was a province of Japan in the area of southern

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'' (), '' ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō system, Tosa was one of the provinces of the Nankaidō circuit. Under the '' Engishiki'' classification system, Tosa was ranked as one of the "middle countries" (中国) in terms of importance, and one of the "far countries" (遠国) in terms of distance from the capital. The provincial capital was located in what is now the city of Nankoku. 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 ...

'' of the province is the Tosa shrine located in the city of Kōchi."Nationwide List of ''Ichinomiya''", p. 3.
retrieved 2011-08-09 58 Tosa

History

Tosa Province was formed by the Ritsuryo reforms by combining the territories of the Tosa ''kuni no miyatsuko'' (都佐国造) who ruled in the east with the Hata ''kuni no miyatsuko'' (波多国造) who ruled in the west. The name "Tosa" appears in the '' Nihon Shoki'' in an entry dated Match 675. In many subsequent entries, Tosa is mentioned usually in connection with some natural disaster, including the 684 Hakuhō earthquake in which it was reported that a ship carrying the provincial governor had been swept away by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

, and a new imperial governor was sent from the capital. The province appears to have been used as a penal colony or place of exile from the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after ...

. At the end of 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 Japan ...

, Minamoto no Mareyoshi, the younger brother of

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 ...

was exile by the Heike clan. Other prominent exiles included Fujiwara no Moronaga, Emperor Tsuchimikado, and Prince Takanaga. 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 b ...

, the

Ichijō family The was a Japanese aristocratic kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Ichijō," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 13 retrieved 2013-7-7. The Ichijō was a branch o ...

of court nobles established a huge ''

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 ...

'' landed estate in western Tosa, and ruled the area into 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 ...

. During 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 ...

, the

Hosokawa clan The is a Japanese Samurai kin group or clan. Ancestors # Emperor Jimmu # Emperor Suizei # Emperor Annei # Emperor Itoku # Emperor Kōshō # Emperor Kōan # Emperor Kōrei # Emperor Kōgen # Emperor Kaika # Emperor Sujin # Emperor Sui ...

were ''

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

'' of Tosa Province, but preferred to rule via proxy, using the Ohira clan, while remaining in

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 c ...

. When income from the manor tended to stop due to the

Onin War Onin may refer to: * Ōnin, a Japanese era ** Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era duri ...

, '' Kanpaku'' Ichijo Norifusa (with help of the Ohira clan) relocated to Tosa and became a local power controlling Hata and Takaoka Counties in western Tosa. The remainder of the province and controlled by the Motoyama, Aki, Kira, Tsuno, Chōsokabe and the Kosokabe clans. Under Chōsokabe Motochika, the Chōsokabe came to control all of Tosa, and later, to expand into all of Shikoku. They were stopped only by the forces of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, who restricted them only to their territories in Tosa Province. Chōsokabe Motochika's son

Chōsokabe Morichika was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Once the ruler of Tosa Province, his fief was revoked by Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara. His childhood name was Sen'yumaru (千熊丸). Biography ...

was dispossessed as he sided with the losing Western army at 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 ...

in 1600. Under the

Tokugawa shogunate 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 ...

, the province was assigned to

Yamauchi Kazutoyo , also spelled Yamanouchi (1545/1546? – November 1, 1605). He was retainer of Oda Nobunaga and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His father Yamauchi Moritoyo, was a descendant of Fujiwara no Hidesato, a senior retainer of the Iwakura Oda clan (o ...

and the

Yamauchi clan The Yamauchi clan (山内氏) were a family of rulers over what was then the Tosa Province which spanned the southern half of Shikoku island. The province was given to the family in 1600 after Yamauchi Kazutoyo led troops under Tokugawa Ieyasu ...

continued to rule the province as ''

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

'' of

Tosa Domain The was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its history by ...

until 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 ...

. Under theYamauchi,

Kōchi Castle is an Edo Period Japanese castle in the city of Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. It is located at Otakayama hill, at the center of Kōchi city, which in turn is located at the center of the Kōchi Plain, the most prosperous area of forme ...

was built and the '' jōkamachi'' of Kochi city became the capital of the province. During the

Bakumatsu period was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji governm ...

, many prominent people active in the overthrow of the shogunate and the early

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

, including Sakamoto Ryōma,

Nakaoka Shintarō was a samurai in Bakumatsu period Japan, and a close associate of Sakamoto Ryōma in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.National Diet Library (NDL), Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures Nakaoka, Shintaro/ref> Biography ...

Itagaki Taisuke Count was a Japanese politician. He was a leader of the "Freedom and People's Rights Movement" and founded Japan's first political party, the Liberal Party. Biography Early life Itagaki Taisuke was born into a middle-ranking ''samurai'' ...

Gotō Shōjirō Count was a Japanese samurai and politician during the Bakumatsu and early Meiji period of Japanese history.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Gotō Shōjirō" in He was a leader of which would evolve into a political party. Early lif ...

. Per the early

Meiji period 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 ...

, an official government assessment of the nation’s resources, the province had 348 villages with a total ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 54 ...

'' of 494,087 ''

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 ...

''. Tosa Province consisted of the following districts: Following 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 lord ...

in 1871, Tosa Province became Kochi Prefecture. The

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

battleship A battleship is a large armour, armored warship with a main artillery battery, battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1 ...

''Tosa'',

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

of its class, was named after the province.

Gallery

080229 Tosa-jinja Kochi Japan01s.jpg, Tosa Jinja, one of the ''ichinomiya'' of the province Yamauchi Toyoshige.jpg, Yamauchi Yōdō, Bakumatsu period daimyō of Tosa Castle tower and stone wall of Kochi Castle.jpg, Kōchi Castle Kokubun-ji Temple-7 - panoramio.jpg, Sanmon of Tosa Kokubun-ji

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

{{Authority control Former provinces of Japan

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

History of Kōchi Prefecture 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871