Mimasaka Province


Mimasaka Province was a province of Japan in the area that is northern Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. Mimasaka bordered Bitchū, Bizen, Harima, Hōki, and Inaba Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was Sakushū. In terms of the Gokishichidō system, Mimasaka was one of the provinces of the San'yō circuit.
Under the Engishiki classification system, Mimasaka was ranked as one of the 35 "superior countries" in terms of importance, and one of the "near countries" in terms of distance from the capital. The provincial capital was located in what is now the city of Tsuyama.
File:NDL-DC 2540870 25-Utagawa Hiroshige II-諸国六十八景 美作-文久2-crd1.jpg|thumb|Hiroshige ukiyo-e "Mimasaka" in "The Famous Scenes of the Sixty States"

Geography

Mimasaka was a landlocked province on the southern side of the Chugoku Mountains. The area is very mountainous, and is divided into three major river basins. In the east is the Asahi River which flows through the Maniwa Basin. In the center is the Yoshii River, which flows through the Tsuyama Basin. To the west is the Mimasaka area, which contains three smaller river basins. Due to this geography, the main transportation method in pre-modern times was by boat.

History

In 713, at the suggestion of Bizen-no-kami Nanten - and Bizen-no-suke Kamitsukeno-no-Kenji the Eita, Katsuta, Tomata, Kume, Mashima, and Oba districts of Bizen Province were separated into a new province, and, and Kamitsukeno-no-Kenji was appointed as the first governor of Mimasaka. This separation was the final stage of the disintegration of the former Kingdom of Kibi, and was intended to further weaken the Kibi clan by putting its iron resources directly under the control of the Imperial [House of Japan|imperial government].
In Mimasaka, there are many place names that are directly linked to people or places in Yamato. The ruins of the kokufu have been located within what is now the city of Tsuyama. The site is now located under the Tsuyama Sōja shrine. The Mimasaka Kokubun-ji and the ruins of the Mimasaka Kokubun-niji as located nearby, The ichinomiya of the province is the Nakayama Shrine, also located in Tsuyama.
During the Heian period, the area was part of the holdings of the Heike clan. In the Kamakura period, Kajiwara no Kagetoki followed by Wada Yoshimori served as shugo before the province came under the direct control of the Hōjō clan. In the Muromachi period, the Ashikaga clan took over the former Hōjō holdings. No central powerful local clan ever rose to prominence and the province changed hands frequently between warring factions in the Sengoku period.
Control shifted between the Yamana clan, the Akamatsu clan, the Amago clan, the Urakami clan, and the Ukita clan. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, it became united again with Bizen Province under Kobayakawa Hideaki. After his death without heir only two years later, the Tokugawa shogunate assigned most of the province to the Mori clan as Tsuyama Domain. The Mori moved the capital of the province from the Innoshō area, to their newly built jōkamachi at Tsuyama.
In 1697, the Mori clan were replaced by a cadet branch of the Echizen-Matsudaira clan. The size of the domain was reduced to only 100,000 koku, and later to 50,000 koku. In 1767, another domain, Katsuyama Domain, with 23,000 koku, was created for the Miura clan. Mimasaka was the home of the samurai Miyamoto Musashi, the author of The Book of Five Rings.
In 1871, following the abolition of the han system, Mimasaka was divided into Tsuyama, Mashima, Kurashiki, Tsuruta, Koromo, Koga, Ikuno, Akashi, Numata, and Tatsuno prefectures, which were merged with Okayama Prefecture inI 1876.
Per the early Meiji period Kyudaka kyuryo Torishirabe-chō, an official government assessment of the nation's resources, the province had 766 villages, with a total kokudaka of 263,477 koku.
NameClanTypekokudaka
TsuyamaEchizen-Matsudaira clanShinpan100,000 koku
KatsuyamaMiura clanFudai23,000 koku

DistrictkokudakaControlled byat presentComments
Aida District 13,662 koku65 villages
absorbed Yoshino District on April 1, 1900-
Kumehokujō District 28,871 koku60 villages
merged with Kumenanjō District to become Kume District on April 1, 1890-
Kumenanjō District 22,989 koku72 villages
merged with Kumehokujō District to become Kume District on April 1, 1890-
Mashima District 33,225 koku112 villages
merged with Ōba District to become Maniwa District on April 1, 1890-
Ōba District 20,836 koku59 villages
merged with Mashima District to become Maniwa District on April 1, 1890-
Saihokujō District merged with Saisaijō, Tōhokujō and Tōnanjō Districts to become Tomata District on April 1, 1890-
Saisaijō District 27,308 koku61 villages
merged with Saihokujō, Tōhokujō and Tōnanjō Districts to become Tomata District on April 1, 1890-
Shōboku District 34,189 koku89 villages
merged with Shōnan District to become Katsuta District on April 1, 1890-
Shōnan District 24,657 koku79 villages
merged with Shōboku District to become Katsuta District on April 1, 1890-
Tōhokujō District 15,411 koku40 villages
merged with Saihokujō, Saisaijō and Tōnanjō Districts to become Tomata District on April 1, 1890-
Tōnanjō District 10,838 koku22 villages
merged with Saihokujō, Saisaijō and Tōhokujō Districts to become Tomata District on April 1, 1890-
Yoshino District 19,954 koku73 villages
merged into Aida District on April 1, 1900-