is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

and

Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mo ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kinai'' after 1760.Nussbaum, "''Gokishichidō''" in . The name is still used to describe part of the

Kansai region The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropol ...

, but the area of the Kinai corresponds only generally to the land of the old provinces. The region was established as one of the ''

Gokishichidō was the name for ancient administrative units organized in Japan during the Asuka period (AD 538–710), as part of a legal and governmental system borrowed from the Chinese. Though these units did not survive as administrative structures beyon ...

'' ("Five provinces and seven roads") during the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

(538-710). It consisted of Yamashiro,

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...

, Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi provinces.

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
Regions of Japan {{Japan-hist-stub zh:五畿七道#五畿

See also

References