Ōmi Province
Former province of Japan / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Ōmi" redirects here. For the city in current Shiga Prefecture, see Ōmihachiman. For other uses, see Omi (disambiguation).
Ōmi Province (近江国, Ōmi no kuni) was a province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture.[1] It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. Its nickname is Gōshū (江州). Under the Engishiki classification system, Ōmi was ranked as one of the 13 "great countries" (大国) in terms of importance, and one of the "near countries" (近国) in terms of distance from the imperial capital Kyoto.
Ōmi bordered on Wakasa and Echizen Provinces to the north, Mino and Ise Provinces to the east, Iga and Yamato Provinces to the south, and Yamashiro and Tanba Provinces to the west. Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, is located at the center of the province.