Ōmi Province
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was a province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. Its nickname is . Under the '' Engishiki'' classification system, Ōmi was ranked as one of the 13 "great countries" (大国) in terms of importance, and one of the "near countries" (近国) in terms of distance from the imperial capital Kyoto. Ōmi bordered on Wakasa and Echizen Provinces to the north, Mino and Ise Provinces to the east, Iga and Yamato Provinces to the south, and Yamashiro and Tanba Provinces to the west. Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, is located at the center of the province.


History

The area of Ōmi has been settled since at least the Yayoi period, and the traces of several large settlements have been found. During the Kofun period, the area appears to have been dominated by several powerful immigrant clans, most notably the Wani clan, originally from
Baekje Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...
. The names of "Ōmi" or "Lake Biwa" do not appear in the '' Kojiki'', '' Man'yōshū'' or other ancient documents. Ōmi was originally called by various names. Wooden tags from the ruins of Asuka-kyō state "Ahaumi" (淡海), or variations therefore, including "Chikaumi" (近淡海), meaning "fresh-water sea or "nearby freshwater sea", which evolved into or Ōmi-no-umi, (近江海). The name was only fixed to "Ōmi" after the enactment and enforcement of the Taiho Code in 701 AD and the decree of 713 AD that the names of the provinces as defined under the '' Ritsuryō'' system should be named using two auspicious ''
kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
''. The Ōmi Ōtsu Palace, located in what is now the city of Ōtsu, and later the Shigaraki Palace in the city of Kōka were briefly the capitals of Japan, and Ōmi was the location of several battles of the
Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...
Jinshin War. During the Nara period, the provincial capital and provincial temple were built in Ōtsu near the ruins of the former Ōmi Ōtsu Palace. Takebe taisha was designated as the chief Shinto shrine ('' ichinomiya'') for the province."Nationwide List of ''Ichinomiya''," p. 1.
retrieved 2011-08-09 During the Heian period, then proximity of Ōmi to the capital at Heian-kyō, its location on the Tōkaidō and Nakasendō highways connecting the capital with the provinces of eastern Japan, and the main route from the capital to the
Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...
gave the province great strategic importance. With the spread of Buddhism in Japan, the great Tendai monastery of Enryaku-ji was constructed at Mount Hiei in Ōmi. From the late Heian period and into the
Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
, the Sasaki clan controlled the post of '' shugo'' of Ōmi Province, and their cadet houses of the Rokkaku clan and Kyōgoku clan continued to dominate the province into the Muromachi period. In the tumultuous Sengoku period, internal struggles weakened both clans, and Ōmi became a battleground between the Azai and
Asakura clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Asakura", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 3 DF 7 of 80/nowiki> retrieved 2013-5-4. ...
s in the north and in the south the Rokkaku were supported by the famous Kōga ninja. In the late 1560s into the 1570s, lord
Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...
invaded from the east, defeating the Azai, Asakura, Rokkaku, Kōka, and the Ashikaga shogunate. He built Azuchi Castle near Lake Biwa in Ōmi, from which he planned to eventually rule all of Japan and beyond. Following Nobunaga's assassination in Honnō-ji temple, much of the province was awarded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to Ishida Mitsunari, Tokugawa Ieyasu's arch-rival at the Battle of Sekigahara. After the establishment of the
Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
, much of the province was divided into several feudal domains, then largest of which was Hikone Domain, ruled by the Ii clan. Ōmi continued in its role as a transportation conduit, with five stations of the Tōkaidō and eight stations of the Nakasendō. Following 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
, on November 22, 1871 Ōtsu Prefecture and Nagahama Prefecture were created from former '' tenryō'' and ''
hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...
'' territories within the province, and each of the former domains formed its own prefecture. These were merged on January 19, 1872 to form Shiga Prefecture. From August 21, 1876 to February 7, 1881 the Reinan region of Fukui Prefecture (west of Tsuruga city) was part of Shiga Prefecture, thus giving it a shoreline on the Sea of Japan. The merger was strongly opposed by the local inhabitants, and the merger was withdrawn.


Historical districts

Ōmi was divided into 12 Districts (郡), which were further subdivided into 93 counties (郷), containing 1,597 villages. The total assessed value of the province in terms of '' kokudaka'' was 858,618 '' koku''. * Azai District (浅井郡) ** Higashiazai District (東浅井郡) – dissolved ** Nishiazai District (西浅井郡) – merged into Ika District on April 1, 1897 * Echi District (愛知郡) * Gamō District (蒲生郡) * Ika District (伊香郡) – absorbed Nishiazai District on April 1, 1897; now dissolved * Inukami District (犬上郡) * Kanzaki District (神崎郡) – dissolved * Kōka District (甲賀郡) – dissolved * Kurita District (栗太郡) – dissolved * Sakata District (坂田郡) – dissolved * Shiga District (滋賀郡) – dissolved * Takashima District (高島郡) – dissolved * Yasu District (野洲郡) – dissolved


Edo-period Domains


Notes


References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia''.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
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



{{DEFAULTSORT:Omi Province Former provinces of Japan History of Shiga Prefecture