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 ...

in the area of

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa (Lower

Fusa Fusa () is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. It existed from 1856 until its dissolution in 2020. It was located east of the city of Bergen in the Midhordland region. The administrative centre of the municipality was the ...

), Shimotsuke, and Mutsu ( Iwase -1718-, Iwashiro -1869-, Iwaki -1718- and -1869-) Provinces. Generally, its northern border was with Mutsu.

History

The ancient provincial capital ( Hitachi Kokufu) and temple (

Hitachi Kokubun-ji is a Buddhist temple in Fuchū neighborhood of the city of Ishioka, Ibaraki, Japan, belonging to the Shingon-shū Chizan-ha sect, and is the provincial temple ("kokubunji") of former Hitachi Province. The ruins of the Nara period temple and th ...

) were located near modern

Ishioka 260px, Ishioka City Hall is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 72,351 in 28,291 households and a population density of 336 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was ...

and have been excavated, while the chief shrine was further east at Kashima (

Kashima Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Kashima, Ibaraki in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It is dedicated to , one of the patron deities of martial arts. Various dōjō of ''kenjutsu'' and ''kendō'' often display a hanging scroll emblazoned with ...

). The province was established in the 7th century. In 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 area was divided among several ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

s'', but the chief castle was usually in the

Mito Castle Mito Castle was a 12th-century Japanese castle with an extensive history, now in ruins, located in what was Hitachi Province."Mito Castle" Japanese Castle Explorer http://www.japanese-castle-explorer.com/castle_profile.html?name=Mito The castle r ...

of the modern city of

Mito Mito may refer to: Places *Mito, Ibaraki, capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan *Mito, Aichi, a Japanese town *Mito, Shimane, a Japanese town * Mitō, Yamaguchi, a Japanese town * Mito District, a district in the province of Concepción, Per ...

. In

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 ...

, one of the clans originating from

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 ...

, settled in the

Mito Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was associated with Hitachi Province in modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture.Mito Tokugawa family The is a branch of the Tokugawa clan based in Mito, Ibaraki. History Following the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu appointed his eleventh son, Tokugawa Yorifusa, as ''daimyō'' in 1608. With his appointment, Yo ...

or Mito Clan. Mito Domain, was a Japanese domain of the Edo period it was associated with Hitachi Province. In

Meiji era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...

the political maps of the provinces of Japan were reformed in the 1870s, and the provinces became prefectures, and also some provinces were modified or merged, when creating the prefectures.

Historical districts

** Ibaraki District (茨城郡) - dissolved *** Higashiibaraki District (東茨城郡) *** Nishiibaraki District (西茨城郡) - dissolved ** Kashima District (鹿島郡) - dissolved ** Kōchi District () - merged with Shida District to become Inashiki District (稲敷郡) on March 29, 1896 - Kōchi dissolved ** Kuji District (久慈郡) ** Makabe District (真壁郡) - dissolved ** Naka District (那珂郡) ** Namegata District (行方郡) - dissolved ** Niihari District (新治郡) - dissolved ** Shida District (信太郡) - merged with Kōchi District to become Inashiki District on March 29, 1896 - Shida dissolved ** Taga District (多賀郡) - dissolved ** Tsukuba District (筑波郡) - dissolved

History books about Japan

Two renowned history books about Japan were written in this province: *

Jinnō Shōtōki is a Japanese historical book written by Kitabatake Chikafusa. The work sought both to clarify the genesis and potential consequences of a contemporary crisis in Japanese politics, and to dispel or at least ameliorate the prevailing disorder. ...

(Chronicles of the Authentic Lineages of the Divine Emperors), in the 14th century

Kitabatake Chikafusa was a Japanese court noble and writer of the 14th century who supported the Southern Court in the Nanboku-cho period, serving as advisor to five Emperors. Some of his greatest and most famous work was performed during the reign of Emperor Go ...

in the Oda Castle wrote it. *

Dai Nihonshi The ''Dai Nihonshi'' (大日本史), literally ''History of Great Japan'', is a book on the history of Japan. It was begun in the 17th century, during the Edo period, by Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the head of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa family. A ...

(Great History of Japan), in the 17th century

Tokugawa Mitsukuni , also known as , was a Japanese daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the seco ...

beginning his composition, work was continued until its completion in the Meiji era.

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

External links

{{Japan Old Province Former provinces of Japan