrine opposite Kiyomori Bridge, also named in his honour.

Although Japan was placed under isolation by the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, Hyogo Port remained an important route for domestic trade.

[11] Given its importance, Hyogo Port was under the direct administration of the Shogunate via the Osaka machi-bugyō.

[12] As part of the Shogunate's efforts to protect Japan from Western colonial forces, the defence of Hyogo Port was upgraded with the construction of the Wadamisaki Battery, one of six land batteries built around Osaka Bay under the design of Count Katsu Kaishū.

[14] The outer enceinte was built of granite from the Shiwaku Islands and the inner two-storey structure was made of keyaki (Japanese elm) wood harvested from the Nunobiki and Tekkai Mountains in Kobe.

The steel lighthouse was moved to the Suma Kaihin (Seaside) Park in Suma-ku in 1967 and in September 1998 it was registered as a national tangible cultural asset under the name Old Wadamisaki Lighthouse (旧和田岬灯台, Kyū-Wadamisaki Tōdai).

[17] The concentration of military and industrial manufacturing facilities including Kobe Steel, Kawanishi Aircraft Company Kawasaki Aircraft Industries and the Kawasaki and Mitsubishi Shipyards made the city of Kobe a primary target of bombing by the United States during World War II.

[18] It suffered the highest fatality rate of the five major Japanese cities (the others being Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka).

[19] With Japan's success in expanding its territory through south-east Asia at the time, an attack by foreign aircraft was not expected at the time and it was reported that some residents even waved flags at the plane as it flew overhead, thinking it was a Japanese aircraft.

Hyogo suffered the highest toll in terms of both lives lost and buildings destroyed.

On 1 July 1951 the villages of Hata, Dōjō and Ōzō that were located in Arima District merged into Kobe and Hyogo ward.

[30] On 15 October 1955 Nagao village in Arima merged into Kobe and Hyogo ward.

[1] In particular, railcars for the bullet train are manufactured in Hyogo by Kawasaki.In 2018 one of the renowned aerospace firms of USA established its subsidiary in Kobe called Swift Xi.

[37][38] The Shinkaichi area in eastern Hyogo, with its numerous cinemas, theatres and restaurants, was known as the "Western Asakusa" in the period before World War II.

It maintains 14 kōban ("police boxes") within the ward and a substation near Hyogo Station.

Upon his return to the Diet in 2012 Akaba served as a Senior Vice-Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry and Senior Vice-Minister for the Cabinet Office in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's second cabinet from December 2012 until September 2014.

[64] Electors in Hyogo also vote to elect members to the House of Representatives as part of the Kinki proportional representation block.

[73] The Kobe City Central Wholesale Market (ja:神戸市中央卸売市場) is located on Nakanojima Island, in the southeastern corner of the ward.

[76] The Chūō-Ichibamae Station of the Kaigan subway line is located beneath the market.