Echigo Province

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Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Echigo Province highlighted
Hiroshige ukiyo-e " Echigo " in "The Famous Scenes of the Sixty States" (六十余州名所図会), depicting Oyashirazu cliffs.

Echigo Province (越後国, Echigo no kuni) was an

old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces.[1] It corresponds today to Niigata Prefecture, minus the island of Sado
.

Its abbreviated form name was Esshū (越州), with Echizen and Etchū Provinces. Under the Engishiki classification system, Echigo was ranked as one of the 35 "superior countries" (上国) in terms of importance, and one of the 30 "far countries" (遠国) in terms of distance from the capital.

Echigo and Kōzuke Province were known as the Jōetsu region.

History

In the late 7th century, during the reign of

Meiji period
.

The provincial capital of Echigo was located in Kubiki District, in what is now the city of Jōetsu, but its exact location is now unknown. The temple of Gochikokubun-ji (五智国分寺), also in Jōetsu, claims to be the successor of the provincial temple of Echigo Province; however, its records date only to 1562 when it was relocated to its present location by Uesugi Kenshin. Two Shinto shrines vie for the title of ichinomiya of Echigo Province: Yahiko Shrine in Yahiko, and Kota Shrine in Jōetsu.

Echigo was ruled directly by the Hōjō clan during the Kamakura period, followed by the Uesugi clan from the start of the Muromachi period to the late Sengoku period. Under the Tokugawa shogunate of the Edo period, Echigo was divided among several feudal domains. The Hokurikudō highway passed through the province, and numerous post stations were established. The port of Niigata was also of major importance in the coastal kitamaebune trading system.

The area became a battleground during the

Meiji government, the various domains became prefectures with the abolition of the han system
in 1871. These various prefectures merged to form Niigata Prefecture in 1876.

Historical districts

Echigo Province consisted of fifteen districts:

Bakumatsu period domains

Name type
daimyō
kokudaka notes
Murakami Domain
fudai
Naitō 50,000 koku
Kurokawa Domain fudai Yanagisawa 10,000 koku
Mikkaichi Domain fudai Yanagisawa 10,000 koku
Shibata Domain
tozama
Mizoguchi 50,000 koku
Muramatsu Domain tozama Hori 30,000 koku
Yoita Domain fudai Ii 20,000 koku
Nagaoka Domain fudai Makino 110,000 koku
Mineyama Domain fudai Makino 11,000 koku
Shiiya Domain fudai Hori 10,000 koku
Takada Domain fudai Yanagihara 150,000 koku
Itoigawa Domain
shinpan
Matsudaira 10,000 koku

Notes

  1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Echigo" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 164, p. 164, at Google Books
    .

References

External links

Media related to Echigo Province at Wikimedia Commons