was an old province in north-central

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, on the shores of the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

, minus the island of Sado. Its abbreviated form name was , with Echizen and Etchū Provinces. Under the ''

Engishiki The is a Japanese book of laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ''Engishi ...

'' classification system, Echigo was ranked as one of the 35 "superior countries" (上国) in terms of importance, and one of the 30 "far countries" (遠国) in terms of distance from the capital Kyoto. Echigo and Kōzuke Province were known as the Jōetsu region.

History

In the late 7th century, during the reign of

Emperor Monmu was the 42nd emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 文武天皇 (42) retrieved 2013-8-22. according to the traditional order of succession. Monmu's reign spanned the years from 697 through 707. Traditional narrative Befo ...

, the ancient province of was divided into three separate provinces: Echizen, Etchū, and Echigo. The new Echigo Province consisted of Iwafune and Nutari Districts, and was one of two border provinces of the

Yamato state The was a tribal alliance centered on the Yamato region (Nara Prefecture) from the 4th century to the 7th century, and ruled over the alliance of noble families in the central and western parts of the Japanese archipelago. The age is from th ...

with the Emishi (the other being Mutsu). In 702, Echigo was given the four districts of Kubiki, Koshi, Uonuma and Kanbara from Etchū. When Japan extended its territory northward in 708, Dewa District was established under Echigo. But this district was transformed into

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...

in 712.

Sado Province was a province of Japan until 1871; since then, it has been a part of Niigata Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Sado''" in . It was sometimes called or . It lies on the eponymous Sado Island, off the coast of Niigata Prefectur ...

was temporarily merged with Echigo between 743 and 752. Since the division of Sado in 752, the territory of Echigo remained constant to the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

. The provincial capital of Echigo was located in Kubiki District, in what is now the city of Jōetsu, but its exact location is now unknown. The temple of , also in Jōetsu, claims to be the successor of the

provincial temple The are Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temples established in each of the provinces of Japan by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794). The official name for each temple was Konkomyo Shitenno Gokoku-ji (Konkōmyō Shitennō ...

of Echigo Province; however, its records date only to 1562 when it was relocated to its present location by

Uesugi Kenshin , later known as , was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (magnate). He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period ...

. Two

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

s vie for the title of ''

ichinomiya is a Japanese language, Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a Provinces of Japan, province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth.''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retr ...

'' of Echigo Province: Yahiko Shrine in Yahiko, and Kota Shrine in Jōetsu. Echigo was ruled directly by the

Hōjō clan The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of '' shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this perio ...

during the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, followed by the

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi period, Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries).Georges Appert, Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its heigh ...

from the start of the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

to the late

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. Under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

of the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, Echigo was divided among several feudal domains. The Hokurikudō highway passed through the province, and numerous post stations were established. The port of Niigata was also of major importance in the coastal '' kitamaebune'' trading system. The area became a battleground during the Battle of Hokuetsu in the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

of the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. Following the establishment of the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

, the various domains and provinces became prefectures with the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

in 1871. These various prefectures merged to form Niigata Prefecture in 1876.

Historical districts

Echigo Province consisted of fifteen districts: *

** Dewa District (出羽郡) - split off to become

** Iwafune District (岩船郡) ** Kanbara District (蒲原郡) *** Higashikanbara District (東蒲原郡) *** Kitakanbara District (北蒲原郡) *** Minamikanbara District (南蒲原郡) *** Nakakanbara District (中蒲原郡) - dissolved *** Nishikanbara District (西蒲原郡) ** Koshi District (古志郡) - formerly part of Etchū Province; now dissolved *** Kariwa District (刈羽郡) - split from Koshi District during

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, formerly known as Mishima District *** Santō District (三島郡) - split from Koshi District during

** Kubiki District (頸城郡) - formerly part of Etchū Province *** Higashikubiki District (東頸城郡) - dissolved *** Nakakubiki District (中頸城郡) - dissolved *** Nishikubiki District (西頸城郡) - dissolved ** Nuttari District (沼垂郡) - merged into Kanbara District (period unknown) ** Uonuma District (魚沼郡) - formerly part of Etchū Province *** Kitauonuma District (北魚沼郡) - dissolved *** Minamiuonuma District (南魚沼郡) *** Nakauonuma District (中魚沼郡)

Bakumatsu period domains

Notes

References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 58053128
* Papinot, Edmond. (1910). ''Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan.'' Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha
OCLC 77691250

External links

{{Japan Old Province History of Niigata Prefecture