Upon comparing the above list with a map of Japan, it will be seen
that the main island contains the Go-kinai, Tokaido, Tozando,
Hokurikudo, Sanindo, Sanyodo, and one province (Kishu) of the
Nankaido. Omitting also the island of Awaji, the remaining provinces
of the Nankaido give the name Shikoku (the "four provinces") to the
island in which they lie; while Saikaido coincides exactly with the
large island Kiushiu (the "nine provinces").
In 1868, when the rebellious nobles of Oshu and Dewa, in the Tozando,
had submitted to the emperor, those two provinces were subdivided,
Dewa into Uzen and Ugo, and Oshu into Iwaki, Iwashiro, Rikuzen,
Rikuchu and Michinoku (usually 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 _Hokkaido_, or
"northern-sea circuit," which comprised the eleven provinces into
which the large island of Yezo was then divided (viz. Oshima,
Shiribeshi, Ishikari, Teshibo, Kitami, Iburi, Hiaka, Tokachi, Kushiro,
and Nemuro) and the Kurile Islands (Chishima).
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 Omi
and Yamashiro,--the region lying on the east, which consisted of
thirty-three provinces, being called _Kwanto_, or "east of the
barrier," the remaining thirty-three provinces on the west being
styled _Kwansei_, or "west of the barrier." At the present time,
however, the term Kwanto is applied to only the eight provinces of
Musashi, Sagami, Kozuke, Shimotsuke, Kazusa, Shimosa, Awa and
Hitachi,--all lying immediately to the east of the old barrier of
Hakone, in Sagami.
_Chu-goku_, or "central provinces," is a name in common use for the
Sanindo and Sanyodo taken together. _Saikoku_, or "western provinces,"
is another name for Kiushiu, which in books again is frequently called
_Chinsei_.
_Local Administrative Divisions._--For purposes of local
administration Japan is divided into 3 urban prefectures (_fu_), 43
rural prefectures (_ken_), and 3 special dominions (_cho_), namely
Formosa; Hokkaido and South Sakhalin. Formosa and Sakhalin not having
been included in Japan's territories until 1895 and 1905,
respectively, are still under the military control of a
governor-general, and belong, therefore, to an administrative system
different from that prevailing throughout the rest of the country. The
prefectures and Hokkaido are divided again into 638 sub-prefectures
(_gun_ or _kori_); 60 towns (_shi_); 125 urban districts (_cho_) and
12,274 rural districts (_son_). The three urban prefectures are Tokyo,
Osaka and Kioto, and the urban and rural districts are distinguished
according to the number of houses they contain. Each prefecture is
named after its chief town, with the exception of Okinawa, which is
the appellation of a group of islands called also Riukiu (Luchu). The
following table shows the names of the prefectures, their areas,
populations, number of sub-prefectures, towns and urban and rural
divisions:--
Prefecture. Area in Population Sub- Towns Urban Rural
sq. m. Prefectures. Districts Districts
Tokyo 749.76 1,795,128* 8 1 20 157
Kanagawa 927.79 776,642 11 1 19 202
Saitama 1,585.30 1,174,094 9 -- 42 343
Chiba 1,943.85 1,273,387 12 -- 69 286
Ibaraki 2,235.67 1,131,556 14 1 45 335
Tochigi 2,854.14 788,324 8 1 30 145
Gumma 2,427.21 774,654 11 2 38 169
Nagano 5,088.41 1,237,584 16 1 22 371
Yamanashi 1,727.50 498,539 9 1 7 235
Shizuoka 3,002.76 1,199,805 13 1 38 306
Aichi 1,864.17 1,591,357 19 1 74 592
Miye 2,196.56 495,389 15 2 19 325
Gifu 4,001.84 996,062 18 1 42 299
Shiga 1,540.30 712,024 12 1 12 190
Fukui 1,621.50 633,840 11 1 9 171
Ishikawa 1,611.59 392,905 8 1 16 259
Toyama 1,587.80 785,554 8 2 31 239
The above 17 prefectures form Central Japan.
Niigata 4,914.55 1,812,289 16 1 47 401
Fukushima 5,042.57 1,057,971 17 1 37 388
Miyagi 3,223.11 835,830 16 1 31 172
Yamagata 3,576.89 829,210 11 2 24 206
Akita 4,493.84 775,077 9 1 42 197
Iwate 5,359.17 726,380 13 1 23 217
Aomori 3,617.89 612,171 8 2 9 159
The above 7 prefectures form Northern Japan.
Kioto 1,767.43 931,576* 18 1 20 260
Osaka 689.69 1,311,909* 9 2 13 289
Nara 1,200.46 538,507 10 1 18 142
Wakayama 1,851.29 681,572 7 1 16 215
Hiogo 3,318.31 1,667,226 25 2 29 403
Okayama 2,509.04 1,132,000 19 1 29 383
Hiroshima 3,103.84 1,436,415 16 3 27 420
Yamaguchi 1,324.34 986,161 11 1 10 215
Shimane 2,597.48 721,448 16 1 14 276
Tottori 1,335.99 418,929 6 1 8 227
The above 10 prefectures form Southern Japan.
Tokushima 1,616.82 699,398 10 1 2 137
Kagawa 976.46 700,462 7 2 12 166
Ehime 2,033.57 997,481 12 1 18 283
Kochi 2,720.13 616,549 6 1 14 183
The above 4 prefectures form the island of Shikoku.
Nagasaki 1,401.49 821,323 9 2 15 288
Saga 984.07 621,011 8 1 7 127
Fukuoka 1,894.14 1,362,743 19 4 38 340
Kumamoto 2,774.20 1,151,401 12 1 33 331
Oita 2,400.27 839,485 12 -- 28 251
Miyazaki 2,904.54 454,707 8 -- 9 91
Kagoshima 3,589.76 1,104,631 12 1 -- 380
Okinawa 935.18 469,203 5 2 -- 52
The above 8 prefectures form Kiushiu.