Shimōsa Province
Shimōsa Province (下総国 Shimōsa no Kuni) was a province of Japan in the area modern Chiba Prefecture, and Ibaraki Prefecture.[1] It lies to the north of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first kanji from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was Sōshū (総州) or Hokusō (北総).
Shimōsa is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō. It was bordered by Kazusa Province to the south, Musashi and Kōzuke Provinces to the west, and Hitachi and Shimotsuke Provinces to the north. Under the Engishiki classification system, Shimōsa was ranked as a "great country" (大国) and a far country (遠国).
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[edit] History
Shimōsa was originally part of a larger territory known as Fusa Province (総国, occasionally 捄国 Fusa-no-kuni), which was divided into “upper” and “lower” portions (i.e. Kazusa and Shimōsa) during the reign of Emperor Kōtoku (645-654). It was well-known to the Imperial Court in Nara Period Japan for its fertile lands, and is mentioned in Nara period records as having supplied hemp to the Court. Shimōsa was divided into 11 (later 12) counties. The exact location of the capital of Shimōsa is not precisely known, but is believed to have been somewhere within the borders of the modern city of Ichikawa, Chiba, near Kōnodai Station where the ruins of the Kokubun-ji have been located. However, the Ichinomiya of Shimōsa Province is the Katori Jingu in what is now the city of Katori, Chiba on the opposite coast of the province.
During the Heian period, the province was divided into numerous shōen controlled by local samurai clans, primarily the Chiba clan, which sided with Minamoto Yoritomo in the Genpei War. During the Kamakura period, much of the province was under the control of the Chiba clan. By the early Muromachi period, the area was a highly contested region highly fragmented by various samurai clans. However, by the Sengoku period, the Late Hōjō clan held sway following the Battle of Kōnodai (1538) against the Ashikaga clan and the Satomi clan. Following the installation of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Edo, after the Battle of Odawara, he created eleven han within the borders of Shimōsa to reward his followers, with the remaining area retained as tenryō territory owned directly by the Shogun and administered by various hatamoto. The entire province had an assessed revenue of 681,062 koku. Following the Meiji Restoration, these various domains and tenryō territories were transformed into short-lived prefectures in July 1871 by the abolition of the han system. Most of Shimōsa Province became part of the new Chiba Prefecture on June 15, 1873, with four districts ( Yūki, Toyoda, Sashima, Okada) going to the new Ibaraki Prefecture and the portion to the west of the Edogawa River going to the new Saitama Prefecture.
The area of former Shimōsa Province was organized into nine districts by the Meiji cadastral reforms, later reduced to five:
- Higashikatsushika District ja:東葛飾郡
- Nishikatsushika District ja:西葛飾郡; merged with Sashima District March 29, 1896
- Chiba District ja:千葉郡
- Inba District ja:印旛郡
- Katori District ja:香取郡
- Kitasōma District ja:北相馬郡
- Minamisōma District ja:南相馬郡; merged with Higashikatsushika District April 1, 1897
- Kaijō District ja:海上郡
- Sōsa District ja:匝瑳郡
- Yūki District ja:結城郡
- Sashima District ja:猿島郡
- Toyoda District ja:豊田郡 (下総国); merged with Yūki District March 29, 1896
- Shimohabu District ja:下埴生郡; merged with Inba District April 1, 1897
- Okada District ja:岡田郡); merged with Yūki District March 29, 1896
[edit] Edo period Domains in Shimōsa Province
| Domain | Daimyo | Dates | Revenue (koku) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koga Domain ( 古河藩) | Doi | 1590-1871 | 80,000 | fudai |
| Sakura Domain ( 佐倉藩) | Hotta | 1590-1871 | 110,000 | fudai |
| Yūki Domain ( 結城藩) | Mizuno | 1590-1871 | 18,000 | fudai |
| Sekiyado Domain ( 関宿藩) | Kuze | 1590-1871 | 43,000 | fudai |
| Oyumi Domain ( 生実藩) | Morikawa | 1627-1871 | 10,000 | fudai |
| Takaoka Domain (高岡藩) | Inoue | 1640-1871 | 10,000 | fudai |
| Tako Domain (多胡藩) | Matsudaira (Hisamatsu) | 1713-1871 | 10,000 | fudai |
| Omigawa Domain (小見川藩) | Uchida | 1594-1871 | 10,000 | fudai |
| Sogano Domain ( 曾我野藩) | Toda | 1871-1871 | 12,000 | fudai |
| Yahagi Domain ( 矢作藩) | Miura | 1590-1639 | 10,000 | fudai |
| Iwatomori Domain ( 岩富藩) | Hōjō | 1590-1613 | 10,000 | fudai |
| Moriya Domain ( 守谷藩) | Toki | 1590-1617 | 10,000 | fudai |
| Yamazaki Domain ( 下総山崎藩) | Okabe | 1590-1609 | 12,000 | fudai |
| Kurihara Domain ( 栗原藩) | Naruse | 1600-1638 | 16,000 | fudai |
| Usui Domain ( 臼井藩) | Sakai | 1690-1604 | 30,000 | fudai |
| Yamakawa Domain ( 山川藩) | Ōta | 1635-1638 | 15,600 | fudai |
| Ōwa Domain ( 大輪藩) | Doi | 1658-1677 | 10,000 | fudai |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Shimōsa" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 862 at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File.
[edit] 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
- Papinot, Edmond. (1910). Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. OCLC 77691250
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