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

Shizuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa, Suruga and Shinano Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . The origin of its name is the old name of

Lake Hamana is a brackish lagoon in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Formerly a true lake, it is now connected to the Pacific Ocean by a channel. As an internal body of water, it is considered Japan's tenth-largest lake (by area). It spans the boundaries of th ...

History

Tōtōmi was one of the original provinces of Japan established in 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 ...

under the

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- ...

. The original capital of the province was located in what is now Iwata, and was named Mitsuke – a name which survived into modern times as Mitsuke-juku, a post station on the Tōkaidō. 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, Tōtōmi was ranked as a "superior country" (上国) in terms of importance, and one of the 16 "middle countries" (中国) in terms of distance from the capital. During the early

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

, Tōtōmi was ruled nominally by the

Imagawa clan was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji by way of the Kawachi Genji. It was a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan. Origins Ashikaga Kuniuji, grandson of Ashikaga Yoshiuji, established himself in ...

before coming under control of the

Shiba clan was a Japanese clan.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)("Shiba," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 54 DF 58 of 80/nowiki> retrieved 2013-05-03. History ...

. However, by 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 ...

, the Imagawa recovered Tōtōmi and effectively annexed it to Suruga Province. After the defeat of the Imagawa at the Battle of Okehazama, Tōtōmi was divided between the powerful warlords

Takeda Shingen was daimyō, daimyo of Kai Province during the Sengoku period of Japan. Known as "the Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and credited with exceptional military prestige. Shingen was based in a p ...

of Kai and

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

of Mikawa. To consolidate his new holdings, Tokugawa Ieyasu constructed Hamamatsu Castle, which effectively became the capital of the province, although parts of Tōtōmi continued to be contested between the Tokugawa and Takeda until Shingen's death. After the Battle of Odawara and the rise to power of

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

, Tokugawa Ieyasu was forced to trade his domains in the

Tōkai region The is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there is ...

for the

Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...

instead. Hamamatsu was relinquished to the Horii clan and subsidiary

Kakegawa Castle is a ''hirayama''-style Japanese castle. It was the seat of various ''fudai daimyō'' clans who ruled over Kakegawa Domain, Tōtōmi Province, in what is now central Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Background Kakegawa Castle is located a ...

to Yamauchi Kazutoyo. 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 ...

, the Tokugawa recovered their lost territories, and reassigned Tōtōmi to various ''

fudai daimyō was a class of ''daimyō'' (大名) in the Tokugawa Shogunate (徳川幕府) of Japan who were hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa before the Battle of Sekigahara. ''Fudai daimyō'' and their descendants filled the ranks of the Tokugawa admin ...

s''. During the Edo period, the Tōkaidō road from

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

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 ...

passed through Tōtōmi, with post stations at several locations. For defensive purposes, the

forbid the construction of bridges on the major rivers (such as at the

Tenryū River The is a river in central Honshū, Japan. With a length of , it is Japan's ninth longest river. Its source is Lake Suwa in the Kiso Mountains near Okaya in Nagano Prefecture. It then flows through Aichi Prefecture and western Shizuoka Prefec ...

), which further led to town development on the major river crossings. At the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tōtōmi Province was divided among several feudal domains, which were assigned to close ''fudai'' retainers. Following the defeat of the Tokugawa shogunate during the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

of 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 last Tokugawa shōgun,

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Kazoku, Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned his position as shogun in late 1867, while ai ...

returned to Suruga in 1868 to rule the short-lived Shizuoka Domain, and the existing ''daimyōs'' in Tōtōmi were reassigned to other territories, mostly in

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

After 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 by the new

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 ...

