Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/598

will be seen that the main island contains the Go-kinai, Tôkaidô, Tôzandô, Hokurikudô, Sanindô, Sanyôdô, and one province (Kishiu) of the Nankaidô. Omitting also the island of Awaji, the remaining provinces of the Nankaidô give the name Shikoku (“the four provinces”) to the island in which they lie; while the Saikaidô coincides exactly with the large island of Kiushiu (“the nine provinces”). This name Kiushiu must not be confounded with that of the one province of Kishiu on the main island.

In 1868, when the rebellious nobles of Ôshiu and Déwa, in the Tôzandô, had submitted to the mikado (the emperor), those two provinces were subdivided, Déwa into Uzen and Ugo, and Ôshiu into Iwaki, Iwashiro, Rikuzen, Rikuchiu and Michinoku (sometimes also called Mutsu). This increased the old number of provinces from sixty-six to seventy-one. At the same time there was created a new circuit, called the Hok’kaidô, or “northern-sea circuit,” which comprised the eleven provinces into which the large island of Yezo was then divided (viz., Oshima, Shiribéshi, Ishikari, Téshiwo, Kitami, Ifuri, Hitaka, Tokachi, Kushiro, and Nemuro) and the Kurile Islands (Chijima).

Another division of the old sixty-six provinces was made by taking as a central point the ancient barrier of Osaka on the frontier of Ômi and Yamashiro,—the region lying on the east, which consisted of thirty-three provinces, being called the Kuantô, or “east of the barrier,” the remaining thirty-three provinces on the west being styled Kuansei, or “west of the barrier.” At the present time, however, the term Kuantô is only applied to the eight provinces of Musashi, Sagami, Kôdzuké, Shimotsuké, Kadzusa, Shimôsa, Awa, and Hitachi,—all lying immediately to the east of the old barrier of Hakoné, in Sagami.

Chiu-goku, or “central provinces,” is a name in common use for the Sanindô and Sanyôdô taken together. Sai-koku, or “western provinces,” is another name for Kiushiu, which in books again is frequently called Chinsei.

Each province (kuni) is divided into what may be termed departments (kôri). The latter vary in number according to the size of the province. In the old system there were altogether six hundred and twenty-nine departments, but the addition of the Hok’kaidô has raised the number to considerably over seven hundred.

For purposes of administration the whole of the empire except the Hok’kaidô was again divided in 1872 into three cities (fu) and seventy-two prefectures (ken). The three cities are Yedo, Ôzaka, and Kiôto. In 1869 Yedo also received the name of Tôkiô, or “eastern capital,” as opposed to Saikiô (the new name for Kiôto), or “western capital.” This was in consequence of the removal of the emperor’s court from his old capital to Yedo. It may, however, be here remarked that, whilst the Japanese invariably speak of Tôkiô Fu, “the city of Tôkiô,” they use the name Kiôto Fu, “the city of Kiôto,” and not, as might have been supposed, Saikiô Fu. The limits of the prefectures (ken) were irrespective of the boundaries of the provinces. There were originally seventy-two, but a gradual process of amalgamation has considerably reduced the list; and in August 1876 a Government notification fixed the prefectures at only thirty-five, the names of which are given in the following table:—

From the above list it may be noted that in many instances a single ken now contains several provinces or portions of different provinces. In 1878–9 a separate prefecture (called the Okinawa ken) was created, including the Riukiu (Loochoo) group. Until that time Riukiu was governed by a king of its own, but being in fear of its powerful neighbours, China and Japan, it had for many years sent tribute to both. A question of double allegiance thus arose, which was solved by Japan asserting its sovereignty; the king received the title of noble of Japan, and the Okinawa ken was established. Whether this action on the part of the Japanese Government may not embroil them with China is a point not yet definitely settled.

Smaller islands.The total number of islands in the Japanese group, exclusive of the four main ones, is stated to be over three thousand. Many of these are mere barren rocks, uninhabited and uncultivated. Others, again, are of considerable size and exceedingly fertile, particularly the countless islets in the Suwo Nada, commonly known to Europeans under the name of the “Inland Sea,” lying between the main island on the north and the islands of Shikoku and Kiushiu on the south. The whole coast-line, too, is dotted with islands and rocks of all sizes. Ôshima, also called Vries Island, at the mouth of the Bay of Yedo, is one of considerable importance. It has many inhabitants, and its volcanic soil is fairly productive. It is the most northerly of a chain which extends as far south as the 27th degree of north latitude. The Bonin group, termed by the Japanese the Ogasawara Islands, lies far out at sea, to the south of the entrance of Yedo Bay; it consists of two large islands, separated from each other by 50 miles of sea, and a host of islets. The Japanese Government reasserted their sovereignty over the Bonins in 1878. The Kurile Islands are merely a chain of barren rocks, and the few inhabitants are chiefly occupied in the fisheries and in hunting the sea-otter. Due south from the province of Satsuma lie several minor groups, terminating with the Riukiu Islands. The Gotô group (lit. “the five islands”) extends in a westerly direction from the province of Hizen, in Kiushiu, to which it belongs.

Bays.Coast-line.—The bays along the coast are often of considerable size. The Japanese, strange to say, have no names for either their bays or their straits, the appellations found on maps and charts having been given by European navigators. Yedo Bay is perhaps the best known to foreigners, but Sendai Bay (on the east coast) and that running up to the north of the island of Awaji, and commonly called Ôzaka Bay, are also famous. Owari Bay, in the province of that name, is of considerable size. The Bay of Kagoshima, in the province of Satsuma, is long and narrow; it is well known to foreigners as having been the scene in 1863 of an attack on Kagoshima (the castle-town of the lord of Satsuma) by a British squadron. The entire coast-line teems with smaller bays and harbours, in many of which good anchorage can be found. An English man-of-war, the “Sylvia,” has for several years been employed as a surveying vessel to obtain soundings of the principal inlets and draw up charts of the coast.

Straits.The straits best known to foreigners are the Straits of Tsugaru (often miscalled Saugur in maps), which separate Yezo from the northern portion of the main island; the Straits of Akashi and of Idzumi, near the island of Awaji, at the eastern entrance of the “Inland Sea”; and the Straits of Shimonoséki, at the extreme western end of that sea, separating the main island from Kiushiu. The attack on Shimonoséki in 1864 by an allied squadron of English, French, Dutch, and American vessels, in retaliation for injuries inflicted upon foreign shipping passing