During the Nanboku-chō period, Kusunoki Masahige assigned his general Wada Haruji to govern an area called "Kishi" in Izumi Province in 1337.

The settlement developed into a castle town during the Sengoku period, as it occupied a very strategic location, approximately half way in-between the cities of Osaka and Wakayama and just south of the port of Sakai.

Under the Tokugawa shogunate it was the center of Kishiwada Domain, which was ruled by the Okabe clan from 1640 to the Meiji Restoration.

The town of Kishiwada was official founded on within Hine District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889.

Kishiwada has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 24 members.

In terms of national politics, the city is part of Osaka 18th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.