was an old province 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 ...

in the area that is today the eastern part of Kagoshima Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Ōsumi bordered on Hyūga and

Satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a sou ...

Provinces. Osumi's ancient capital was near modern Kokubu. During the

Sengoku The was a period in 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 feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Various ...

and

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 characte ...

s, Ōsumi was controlled by the

Shimazu clan The were the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan. The Shimazu were identified as one of the '' tozama'' or outsider ''daimyō'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in cont ...

of neighboring Satsuma and did not develop a major administrative center. The Ōsumi region has developed its own distinct local

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

. Although Ōsumi is part of Kagoshima Prefecture today, this dialect is different from that spoken in the city of

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

. There is a notable cultural pride in traditional

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

written in Ōsumi and Kagoshima dialects. Japan's first satellite, '' Ōsumi'', was named after the province.

Historical record

In the 3rd month of the 6th year of the '' Wadō''

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

(713), the land of Ōsumi Province was administratively separated from

Hyūga Province was an old province of Japan on the east coast of Kyūshū, corresponding to the modern Miyazaki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hyūga''" in . It was sometimes called or . Hyūga bordered on Bungo, Higo, Ōsumi, and Sats ...

. In that same year,

Empress Genmei , also known as Empress Genmyō, was the 43rd monarch of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 元明天皇 (43) retrieved August 22, 2013. according to the traditional order of succession. Genmei's reign spanned the years 707 throu ...

's ''

Daijō-kan The , also known as the Great Council of State, was (i) (''Daijō-kan'') the highest organ of Japan's premodern Imperial government under the Ritsuryō legal system during and after the Nara period or (ii) (''Dajō-kan'') the highest organ of J ...

'' continued to organize other

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented graphically in a cad ...

changes in the provincial map of 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 c ...

. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834).

Historical districts

* Kagoshima Prefecture ** Aira District (姶良郡) - absorbed Kuwabara and Nishisoo Districts on March 29, 1896 ** Gomu District (馭謨郡) - merged into Kumage District on March 29, 1896 ** Hishikari District (菱刈郡) - merged with Kitaisa District (北伊佐郡) of

Satsuma Province was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Satsuma" in . Its abbreviation is . History Satsuma's provincial capital was Satsumasendai. D ...

to become the 2nd incarnation of Isa District (伊佐郡) on March 29, 1896 ** Kimotsuki District (肝属郡) - absorbed Minamiōsumi District on March 29, 1896 ** Kumage District (熊毛郡) - absorbed Gomu District on March 29, 1896 ** Kuwabara District (桑原郡) - was merged into Aira District (along with Nishisoo District) on March 29, 1896 ** Ōshima District (大島郡) ** Ōsumi District (大隅郡) *** Kitaōsumi District (北大隅郡) - merged into Kagoshima District (鹿児島郡) of Satsuma Province (along with Taniyama District (谿山郡) of Satsuma Province) on March 29, 1896 *** Minamiōsumi District (南大隅郡) - merged into Kimotsuki District on March 29, 1896 ** Soo District (囎唹郡) *** Higashisoo District (東囎唹郡) - merged with Minamimorokata District (南諸県郡) (formerly from

Miyazaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Miyazaki Prefecture has a population of 1,073,054 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 7,735 Square kilometre, km2 (2,986 sq mi). Miyazaki Prefecture borders ...

) to become the 2nd incarnation of Soo District (曽於郡; as of 1972) on March 29, 1896 *** Nishisoo District (西囎唹郡) - was merged into Aira District (along with Kuwabura District) on March 29, 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 retir ...

.
OCLC 58053128
* Titsingh, Isaac. (1834)
''Annales des empereurs du Japon''
('' Nihon Ōdai Ichiran''). Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
OCLC 5850691

Other websites

Former provinces of Japan {{Kagoshima-geo-stub