is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through the old

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese geographical region.Nussbaum, "''Hokurikudō''" in Both were situated along the northwestern edge of

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

. The name literally means 'North Land Way'. It also refers to a series of roads that connected the capitals (国府 ''kokufu'') of each of the provinces that made up the region. When the

Gokishichidō was the name for ancient administrative units organized in Japan during the Asuka period (AD 538–710), as part of a legal and governmental system borrowed from the Chinese. Though these units did not survive as administrative structures beyon ...

system was initially established after the

Taika reforms The were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 ''Kōtoku tennō'') in the year 645. They were written shortly after the death of Prince Shōtoku and the defeat of the Soga clan (蘇我氏 ''Soga no uji''), uniting Japan ...

, it consisted of just two provinces: Wakasa and Koshi. During the reign of Emperor Temmu, Koshi was divided into three regions: Echizen, Etchū and Echigo and

Sado Island is an island located in the eastern part of the Sea of Japan, under the jurisdiction of Sado City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, with a coastline of . In October 2017, Sado Island had a population of 55,212 people. Sado Island covers an area of ...

was added as a fifth province. Later,

Noto Noto (; ) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and its church were decl ...

and Kaga were carved out of Echizen to form seven provinces in total. The

Hokuriku subregion Hokuriku may refer to: * Hokuriku (train), ''Hokuriku'' (train), a sleeping car train in Japan * Hokuriku Shinkansen, a high-speed railway line connecting Tokyo with Kanazawa * The Hokuriku region in Japan * ALO's Hokuriku, a Japanese football clu ...

of Chūbu region constitutes Hokurikudō region today.

Notes

References

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

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 58053128
Regions of Japan Hokuriku region Hokurikudo {{Japan-geo-stub

See also

Notes

References