Higo Province (, Higo no kuni) was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Ky?sh?.[1] It was sometimes called Hish? (), with Hizen Province. Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hy?ga, ?sumi, and Satsuma Provinces.
History
The castle town of Higo was usually at Kumamoto City. During the Muromachi period, Higo was held by the Kikuchi clan, but they were dispossessed during the Sengoku period, and the province was occupied by neighboring lords, including the Shimazu clan of Satsuma, until Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Ky?sh? and gave Higo to his retainers, first Sassa Narimasa and later Kat? Kiyomasa. The Kato were soon stripped of their lands, and the region was given to the Hosokawa clan.
During the Sengoku Period, Higo was a major center for Christianity in Japan, and it is also the location where Miyamoto Musashi stayed at the Hosokawa daimy?s invitation while completing his The Book of Five Rings.
In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. Maps of Japan and Higo Province were reformed in the 1870s.[2] At the same time, the province continued to exist for some purposes. For example, Higo is explicitly recognized in treaties in 1894 (a) between Japan and the United States and (b) between Japan and the United Kingdom.[3]
Shrines and temples
Aso-jinja was the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) of Higo.[4]
Historical districts
- Kumamoto Prefecture
- Akita District () - merged with Takuma District to become H?taku District () on April 1, 1896
- Amakusa District ()
- Ashikita District ()
- Aso District ()
- G?shi District () - merged into Kikuchi District on April 1, 1896
- Kikuchi District () - absorbed G?shi District on April 1, 1896
- Kuma District ()
- Mashiki District ()
- Takuma District () - merged with Akita District to become H?taku District on April 1, 1896
- Tamana District ()
- Uto District () - dissolved
- Yamaga District () - merged with Yamamoto District to become Kamoto District () on April 1, 1896
- Yamamoto District () - merged with Yamaga District to become Kamoto District on April 1, 1896
- Yatsushiro District ()
See also
Notes
- ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Higo" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 310, p. 3190, at Google Books.
- ^ Nussbaum, "Provinces and prefectures" at p. 780.
- ^ US Department of State. (1906). A digest of international law as embodied in diplomatic discussions, treaties and other international agreements (John Bassett Moore, ed.), Vol. 5, p. 759.
- ^ "Nationwide List of Ichinomiya," p. 3 Archived 2013-05-17 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2011-10-29.
References
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
- Papinot, Edmond. (1910). Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. OCLC 77691250
External links
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