Izumi Province
History. Early history. According to the "Shoku Nihongi", the Izumi and Hine Districts were separated from Kawachi Province on 23 April 716; moreover, on 8 May that same year, the Ōtori District was also separated from Kawachi, and the three districts were made into a province named . The name "Izumi" means , but is written with two characters, the character for being prepended due to an imperial edict in 713. This character does not play into the reading. An imperial villa, was in the area, and it seems that this has something to do with the unusual classification of  : "Yoshino-gen" was the only other province with this designation. Afterwards, on 15 September 740, Izumi was abolished and merged back into Kawachi province. On 30 May 757, it was re-established with a normal province designation . According to the "Nihon Kiryaku", on 21 April 825, four counties from Settsu Province: Higashinari, Nishinari, Kudara, and Sumiyoshi were incorporated into Izumi Province, but the local residents were opposed to this change, so the area was restored to Settsu on 8 August the same year. The provincial capital of Izumi was located in what is now the Fuchu neighborhood of the city  of Izumi, Osaka. ）The site has been excavated and is marked with a stone monument. The provincial temple of Izumi, the Izumi Kokubun-ji was also located in the city of Izumi. There is no record of a provincial nunnery. The "Engishiki" record of 927 AD lists one major and 52 minor Shinto shrines in the province. The major shrine is the Ōtori taisha, located in what is now Nishi-ku, Sakai. This was also the "ichinomiya" of the province. During the Heian period, Izumi was dominated by "shōen" landed estates, the largest of which was the Hine shōen, which  was controlled by the aristocratic Kujō family. During the Muromachi period, the [Ashikaga clan appointed the Hosokawa clan as "shugo" of Izumi Province. In the early 15th century, the Miyoshi clan (from Awa Province in Shikoku) invaded and defeated the Hosokawa clan and their proxies, and became rulers over a large portion of the Kansai region. Miyoshi Yoshikata (1527-1562), the younger brother of Miyoshi Nagayoshi made Kishiwada Castle his base and extensively rebuilt its fortifications. The Miyoshi also developed Sakai into an international port and profited greatly from trade. Miyoshi rule proved to be short-lived and by the  1560s the clan was in eclipse and Izumi Province had collapsed into a patchwork of local strongmen. It became a battleground between the forces of Oda Nobunaga and the followers of the "Saiga Ikki", local followers of the "Ikkō-ikki" movement, who sought to overthrow the feudal system and establish a theocratic republic, and later under Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the base for his conquest of Kii Province. During this period, Sakai was ruled by a councilor oligarchs, and became very rich on trade with China and the Europeans. It was also a center for matchlock rifle production. Edo Period. Under  the Tokugawa shogunate, the port of Sakai came under the rule of the "Osaka machi-bugyō", and the province itself was divided into a patchwork of holdings directly by the shogunate ("tenryō") or various "daimyō" Meiji period. Following the Meiji restoration, Sakai became "Sakai Prefecture" in 1868 and gradually absorbed all of the "tenryō" and holdings of the various "daimyō" from other areas. The northern border the province with Settsu was adjusted in 1870 with part of the area of Sumiyoshi District of Settsu Province added into Ōtori District. The border was changed from roads of Ōshōji and Nagao Kaidō  in Sakai to the Yamato River. Also in 1870, Mikami Domain in Ōmi Province relocated its seat to Yoshimi in Izumi, and was renamed "Yoshimi Domain" briefly before the abolition of the han system several months later in 1871. Yoshimi, Kishiwada and Hakata all became prefectures, which were then merged into . Sakai Prefecture was merged into Nara Prefecture on April 18, 1876, but was subsequently transferred to Osaka Prefecture on February 21, 1881 Per the early Meiji period , a official government assessment of the nation’s resources, the province had 352 villages with a total "kokudaka" of 170,885 "koku". Izumi  Province consisted of: The districts were reduced from four to two on April 1, 1896: