Musashi Province

Map of Japanese provinces with province highlighted

Map of Japanese provinces with province highlighted

Musashi (武蔵国, Musashi no kuni) was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo prefecture, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture, mainly Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, Shimousa, and Shimotsuke Provinces.

Musashi was the largest province in the Kantō region. It had its ancient capital in modern Fuchu, Tokyo and its provincial temple in what is now Kokubunji, Tokyo. By the Sengoku period, the main city was Edo, which became the dominant city of eastern Japan. Edo Castle was the headquarters of Tokugawa Ieyasu before the Battle of Sekigahara and became the dominant city of Japan during the Edo period, being renamed Tokyo during the Meiji Restoration.

It gave its name to the battleship of the Second World War Musashi.

See also Miyamoto Musashi.

Timeline of important events in Musashi

• Keiun 4, on the 15th day of the 6th month (707): Empress Genmei is enthroned at the age of 48.
• Keiun 4 (707): Copper was reported to have been found in Musashi province in the region which includes modern day Tokyo.
• Keiun 5 (708):, The era name was about to be changed to mark the accession of Empress Gemmei; but the choice of Wadō as the new nengō for this new reign became a way to mark the welcome discovery of copper in the Chichibu District of what is now Saitama Prefecture. The Japanese word for copper is dō (銅); and since this was indigenous copper, the "wa" (the ancient Chinese term for Japan) could be combined with the "dō" (copper) to create a new composite term -- "wadō" -- meaning "Japanese copper."

• Wadō 1, on the 11th day of the 4th month (708): A sample of the newly discovered Musashi copper from was presented in Gemmei's Court where it was formally acknowledged as Japanese copper. The Wadō era is famous for the first Japanese coin (和同開珎, wadokaiho/wadokaichin).

• Tenshō 18 (1590): Siege of Odawara. Iwatsuki Domain and Oshi Domain founded in Musashi Province.

References

Further reading

• Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō,' an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. brown & Ichirō Ishida. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Kodama Kōta 児玉幸多 , Kitajima Masamoto 北島正元 (1966). Kantō no shohan 関東の諸藩. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha.
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo, 1652]. Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.--Two digitized examples of this rare book have now been made available online: (1) from the library of the University of Michigan, digitized January 30, 2007; and (2) from the library of Stanford University, digitized June 23, 2006. Click here to read the original text in French.

This article incorporates text from OpenHistory.