Suō_Province

Suō Province

Suō Province

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"Suo" redirects here. For other uses, see SUO.
"Suō" redirects here. For the Taiwanese town known as Suō in Japanese, see Su'ao.

Suō Province (周防国, Suō no kuni) was a province of Japan in the area that is today the eastern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture.[1] Suō bordered on Aki, Iwami, and Nagato Provinces.

Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Suō Province highlighted

Its abbreviated form name was Bōshū (防州). In terms of the Gokishichidō system, Suō was one of the provinces of the San'yōdō circuit. Under the Engishiki classification system, Suō was ranked as one of the "superior countries" (上国) in terms of importance, and one of the "far countries" (遠国) in terms of distance from the capital. The provincial capital was located in what is now the city of Hōfu, Yamaguchi. The ichinomiya of the province is the Tamanooya Shrine also located in Hōfu. [2]

Hiroshige ukiyo-e "Suo" in "The Famous Scenes of the Sixty States" (六十余州名所図会), depicting the Kintai Bridge

History

Before the establishment of the Ritsuryō system, the area of Suō was under control of various semi-independent kuni no miyatsuko: Ōshima Kuni (Suō-Ōshima), Suō Kuni (Kumage County, Kuga County), Hakuki Kuni (Kishiki County), Tsunu Kuni (Tono County), and Sawa Kuni (Sawa County) . These were united to form the Ritsuryo province, which initially consisted of five counties: Oshima, Kumage, Tsuno, Sawa, and Kisiki. Kuga County was divided from Kumage in 721 to form the sixth counties. In the Asuka period, the Iwakisan Kōgoishi mountain fortification was constructed against a possible invasion by Tang Dynasty China and the Kingdom of Silla in Korea. Wooden tally strips bearing the name of 'Suho Province', 'Shuyō Province' and 'Suō Province' have been found at the ruins of Fujiwara-kyō and Heijō-kyō and the names were used interchangeably in Nara period records, such as the Nihon Shoki.

During the Kamakura period, the Hōjō clan were the shugo of the province, and were replaced in the Muromachi period by the Ōuchi clan. During the Sengoku period, the Mōri clan supplanted the Ōuchi, and the province became part of the holdings of Chōshū Domain in the Edo Period. Following the Meiji restoration, the province became part of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The area of former Suo Province is now divided between the cities of Hōfu, Kudamatsu, Iwakuni, Hikari, Yanai, Shūnan, Ōshima District, Kuga District, Kumage District, and most of Yamaguchi city (excluding the former Ato Town), and a portion of Ube.


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Meiji period

Following the Meiji restoration, Suō was divided into six districts. [3] Per the early Meiji period Kyudaka kyuryo Torishirabe-chō (旧高旧領取調帳), an official government assessment of the nation’s resources, the province had 295 villages with a total kokudaka of 548,861 koku.

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Notes

  1. [1]
    Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Suō" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 916, p. 916, at Google Books.
  2. [2]
    "Nationwide List of Ichinomiya," p. 2; retrieved 2012-11-20.
  3. [3]
    Nussbaum, "Provinces and prefectures" at p. 780.

References

  • Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; 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.

Media related to Suo Province at Wikimedia Commons

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