Izumi Province

The characters 泉州 are also used for the name of the Chinese city of Quanzhou.
Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Izumi Province highlighted.

Izumi Province (和泉国 Izumi no kuni) was a province of Japan.[1] It is also referred to as Senshū (泉州?) . It lay in Kinai, and its area today composes the south-western part of Osaka Prefecture (south of the Yamato River; not including the city of Osaka itself). The Ōshōji in Sakai was the border with Settsu Province, until the beginning of the Meiji period, when the boundary was changed to be at the Yamato River. Izumi was classified as a lower province in the Engishiki.

The northern part was called Senboku (泉北?, "Izumi North") , and the southern part Sennan (泉南?, "Izumi South") . Izumi included the southern portion of the large seaport of Sakai, and was usually held by whomever ruled Osaka Castle and Settsu Province.

Name

The name "Izumi" means "fountain" or "spring" (), but is written with two characters, the character for "peace" () being prepended due to an imperial edict in 713. This character does not play into the reading.

Because the provincial capital was in modern Fuchū town, Izumi city, Osaka Prefecture, the city adopted the name of the province as its name.

Development

According to the Shoku Nihongi, the Izumi and Hine districts were separated from Kawachi Province on 23 April 716; moreover, on 8 May that same year, the Ōtori District was also separated from Kawachi, and the three districts constructed Izumi-gen (和泉監?) . The imperial villa of Chinu Palace (茅渟宮 Chinu no Miya, also known as Izumi Palace) was in Izumi, and it seems that this has something to do with the unusual classification of gen (?) : Yoshino-gen was the only other province with this designation. Afterwards, on 15 September 740, it was abolished and merged back into Kawachi province. On 30 May 757, it was re-established with a normal province designation kuni ().

According to the Nihongi Ryaku, on 21 April 825, the four Settsu Province districts of Higashinari, Nishinari, Kudara, and Sumiyoshi were incorporated into Izumi Province, but the residents were opposed to it, so they were restored to Settsu on 8 August the same year.

In the Edo period, Kishiwada Domain (Koide tozama, Matsudaira/Matsui fudai, Okabe fudai; 30000–60000 koku) and Hakata Domain (Watanabe fudai; 13500 koku) were established.

Sometime in 1870 or 1871 (the beginning of the Meiji era), the boundary with Settsu Province was changed to the Yamato River (it was formerly the roads of Ōshōji and Nagao Kaidō).

Capital

The provincial capital was in the Izumi District, which is now around Fuchū, Izumi. The ruins of its buildings are being excavated.

The shugo's residence was right by the capital, but it was transferred to Sakai in the Muromachi period.

Shrines and temples

The only grand shrine was Ōtori Shrine in Ōtori District (Ōtorikita, Sakai), ranking among the Myōjin Taisha; it also became Izumi Province’s primary shrine. The secondary shrine was Izumi-Anashi Shrine (Toyonaka, Izumiōtsu); the tertiary shrine was Hijiri Shrine (Ōji, Izumi), the quaternary Tsugawa Shrine (Tsugawa, Kishiwada), and the quinary Hine Shrine (Hineno, Izumisano). However, Hine Shrine was listed as the quaternary shrine in a 1501 document. The sōja was the Five Shrine Sōja complex at Izumi-Inoue Shrine in the capital, where the kami of the above five shrines were also enshrined.

The provincial temple was Fukutoku-ji (Kokubu, Izumi). It was only for monks, there was no temple available for nuns.

Shugo

Kamakura shogunate

Muromachi shogunate

Kami of Izumi

Historical districts

Meiji era reorganization

Notes

  1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 780, p. 780, at Google Books.

References

Media related to Izumi Province at Wikimedia Commons

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