Mutsu Province

See also: Mutsu Province (1868)

Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Mutsu Province highlighted

Mutsu Province (陸奥国, Mutsu no kuni) was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori prefecture and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. It was also known as Ōshū (奥州) or Rikushū (陸州), and the term Ōu is often used to refer to combined area of Mutsu and the neighboring Dewa, which comprise the Japanese Tohoku.

History

Mutsu Province from 7c. to 712

Mutsu Province 718 for several years

Mutsu Province from Kamakura era to 1868

Mutsu, on northern Honshū, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi and became the largest as it expanded northward. The ancient capital was in modern Miyagi Prefecture.

• 709 (Wadō 2, 3rd month), an uprising against governmental authority took place in Mutsu and in nearby Echigo Province. Troops were dispatched to subdue the revolt.
• 712 (Wadō 5), Mutsu was separated from Dewa Province. Empress Gemmei's Daijō-kan made cadastral changes in the provincial map of the Nara Period, as in the following year when Mimasaka Province was split from Bizen Province; Hyūga Province was sundered from Osumi Province; and Tamba Province was severed from Tango Province.
• 801 Mutsu was conquered by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro.
• 869 (Jōgan 10, 5th month): A terrible earthquake struck Mutsu, more than 1,000 people lost their lives in the disaster.

During the Sengoku Period, various clans ruled different parts of the province. The Uesugi clan had a castle town at Wakamatsu in the south, the Nanbu clan at Morioka in the north, and Date Masamune, a close ally of the Tokugawa, established Sendai, which is now the largest city in the Tōhoku Region.

Meiji era

Rikuō (Mutsu) Province from 1869 onwards

Main article: Mutsu Province (1868)

On December 7, 1868 (January 19, 1869 in the Gregorian calendar), four additional provinces (Rikuchū, Rikuzen, Iwaki, and Iwashiro) were separated from Mutsu, leaving only a rump corresponding to today's Aomori Prefecture. At the same time, while the characters of the name were unchanged, the official reading was changed to the on'yomi version Rikuō.

Districts

Under Ritsuryō

• Iwase District (磐瀬郡)
• Aizu District (会津郡)
• Yama District (耶麻郡)
• Asaka District (安積郡)
• Adachi District (安達郡)
• Shinobu District (信夫郡)
• Katta District (刈田郡)
• Shibata District (柴田郡)
• Natori District (名取郡)
• Kikuta District (菊田郡) (now within Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture)
• Iwaki District (磐城郡)
• Shineha District (標葉郡)
• Namegata District (行方郡)
• Uda District (宇多郡)
• Esashi District (江刺郡)
• Igu District (伊具郡)
• Watari District (亘理郡)
• Miyagi District (宮城郡)
• Kurokawa District (黒川郡)
• Kami District (賀美郡)
• Shikama District (色麻郡)
• Tamatsukuri District (玉造郡)
• Shida District (志太郡)
• Kurihara District (栗原郡)
• Iwai District (磐井郡) (split into Higashiiwai and Nishiiwai districts in Iwate Prefecture)
• Isawa District (膽沢郡)
• Nagaoka District (長岡郡) (distinct from the one in Kōchi Prefecture)
• Niita District (新田郡) (distinct from the one in Gunma Prefecture)
• Oda District (小田郡) (now in the city of Tome, Miyagi Prefecture)
• Tōda District (遠田郡)
• Kesen District (気仙郡)
• Oshika District (牡鹿郡)
• Tome District (登米郡)
• Monou District (桃生郡)
• Ōnuma District (大沼郡)

Districts during the Meiji Era

• Tsugaru District (津軽郡)
• Kita District (北郡)
• Sannohe District (三戸郡)
• Ninohe District (二戸郡)

See also

• Sanriku
• Tōhoku region
• Tōsandō
• Japanese battleship Mutsu, the World War II Imperial Japanese Navy warship named after the province.

References

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691.

External links

• "Mutsu Province". SamuraiWiki. http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Mutsu_province. Retrieved 2008-01-16.