Umeda, a district on the north side of the city, is well known for its cedar trees, while red pines are also common in other areas.

Kiryū is located within traditional Kōzuke Province and has been noted since the Nara period for production of fabrics.

During the Edo period, most of the area of present-day Kiryū was part of the tenryō holding under the direct administration of the Tokugawa shogunate, with the exception of the commercial center and temple town of Kiryū-shinmachi, noted for sericulture since the Nara period, which was part of Shōnai Domain of Dewa Province.

Kiryū Town was created within Yamada District, Gunma Prefecture on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system after the Meiji Restoration.

Kiryū has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 22 members.

[citation needed] However, the decreased demand for silk goods and the closure of several area manufacturing concerns have caused the local economy to suffer.

Having been virtually untouched by bombs during World War II, the city boasts one of the greatest concentrations of pre-war architecture in all of Japan.

[8] According to website,[9] in the manga Princess Shirataki, the spirit of the Kiryū traditional weaving art, takes the form of a young girl and appears suddenly before an apprentice of the Kiryū tradition and his childhood friend, a girl going to Tokyo College of Art.

Unofficial sources state that in the Pokemon franchise, Route 3 in the Kanto Region was modeled after Kiryū.