Suruga Province

Coordinates: 35°07′39″N 138°29′12″E / 35.12750°N 138.48667°E / 35.12750; 138.48667
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Suruga Province highlighted

Suruga Province (駿河国, Suruga no kuni) was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture.[1] It was sometimes called Sunshū (駿州).

Suruga had borders with Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces. The province had access to the Pacific Ocean at Suruga Bay.

History[change | change source]

View of Suruga Province, woodblock print by Hiroshige, 1856

Suruga was one of the original provinces of Japan. It was established in the Nara period as part of the Taihō Code reforms.

During the Kamakura period, Suruga was controlled by the Hōjō clan.

In the Edo period, the Tōkaidō road was the main route between the Imperial capital at Kyoto and the main city of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The road passed through Suruga.[2]

Tokugawa Ieyasu lived in Sumpu Castle in Suruga when he retired from the role of Shōgun.[3] He died at Sunpu.[4]

During the Edo period, the chief shogunate official in Sumpu was the Sunpu jōdai.[5]

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the last Tokugawa Shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu retired to Suruga.[3]

In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. The maps of Japan and Izu Province were reformed in the 1870s.[6] Being located near Mt. Fuji made Suruga a popular place to make maps during the Meiji period.[7]

Shrines and Temples[change | change source]

Sengen jinja was the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) of Suruga. [8]

Related pages[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Suruga" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 916.
  2. Nussbaum, "Tōkaidō" at p. 973.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Terry, Thomas Philip. (1914). Terry's Japanese Empire, p. 372.
  4. Titsingh, Issac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, p. 410.
  5. Brinkley, Frank et al.. (1915). A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era, p. 637.
  6. Nussbaum, "Provinces and prefectures" at p. 780.
  7. "View of Entire Suruga Region". World Digital Library. 1828–1859. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
  8. "Nationwide List of Ichinomiya," p. 1 Archived 2013-05-17 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2012-1-24.

Other websites[change | change source]

Media related to Suruga Province at Wikimedia Commons


35°07′39″N 138°29′12″E / 35.12750°N 138.48667°E / 35.12750; 138.48667