was a

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

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 ...

until 1871; since then, it has been a part of

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Sado''" in . It was sometimes called or . It lies on the eponymous

Sado Island is a city located on in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Since 2004, the city has comprised the entire island, although not all of its total area is urbanized. Sado is the sixth largest island of Japan in area following the four main islands and Ok ...

, off the coast of Niigata Prefecture (or in the past, Echigo Province). Sado was famous for the silver and gold mined on the island. 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 ...

, the province was granted to the

Honma clan Homma (本間) is a Japanese clan. Honma Yoshihisa was appointed ''shugodai'' of Sado in 1185. The clan established its rule from Sawata. The clan gave birth to two new branches, the Hamochi-Honma and the Kawarada-Honma. Those two branches eve ...

from Honshū, and they continued to dominate Sado until 1589, when

Uesugi Kagekatsu was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' during the Sengoku and Edo periods. He was the adopted son of Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagetora’s brother in law. Early life and rise Kagekatsu was the son of Nagao Masakage, the head of the Ueda Nagao ...

of Echigo Province took over the island. The Tokugawa shōguns later made Sado a personal fief after

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 ...

, and assumed direct control of its mines. Since 2004

Sado city is a city located on in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Since 2004, the city has comprised the entire island, although not all of its total area is urbanized. Sado is the sixth largest island of Japan in area following the four main islands and ...

has comprised the entire island.

History

Historical districts

** Hamochi District (羽茂郡) - merged with Kamo and Sawata Districts to become Sado District (佐渡郡) on April 1, 1896 ** Kamo District (賀茂郡) - merged with Hamochi and Sawata Districts to become Sado District on April 1, 1896 ** Sawata District (雑太郡) - merged with Hamochi and Kamo Districts to become Sado District on April 1, 1896

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

Former provinces of Japan Hokuriku region States and territories disestablished in 1871 1871 disestablishments in Japan {{Niigata-geo-stub