was a
province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of
Fukui Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, Gi ...
in the
Hokuriku region
The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...
of Japan. Echizen bordered on
Kaga,
Wakasa,
Hida, and
Ōmi Provinces. It was part of
Hokurikudō
is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through the old Japanese geographical region.Nussbaum, "''Hokurikudō''" in Both were situated along the northwestern edge of Honshū. ...
Circuit. Its abbreviated form name was .
History
Ancient and classical Echizen
was an
ancient province of Japan and is listed as one of the original provinces in the ''
Nihon Shoki''. The region as a whole was sometimes referred to as . In 507, during a succession crisis, the king of Koshi was chosen to become the 26th
emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his positio ...
,
Emperor Keitai
(died 10 March 531) was the 26th legendary emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 継体天皇 (26)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession.
No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but h ...
.
In 701 AD, per the reforms of the
Taihō Code
The was an administrative reorganisation enacted in 703 in Japan, at the end of the Asuka period. It was historically one of the . It was compiled at the direction of Prince Osakabe, Fujiwara no Fuhito and Awata no Mahito. Nussbaum, Louis-Fr ...
, Koshi was divided into three separate provinces: Echizen,
Etchū, and
Echigo
was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...
. The original Echizen included all of what is now
Ishikawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,140,573 (31 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,186 km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to ...
. In 718 A.D., 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 northern Echizen (
Hakui District,
Noto District (also called Kashima District),
Fugeshi District and
Suzu District), were separated to form Noto Province. During the
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 ...
, the poet
Nakatomi no Yakamori Nakatomi may refer to:
*Nakatomi clan, an influential clan in ancient Japan
*'' Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza'', a first-person shooter video game
*Nakatomi Corporation, a fictional corporation in the motion picture ''Die Hard'' and its sequels
* Nakat ...
was exiled to Echizen, where he wrote some of his 40 poems collected in the ''
Man'yōshū
The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...
'', including his love letters to
Sanuno Otogami no Otome. Another famous ''Man'yōshū'' poet,
Ōtomo no Yakamochi
was a Japanese statesman and '' waka'' poet in the Nara period. He was one of the ''Man'yō no Go-taika,'' the five great poets of his time, and was part of Fujiwara no Kintō's .
Ōtomo was a member of the prestigious Ōtomo clan. Like his g ...
, wrote many pieces about Echizen. .
In 823 AD, the two eastern districts of Echizen (Kaga and Enuma) were separated to form Kaga Province. Kaga was thus the last province to be created under the ''
ritsuryō
, , is the historical law system based on the philosophies of Confucianism and Chinese Legalism in Japan. The political system in accord to Ritsuryō is called "Ritsuryō-sei" (律令制). ''Kyaku'' (格) are amendments of Ritsuryō, ''Shiki'' ( ...
'' system, and Echizen received its current borders at that time. 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 provincial governor of Echizen,
Fujiwara no Tametoki
(died 1029?) was a Japanese aristocrat, author of Japanese waka and Chinese poetry of some repute, and father of Murasaki Shikibu (Lady Murasaki", author of '' The Tale of Genji'', born ca. 970 or 973). Tametoki's position at the Shikibu-shō mi ...
, was the father of the celebrated author
Murasaki Shikibu
was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of '' The Tale of Genji,'' widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between abou ...
. Lady Murasaki left her hometown of
Heian-kyō
Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180.
Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mov ...
only once in her life, to go to Echizen with her father. She stayed for just over one year, and then returned home to marry
Fujiwara no Nobutaka. Her experiences in Echizen are said to have had a major influence on her greatest work, ''
The Tale of Genji'', and many place names from Echizen appear in her stories and poems.
Echizen was a strategically important province due to its proximity to
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
and
Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
and due to its location on the
Sea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...
with contacts to the Asian continent. The province was traditionally famous for its production of ''
washi
is traditional Japanese paper. The term is used to describe paper that uses local fiber, processed by hand and made in the traditional manner. ''Washi'' is made using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (''Ed ...
'' paper. A text dated AD 774 mentions the ''washi'' made in this area. Echizen is also well known for its
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
. It is one of the so-called six old
kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
sites of
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 ...
(the others being
Shigaraki
is a town located in Kōka District, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
As of 2004, the town has an estimated population of 13,885 and a density of 84.92 persons per km². The total area is 163.5 km².
On October 1, 2004, Shigaraki, along with the to ...
,
Bizen,
Seto
Seto may refer to:
Places
* Seto, Aichi, production place of Japanese pottery and venue of Expo 2005
* Seto, Ehime, facing the Seto Inland Sea
*Seto, Okayama, adjacent to Okayama, in Okayama Prefecture
*Seto Inland Sea of Japan
* Setomaa (''Seto ...
,
Tanba, and
Tokoname
is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 57,872 in 24,872 households, and a population density of 1,035 persons per km². The total area of the city is .
Geography
Tokoname is located on the western coast ...
).
The exact location of the
provincial capital
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the g ...
and
Provincial temple
were Buddhist temples established in each of the provinces of Japan by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794).
History
Shōmu (701 – 756?) decreed both a ''kokubun-ji'' for monks and a for nuns to be established in each ...
of Echizen are unknown, but are believed to have been in what is now the city of
Echizen.
Medieval and pre-modern Echizen
For most of the war between the Northern and Southern Courts, Echizen was under the control of the
Ashikaga shogunate
The , also known as the , was the feudal military government of Japan during the Muromachi period from 1336 to 1573.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Muromachi-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 669.
The Ashikaga shogunate was establ ...
. The province was often used as a launching point for the shogunate's attack against the capital, and Echizen became the stage for a number decisive battles of the war.
During most of the
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 ...
, the
Shiba clan
was a Japanese clan. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003).html" ;"title="DF 58 of 80">("Shiba," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 54 DF_58_of_80">("Shi_...
_ruled_as_''shugo.html" ;"title="DF 58 of 80/nowiki>">DF 58 of 80">("Shi ...
ruled as ''shugo">DF 58 of 80/nowiki>">DF 58 of 80">("Shi ...