Awa Province (Chiba) - History

History

Awa was originally one of four districts of Kazusa Province. It was well-known to the Imperial Court in Nara Period Japan for its bountiful seafoods, and is mentioned in Nara period records as having supplied fish to the Court as early as the reign of the semi-legendary Emperor Keikō. On May 2, 718 the district of Awa was elevated into status to a full province. On December 10, 741 it was merged back into Kazusa, but regained its independent status in 757. The exact location of the capital of the new province is not known, but is believed to have been somewhere within the borders of the modern city of Minamibōsō, Chiba; however, the Kokubun-ji was located in what is now the city of Tateyama, Chiba as is the Ichinomiya (Awa Shrine) of the province.

During the Heian period, the province was divided into numerous shōen controlled by local samurai clans. These clans sided with Minamoto Yoritomo in the Genpei War. The history of the province in the Kamakura period is uncertain, but it came under the control of the Yuki clan and the Uesugi clan in the early Muromachi period. However, by the Sengoku period, the Satomi clan had gained control over much of Awa, Kazusa and Shimōsa provinces. The Satomi sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Battle of Sekigahara, but after being implicated in the political intrigues of Ōkubo Tadachika in 1614, were forced to surrender their domains for Kurayoshi Domain in Hōki Province, Awa became tenryō territory administered by various hatamoto aside from five small domains created at various times in the Edo period (three of which survived to the Meiji Restoration), with an additional two domains created at the start of the Meiji period. The entire province had an assessed revenue of 95,736 koku.

The various domains and tenryo territories were transformed into short-lived prefectures in July 1871 by the abolition of the han system, and the entire territory of Awa Province became part of the new Chiba Prefecture on June 15, 1873.

The area of former Awa Province was organized into four districts by the early Meiji cadastral reform of 1869: Awa District (安房郡), Asai District (朝夷郡), Nagasa District (長狭郡) and He District (平群郡). The latter three districts were subsequently absorbed into Awa District, and were dissolved by 1897.