was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today

Gunma Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of . Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fuk ...

. Kōzuke bordered Echigo, Shinano, Musashi and Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . Under the ''

Engishiki The is a Japanese book of laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ''Engishi ...

'' classification system, Kōzuke was ranked as one of the 13 "great countries" (大国) in terms of importance, and one of the 30 "far countries" (遠国) in terms of distance from the imperial capital,

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. The provincial capital is located in what is now the city of

Maebashi is the capital city of Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 335,352 in 151,171 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It was ...

; however, its exact location remains uncertain. The

ichinomiya is a Japanese language, Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a Provinces of Japan, province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth.''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retr ...

of the province is located in what is now the city of Tomioka.

History

During the 4th century AD, (

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

) the area of modern Gunma and Tochigi prefectures were known as , literally "hairy field", but used as

ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...

for or "food field" in reference to an imperial agricultural area.1988, (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese),

Tōkyō Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital and most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is one of the most populous urban areas in the world. The Greater Tokyo Area, which ...

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

At some unknown point in the 5th century, the area was divided at the

Kinugawa River , is a river on the main island of Honshu in Japan. It flows from the north to the south on the Kantō plain, merging with . At 176.7 km in length, it is the longest tributary of Tone-gawa. From ancient times, it has been known to cause flood ...

into ("Upper Keno") and ("Lower Keno"). Per the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 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 capita ...

Taihō Code The was an administrative reorganisation enacted in 703 in Japan, at the end of the Asuka period. It was historically one of the . It was compiled at the direction of Prince Osakabe, Fujiwara no Fuhito and Awata no Mahito. Nussbaum, Louis- ...

, these provinces became and . At some point, the ''no'' meaning "field" was reanalyzed as the possessive particle ''no'', resulting in shortened names (without the or "province" portion) of ''Kamitsuke'' and ''Shimotsuke''. In 713, with the standardization of province names into two ''

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 ...

'', these names became and . Later regular sound changes caused ''Kamitsuke'' to shift to ''Kaudzuke'', and then to modern ''Kōzuke''.1995, ('' Daijisen'') (in Japanese),

, During 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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, from the year 811, Kōzuke (along with

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

and Kazusa) was one of the three provinces where an Imperial Prince was designated as nominal ruler. The area was noted for its production of horses. The original capital of the province was located in what is now

, along with the

kokubun-ji The are Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temples established in each of the provinces of Japan by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794). The official name for each temple was Konkomyo Shitenno Gokoku-ji (Konkōmyō Shitennō ...

and the

sōja file:Bitchu Kokubunji, zenkei.jpg, 270px, Bitchū Kokubun-ji is a Cities of Japan, city located in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 69,428 and a population density of 330 persons per km2. The total area of the ...

of the province. The ''

'' was located in what is now the city of Tomioka. During the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, Kōzuke was contested between the

later Hōjō clan The was one of the most powerful samurai families in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region. Their last name was simply , but were called "Later Hōjō" to differentiate between the earlier Hōjō clan who h ...

, the Takeda and the

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi period, Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries).Georges Appert, Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its heigh ...

s. 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 assigned to several feudal domains. The

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the centrally administered Edo Five Routes, five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected the ''de facto'' ...

and the Mikuni Kaidō highways passed through the province, and numerous post stations were established. 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 ...

, the various domains became prefectures with 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 lords) ...

in 1871. These various prefectures merged to form Gunma Prefecture in 1876. The area subsequently prospered with the development of sericulture and silk spinning industries.

Historical districts

** Agatsuma District (吾妻郡) ** Gunma District (群馬郡) *** Higashigunma District (東群馬郡) - merged with Minamiseta District to become the 2nd incarnation of Seta District (勢多郡) on April 1, 1896 *** Nishigunma District (西群馬郡) - merged with Kataoka District to become the 2nd incarnation of Gunma District (群馬郡) on April 1, 1896 ** Kanra District (甘楽郡) *** Kitakanra District (北甘楽郡) - renamed as Kanra District (甘楽郡) on April 1, 1950 *** Minamikanra District (南甘楽郡) - merged with Midono and Tago Districts to become Tano District (多野郡) on April 1, 1896 ** Kataoka District (片岡郡) - merged with Nishigunma District to become the 2nd incarnation of Gunma District on April 1, 1896 ** Kitagunma District (北群馬郡) - split off from Gunma District on October 1, 1949 ** Midono District (緑野郡) - merged with Minamikanra and Tago Districts to become Tano District on April 1, 1896 ** Nawa District (佐波郡) - merged with Sai District to become Sawa District (佐波郡) on April 1, 1896 ** Nitta District (新田郡) - dissolved ** Ōra District (邑楽郡) ** Sai District (佐波郡) - merged with Nawa District to become Sawa District on April 1, 1896 ** Seta District (勢多郡) *** Kitaseta District (北勢多郡) - merged into Tone District on April 1, 1896 *** Minamiseta District (南勢多郡) - merged with Higashigunma District to become the 2nd incarnation of Seta District on April 1, 1896 ** Tago District (多胡郡) - merged with Minamikanra and Midono Districts to become Tano District on April 1, 1896 ** Tone District (利根郡) - absorbed Kitaseta District on April 1, 1896 ** Usui District (碓氷郡) - dissolved ** Yamada District (山田郡) – dissolved

Bakumatsu period domains

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 ...

. ; * Papinot, Edmond. (1910). ''Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan.'' Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha
OCLC 77691250

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozuke Province Former provinces of Japan History of Gunma Prefecture 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871