Hida Province

Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Hida Province highlighted

Hida Province (飛騨国 Hida no kuni)^[1] is an old province located in the northern part of Gifu Prefecture.^[2] It was sometimes called Hishū (飛州). The province was in the Tōsandō area of central Honshu.

History

Hida Province's castle town was Takayama. Hida had extensive forests and was a major source of timber and metals for other provinces. River traffic from Hida down to Mino and Owari Provinces was heavy.

The bridge of Hida

In 1585, Kanamori Nagachika, one of Oda Nobunaga's and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi's generals, was sent to occupy Hida Province and became its lord. He fought on the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara and his heirs held the province through the Edo Period.

Historical districts

Currently, the entire area of the former Hida Province consists of the cities of Gero, Hida and Takayama; and the village of Shirakawa, Ōno District.

• Gifu Prefecture
  • Mashita District (益田郡) - dissolved
  • Ōno District (大野郡)
  • Yoshiki District (吉城郡) - dissolved

Notes

1. The traditional kanji for the name are 飛驒国, with the top radical of the middle kanji being different.
2. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Hida" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 307, p. 307, at Google Books.

References

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128

Other websites

Media related to Hida Province at Wikimedia Commons

• Murdoch's map of provinces, 1903