, during the first wave of prefectural mergers (第1次府県統合 ''daiichiji fu/ken tōgō''), the new prefectures in Tōtōmi were merged into Hamamatsu Prefecture, with enclaves of other prefectures/exclaves in other provinces being removed, so that Hamamatsu and Tōtōmi became basically contiguous. On August 21, 1876, Hamamatsu was merged into

, which by that time comprised all of Suruga and Izu provinces, to form an enlarged Shizuoka Prefecture; it reached practically its present-day extent in 1878 when a part of Izu Province, namely the Izu Islands, were transferred from Shizuoka to Tokyo. Many former

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

of the feudal domains in Tōtōmi, now unemployed due to the sudden end to feudalism, were settled in the Makinohara region, where they developed the

green tea Green tea is a type of tea made from the leaves and buds of the '' Camellia sinensis'' that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process that creates oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China in the late 1st millenn ...

industry. With the coming of the

Tōkaidō Main Line The Tōkaidō Main Line () is one of the most important railway corridors in Japan, connecting the major cities of Tokyo and Kobe via Shizuoka (city), Shizuoka, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka. The line, with termini at Tokyo Station, Tokyo and Kōbe St ...

railway, Hamamatsu developed rapidly into a major commercial and industrial center, especially in connection with the cotton and silk-spinning industries.

Districts under the Ritsuryō system

Tōtōmi Province consisted of twelve districts: Tempo Kuniezu Totomi no kuni Frame 1

* In modern times part of:

Hamamatsu is a Cities of Japan, city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In September 2023, the city had an estimated population of 780,128 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, with a population density of over the t ...

, Horie (a fiefdom established only in the restoration) and many other feudal domains/shogunate/crown lands/prefectures 1868 → completely Hamamatsu Prefecture 1871/72 →

since 1876 ** Aratama District (麁玉郡) – merged into Inasa District on April 1, 1896 ** Fuchi District (敷知郡) – merged into Hamana District (along with Nakagami District) on April 1, 1896 ** Haibara District (榛原郡) ** Hamana District (浜名郡) – absorbed Fuchi and Nakagami Districts on April 1, 1896; now dissolved ** Inasa District (引佐郡) – absorbed Aratama District on April 1, 1896; now dissolved ** Iwata District (磐田郡) – absorbed Toyoda and Yamana Districts on April 1, 1896; now dissolved ** Kitō District (城東郡) – merged with Saya District to become Ogasa District (小笠郡) on April 1, 1896 ** Nagakami District (長上郡) – merged into Hamana District (along with Fuchi District) on April 1, 1896 ** Saya District (佐野郡) – merged with Kitō District to become Ogasa District on April 1, 1896 ** Shūchi District (周智郡) ** Toyoda District (豊田郡) – merged into Iwata District (along with Yamana District) on April 1, 1896 ** Yamana District (山名郡) – merged into Iwata District (along with Toyoda District) on April 1, 1896

Bakumatsu-period feudal division

Generally, the '' kokudaka'' nominal income did not correspond to the actual income from a given village/district/province, and in addition there were some, especially non-agricultural, sources of taxable or direct income that were not always accurately represented in the baku/han kokudaka system of the Edo period. Note: The ''kokudaka'' given in the table is the total from within & without the province, not restricted to the parts of the domain actually located in Tōtōmi. Note: The following figures are taken from the Japanese Wikipedia article, the database and publication series used as the original source are given in the external links.

Highways

* Tōkaidō – connecting

with

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

External links

* National Museum of Japanese History
旧高旧領取調帳データベース
(Database of feudal territories and their yields) at the end of the Edo period (or shortly after, see notes)/in the Meiji restoration; digitization of: Kimura, Motoi (1969–79): 旧高旧領取調帳, 6 Volumes, Kondō Shuppansha
Search mask
by province, district, village r town/station domain/shogunate administration or other feudal territory, early-Meiji prefecture, income, 20th century LPE code (all non-numerical entries are given as full names incl. suffixes, e.g. 遠江国 for Tōtōmi Province, 佐野郡 for Saya District, 金谷宿 for Kanaya Station, 相良町 for Sagara Town, 浜松県 for Hamamatsu Prefecture, etc.; some villages/settlements were split between several lords/territories and therefore have several database entries with fractional incomes) {{DEFAULTSORT:Totomi Province Former provinces of Japan History of Shizuoka Prefecture 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871