was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Awa no Kuni''" in . It lies on the tip 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 or . Awa Province in Shikoku phonetically has the same name, but is written with different ''kanji'' (阿波国). Awa is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō. Under the '' Engishiki'' classification system, Awa was ranked as a "middle country" (中国) and a "far country" (遠国).

History

Awa was originally one of four

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of Kazusa Province. It was well-known to the Imperial Court in Nara period

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

for its bountiful seafoods, and is mentioned in Nara period records as having supplied fish to the Court as early as the reign of the semi-legendary Emperor Keikō. On May 2, 718 the district of Awa was elevated into status to a full province. On December 10, 741 it was merged back into Kazusa, but regained its independent status in 757. The exact location of the capital of the new province is not known, but is believed to have been somewhere within the borders of the modern city of Minamibōsō, Chiba; however, the ''Kokubun-ji'' was located in what is now the city of Tateyama, Chiba as is the '' Ichinomiya'' (

Awa Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the Daijingū neighborhood of the city of Tateyama in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is one of two shrines claiming to hold the title of ''ichinomiya'' of former Awa Province. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on ...

) of the province. During the Heian period, the province was divided into numerous ''

shōen A was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the private, ...

'' controlled by local samurai clans. These clans sided with Minamoto no Yoritomo in the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo, who appointed himself ...

. The history of the province in the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle betwee ...

is uncertain, but it came under the control of the

Yūki clan is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Yūki," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', pp. 71–72 retrieved 2013-5-6. History The Yūki claim descent fr ...

and the Uesugi clan in the early Muromachi period. However, by the Sengoku period, the

Satomi clan The was a Japanese samurai clan of the Sengoku period (1467–1573) and early Edo period (1603–1868). The clan ruled Awa Province as a ''Sengoku daimyō'' and was a major military power in the Kantō region during the wars of the Nanboku-ch ...

had gained control over much of Awa, Kazusa and Shimōsa provinces. The Satomi sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu in the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

, but after being implicated in the political intrigues of

Ōkubo Tadachika was ''daimyō'' of Odawara Domain in Sagami Province in early Edo period, Japan. Ōkubo Tadachika was the son of Ōkubo Tadayo, a hereditary vassal to the Tokugawa clan in what is now part of the city of Okazaki, Aichi. He entered into service a ...

in 1614, were forced to surrender their domains for Kurayoshi Domain in Hōki Province, Awa became '' tenryō'' territory administered by various '' hatamoto'' aside from five small domains created at various times in the Edo period (three of which survived to the Meiji Restoration), with an additional two domains created at the start of the Meiji period. The entire province had an assessed revenue of 95,736 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

''. The various domains and tenryo territories were transformed into short-lived prefectures in July 1871 by the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

, and the entire territory of Awa Province became part of the new Chiba Prefecture on June 15, 1873.

Historical districts

* Asai District (朝夷郡) – merged into Awa District (along with Hei and Nagasa Districts) on April 1, 1897 * Awa District (安房郡) – absorbed Asai, Hei and Nagasa Districts on April 1, 1897 * Heguri District (平群郡) – merged into Awa District (along with Asai and Nagasa Districts) on April 1, 1897 * Nagasa District (長狭郡) – merged into Awa District (along with Asai and Hei Districts) on April 1, 1897

Domains in Awa Province

Notes

References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
OCLC 58053128
* Papinot, Edmond. (1910). ''Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan.'' Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha
OCLC 77691250

External links

{{Japan Old Province History of Chiba Prefecture Former provinces of Japan States and territories established in the 710s 1868 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1868 718 establishments