Bizen Province
Bizen Province (
History[edit]
After its conquest, the ancient Kingdom of Kibi became Kibi Province. It was divided into Bizen (
Bizen, with much flat land and many rivers of reasonable size for flood control and water transportation, has been suitable for agriculture since ancient times. It has been an iron production area since the Kofun period, and also had salt fields along its coast with the Seto Inland Sea, which also provided for convenience of marine transportation to the Kinai region Shikoku and Kyushu. The province was economically prosperous, and although its area as not large, it was ranked as a "superior country" under the Ritsuryō classification system.
The location of the Bizen kokufu is uncertain. Per the Wamyō Ruijushō it was located in Mino District. However, ruins discovered in Joto District in what his now the Kokufuichi neighborhood of Naka-ku, Okayama (34°41′31.56″N 133°57′23.14″E / 34.6921000°N 133.9564278°E have been officially designated by the government as an Okayama Prefectural Historic Site. The designation is controversial as it was largely based on the geographic name of the site, which may or may not date to the Nara period.
The location of the Bizen Kokubun-ji is well defined, and is located in the city of Akaiwa, Okayama. It is located about 6.5 kilometers northeast of the estimated location of Bizen Kokufu. The foundations of the main temple buildings have been discovered, and the site is a National Historic Site. The presumed ruins of the Bizen Kokubun-niji are located 300 meters south of the monastery site. The details are not clear because no full-scale investigation has been conducted and the site is not covered by the National Historic Site designation,
The ichinomiya of the province is Kibitsuhiko Shrine, located in Kita-ku, Okayama.
Many shōen landed estates developed in the province during the Heian and Kamakura periods, and during this time the province also became famous for its production of Japanese swords, especially that of the Osafune school and the Ichimonji schools. Bizen ware pottery also developed during this period, but did not reach national prominence for several centuries.
In the Muromachi period, the Akamatsu clan, based in Harima Province, came to serve as shugo. When the power of the Akamatsu clan declined, the power of the Yamana clan increased, and Bizen gradually became a battlefield between the two clans and their proxies. During the Sengoku period, the Urakami clan, the shugodai, tried to rule Bizen Province by usurping the power of the Akamatsu clan, but were defeated by Amago Haruhisa, a powerful warlord from the San'in region. However, when the Amago clan declined, Ukita Naoie, a vassal of the Urakami clan, drove out the remnants of Urakami clan, and conquered Mimasaka Province and parts of Bitchū and Bizen Province to become a daimyō of the Sengoku period. He established Okayama as his stronghold. His successor, Ukita Hideie was defeated at the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara and dispossessed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who awarded Okayama to Kobayakawa Hideaki. When Kobayakawa Hideaki died without heir, Okayama Castle and all of Bizen Province was awarded to Ikeda Tadatsugu, the second son of Ikeda Terumasa. The Ikeda clan continued to rule all of Bizen Province until the Meiji restoration.
Under the Meiji government, on August 29, 1871, Bizen Province became part of Okayama Prefecture, with the exception of its islands in the Seto Inland Sea, which were transferred to Kagawa Prefecture and Ehime Prefecture. A small area of former Bizen Province was transferred to Akō, Hyōgo in 1963 at the request of is local inhabitants.
Per the early Meiji period Kyudaka kyuryo Torishirabe-chō (
Name | Clan | Type | kokudaka |
---|---|---|---|
Okayama | Ikeda clan | Tozama | 315,000 koku |
District | kokudaka | Villages | at present |
---|---|---|---|
Akasaka District ( |
44,009 koku | 94 villages | merged with Iwanashi District to become Akaiwa District ( |
Iwanashi District ( |
26,735 koku | 64 villages | merged with Akasaka District to become Akaiwa District on April 1, 1900; now parts of Higashi-ku, Okayama, Akaiwa, Wake |
Jōdō District ( |
102,948 koku | 108 villages | dissolved; now parts of Kita-ku, Okayama, Naka-ku, Okayama, Higashi-ku, Okayama, |
Kojima District ( |
49,342 koku | 91 villages | dissolved: now Tamano, parts of Minami-ku, Okayama, Kurashiki, |
Mino District ( |
52,282 koku | 62 villages | merged with Tsudaka District to become Mitsu District ( |
Oku District ( |
70,400 koku | 79 villages | dissolved: now Setouchi, parts of Higashi-ku, Okayama, Bizen |
Tsudaka District ( |
48,929 koku | 93 villages | merged with Mino District to become Mitsu District on April 1, 1900; now parts of Kita-ku, Okayama, Kibichūō, Misaki |
Wake District ( |
28,730 koku | 89 villages | now Wake, parts of Higashi-ku, Okayama, Bizen, Akaiwa, Akō, Hyōgo |
Gallery[edit]
-
Kibitsuhiko Jinja, the ichinomiya of the province
-
Ikeda Akimasa, last daimyō of Okayama
-
Okayama Castle before 1945
-
Site of the Bizen Kokufu
Notes[edit]
- ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Bizen" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 78, p. 78, at Google Books.
- ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Mimasaka no Kuni" in Japan Encyclopedia at Google Books.
References[edit]
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
External links[edit]
Media related to Bizen Province at Wikimedia Commons