For about 1,190 years, from AD680 to August 7, 1869, what is now the center of Shizuoka City was called "Sumpu" and it prospered greatly. Although it continues to prosper today as the provincial capital of Shizuoka prefecture, there was a more prosperous era before. This was particularly the case during the Warring States Period and the Edo era.

During the Warring States Period, Sumpu was under the control of Imagawa. Tokugawa Ieyasu grew up in Sumpu between the ages 8 and 19, and rose as a Sengoku daimyo (daimyo in the Warring States Period). Ieyasu developed Tokaido in 1601, and by 1603, he became a Shogun and established the Edo shogunate, marking the start of the Edo era. In 1605, Ieyasu handed over the office of shogun to Hidetada, and in 1607, he seized actual political power as the "Magnate of Sumpu" in Sumpu Castle.

Ieyasu, as the magnate of Sumpu Castle, carried out domestic institutional building and established diplomatic activities towards areas such as Europe, leading the town of Sumpu to develop into a metropolis with a population of 120 thousand people. At that time, it was a large enough city to line up with Edo (presently Tokyo).

After the end of the Edo era which lasted for 265 years, Sumpu was renamed as "Shizuoka-shi" in the Meiji era, when Japan became a modern nation, and this name continues to the present day.