Mutsu province

Japanese:陸奥国 (Mutsu no kuni, or Michinoku no kuni) or 奥州 (Ôshu).

Present Aomori,Iware,Miyagi,Fukushima and north eastern Akita prefecture.

Han in Mustu

• Tonami han 斗南藩
• Shichinohe han 七戸藩
• Hirosaki han 弘前藩
• Kuroishi han 黒石藩
• Hachinohe han 八戸藩
• Morioka han (Nanbu han) 盛岡藩（南部藩）
• Mizusawa han 水沢藩
• Ichinoseki han (Iwanuma han) 一関藩(岩沼藩)
• Sendai han (Date han) 仙台藩（伊達藩）
• Yanagawa han 梁川藩
• Kori han 桑折藩
• Shimotedo han 下手渡藩
• Sôma Nakamura han 相馬中村藩
• Fukushima han 福島藩
• Mutsu Shimomura han 陸奥下村藩
• Nihonmatsu han 二本松藩
• Aizu han 会津藩
• Miharu han 三春藩
• Ôkubo han 大久保藩
• Ishikawa han 石川藩
• Shirakawa han 白河藩
• Shirakawa Shinden han 白河新田藩
• Moriyama han 守山藩
• Asakawa han 浅川藩
• Iwakitaira han 磐城平藩
• Tanakura han 棚倉藩
• Yunagaya han 湯長谷藩
• Izumi han 泉藩
• Kubota han 窪田藩

Districts

• Isawa district 胆沢郡
• Shirakawa district 白河郡
• Iwase district 磐瀬郡
• Aizu district 会津郡
• Yama district 耶麻郡
• Asaka district 安積郡
• Adachidistrict 安達郡
• Shinobu district 信夫郡
• Katta district 刈田郡
• Shibata district 柴田郡
• Natori district 名取郡
• Kikuta district 菊田郡
• Iwaki 磐城郡
• Shineha district 標葉郡
• Namekata district 行方郡
• Uda district 宇多郡
• Esashi district 江刺郡
• Igu district 伊具郡
• Watari district 亘理郡
• Miyagi district 宮城郡
• Kurokawa district 黒川郡
• Kami district 賀美郡
• Shikima district 色麻郡
• Tamatsukuri district 玉造郡
• Shida district 志太郡
• Kurihara district 栗原郡
• Iwai district 磐井郡
• Isawa district 膽沢郡
• Nagaoka district 長岡郡
• Niita district 新田郡
• Oda district 小田郡
• Tôda district 遠田郡
• Kesen district 気仙郡
• Oshika district 牡鹿郡
• Tome district 登米郡
• Monou district 桃生郡
• Ônuma district 大沼郡

Battles in Mutsu province

• Battle of Hitadori (1585)

History

Mutsu Province was originally called 'Michi no oku' or 'Michinoku'--literally the province at the end of the land. Over time, this was slurred to 'Mutsu'. It probably designated territory that was not controlled by the Yamato polity, and the territory appears to have been managed instead by local chieftains of the Emishi who were co-opted (peaceably or forcefully) into the Tenno-centered Yamato government. It appears to have been designated by some point after the assassination of the Soga chieftain in 645, when the court established provinces and districts in the northeast.

Between 647 and 648, the first of a series of Yamato stockades in Emishi territory were established in Mutsu, including areas that would later become Echigo Province. In 718, portions of Michinoku and Hitachi Province were split off to form Iwaki and Iwashiro provinces, which were dissolved and reabsorbed only a few years later. There were clashes between the Yamato and Emishi people throughout the 8th century, and in 774 Emishi attacked Momou Stockade in Michinoku, prompting the beginning of the pacification wars. Otomo Surugamaro was sent to pacify the region as a reaction to these attacks, but after destroying the Emishi's base near Momou, he was forced to halt the campaign due to a riot of the construction workers working on building a new stockade.

In 780, Iji-no-kimi Atamaro--a district official--began the largest Emishi revolt up to that time. His objective was to kill two rival government officials, Michishima Otate and Ki Hirozumi, due to an insult from the former. To that end he attacked the Iji Stockade and then the Taga Stockade in the south. This appeared to have been caused because Otate, an official in the nearby Oshika district, had referred to Atamaro, an Emishi chieftain who had been made a senior district chief, as a 'tamed barbarian'.

Similar uprisings followed, and Tamo-no-kimi Aterui took up the leadership of this resistance. In 789, Aterui defeated a larger force at the Battle of Kitakami River, and remained at-large until 801, when he was defeated by Sakanoue Tamuramaro. Fighting continued until a court edict in 805, with one last campaign in 811, after which the pacification of the area was considered complete by Imperial edict. Emishi chieftains continued to manage districts in the province through at least the 9th century, as the Emishi were incorporated into the larger Japanese polity under the Ritsuryo system of government.

References

• Piggott, Joan R. (ed), Capital and Countryside in Japan, 300-1180, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 2006.