Mutsu Province

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Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Mutsu Province highlighted

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

Contents

Historical record

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

In the 3rd month of the 2nd year of the Wadō era (709), an uprising against governmental authority took place in Mutsu and in nearby Echigo Province. Troops were dispatched to subdue the revolt.[1]

In the 5th year of the Wadō era (712), 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.[1]

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.

In the Meiji period, four provinces were created from Mutsu: Rikuchū, Rikuzen, Iwaki, and Iwashiro.

The area that is now Aomori Prefecture continued to be part of Mutsu until the abolition of the han system and the nation-wide conversion to the prefectural structure of modern Japan.

Districts

Under Ritsuryō

Districts during the Meiji Era

References

  1. ^ a b Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, p. 64.


v • d • e
Former provinces of Japan
Kinai
Tōkaidō
Iga | Ise | Shima | Owari | Mikawa | Tōtōmi | Suruga | Izu | Kai | Sagami | Musashi | Awa | Kazusa  | Shimōsa | Hitachi
Tōsandō
Ōmi | Mino | Hida | Shinano | (Suwa) | Kōzuke (Kenu) | Shimotsuke (Kenu) | (Iwase) | Iwaki (718) | Iwaki (1868) | Mutsu | Dewa
Hokurikudō
Wakasa | Echizen (Koshi) | Kaga | Noto | Etchū (Koshi) | Echigo (Koshi) | Sado
San'indō
Tamba (Ni) | Tango (Ni) | Tajima | Inaba | Hōki | Izumo | Iwami | Oki
San'yōdō
Harima | Mimasaka | Bizen (Kibi) | Bitchū (Kibi) | Bingo (Kibi) | Aki | Suō | Nagato
Nankaidō
Kii | Awaji | Awa | Sanuki | Iyo | Tosa
Saikaidō
Chikuzen (Tsukushi) | Chikugo (Tsukushi) | Buzen (Toyo) | Bungo (Toyo) | Hizen (Hi) | Higo (Hi) | Hyūga | Ōsumi | (Tane) | Satsuma | Iki | Tsushima
Hokkaidō

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