, or , was a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

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 n ...

in the part of

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island sepa ...

that is today

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...

, as well as the southern part of

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefectur ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered

Ise Ise may refer to: Places *Ise, Mie, a city in Japan ** Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie * Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria * Ise, Norway, a village in Norway * Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan * River Ise, a tributary of ...

, Izumi,

Kawachi Kawachi ( or ) may refer to: Places * Kawachi Province, one of the old provinces of Japan * Kawachi, Kumamoto, a former town in Kumamoto Prefecture * Kawachi, Osaka, a former city in Osaka Prefecture * Kawachi, Ibaraki, a town in Ibaraki Prefect ...

, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. The

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. Overview The area south of the “ Central Tectonic Line” is called , and is home to reef-like coral communities which are among ...

takes its name from this province. During 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 character ...

, the Kii branch of the Tokugawa clan had its castle at Wakayama. Its former

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 ...

shrine was

Hinokuma Shrine Hinokuma Shrine (日前神宮, ''Hinokuma jingu'') and Kunikakasu Shrine (國懸神宮, ''Kunikakasu jingu'') is a Shinto shrine complex in Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. It is officially known simply as . Its main festival is held annually ...

. The Japanese bookshop chain

Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore chain operated by , founded in 1927, with its first store located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Its name translates to "Bookstore of Kii Province". The company has its headquarters in Meguro, Tokyo. One of the company's ...

derives its name from the province.

Historical districts

** Ama District (海部郡) - merged with Nagusa District to become Kaisō District (海草郡) on April 1, 1896 ** Arida District (有田郡) ** Hidaka District (日高郡) ** Ito District (伊都郡) ** Naga District (那賀郡) - dissolved ** Nagusa District (名草郡) - merged with Ama District to become Kaisō District on April 1, 1896 * Mixed ** Muro District (牟婁郡) *** Higashimuro District (東牟婁郡) - part of Wakayama Prefecture *** Kitamuro District (北牟婁郡) - part of Mie Prefecture *** Minamimuro District (南牟婁郡) - part of Mie Prefecture *** Nishimuro District (西牟婁郡) - part of Wakayama Prefecture

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 retir ...

.
OCLC 58053128

External links

Former provinces of Japan History of Mie Prefecture History of Wakayama Prefecture {{Wakayama-geo-stub