Hizen Province

Hizen Province (肥前国, Hizen no kuni) was an old province of Japan in the area of Saga Prefecture and Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū.^[1] Along with Higo Province, it was sometimes called Hishū (肥州).

Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Hizen Province highlighted

Hizen had borders with the provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo.^[2]

The ancient capital city of the province was near Saga.^[3]

History

View of Hizen Province, woodblock print by Hiroshige, 1854-1856

The name "Hizen" dates from the Nara Period, when the province was divided from Higo Province. The name appears in the Shoku Nihongi.

In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. Maps of Japan and Hizen Province were reformed in the 1870s.^[4]

Shrines and Temples

Kawakami jinja and Chiriku Hachiman-gū^[5] were the chief Shinto shrines (ichinomiya) of Hizen.^[6]

Related pages

• Hizen Seamount

References

1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 338. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
2. The province did not include the regions of Tsushima and Iki which are now part of modern Nagasaki prefecture.
3. Hildreth, Richard (1907). Hildreth's "Japan as it was and is": a handbook of old Japan. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner. p. 47.
4. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 780. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
5. "Hachiman Shinkō," Archived 2012-03-21 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2011-2-2.
6. "Nationwide List of Ichinomiya," p. 3 Archived 2013-05-17 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2011-1-18.

Other websites

Media related to Hizen Province at Wikimedia Commons

• Murdoch's map of provinces, 1903
• National Archives of Japan: Hinozenshu sanbutsu zuko, scroll showing illustrated inventory of industries in Hizen, An'ei 2 (1773) Archived 2015-10-02 at the Wayback Machine