Oki Province

Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Oki Province highlighted

Oki Province (隠岐国, Oki no kuni) was an old province of Japan which is now Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called Onshū or Inshū (隠州). Oki province consisted of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan, located off the coast of the provinces of Izumo and Hōki.

The Oki Islands comprise two relatively big islands and some smaller ones. The capital of the province was located where the present-day city of Saigo stands, but few relics of the old capital have been found, apart from the provincial temple, which remains today in Saigo city.

Oki was an exile site, and both Emperor Go-Toba and Emperor Go-Daigo were exiled to this province.

From the Kamakura Period Oki Province was governed primarily by the shugo of Izumo Province. In the Muromachi Period, it was ruled successively by the Sasaki clan, the Yamana clan and the Kyogoku clan. In the Sengoku Period the Amago clan held this province. After they fell and the Tokugawa Shogunate arose, the Shogunate declared the province a dominion of the shogun and appointed as governor Matsue han, a daimyo belonging to the Matsudaira clan, relatives of the Shogun. At this time the rice production from Oki province was calculated at five thousand koku per year.

Today it is Oki District, Shimane, a part of Shimane Prefecture.

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