was a province of Japan in the area of modern

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Awa no Kuni''" in . It lies on the tip of the

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

(房総半島), whose name takes its first ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was or . Awa Province in

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

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 The is a Japanese book about laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History In 905, Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of th ...

'' 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 The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

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 , also known as and , was the 12th legendary Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Both the ''Kojiki'', and the ''Nihon Shoki'' (collectively known as the ''Kiki'') record events that took place during Keikō's all ...

. 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 is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 44,865 in 20,558 households and a population density of 410 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Tateyama is located at the far sou ...

as is the ''

Ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise t ...

'' (

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 ...

) of the province. During the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

, 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 were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

clans. These clans sided with

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...

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 bet ...

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 The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries). Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its height, the clan had three main branch ...

in the early

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

. However, by the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

, 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-c ...

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

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

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 was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Tottori Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Hōki bordered on Inaba, Mimasaka, Bitchū, Bingo, and Izumo Provinces. The ancient capital was in the area that is ...

, Awa became ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

'' territory administered by various ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

'' aside from five small domains created at various times in the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

(three of which survived to the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

), 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 Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

.
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