Shinano Province (信濃国,Shinano no Kuni;Japanese pronunciation:[ɕiꜜ.na.no(nokɯ.ɲi),ɕi.na.noꜜ-][1][2]) orShinshū (信州;[ɕiꜜɰ̃.ɕɯː][1][2]) is anold province ofJapan that is nowNagano Prefecture.[3]
Shinano borderedEchigo,Etchū,Hida,Kai,Kōzuke,Mikawa,Mino,Musashi,Suruga, andTōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-dayMatsumoto, which became an important city of the province.
TheWorld War II-era Japaneseaircraft carrierShinano was named after this old province.[citation needed]
In 713, the road that traversesMino and Shinano provinces was widened to accommodate increasing numbers of travelers through theKiso District of modern Nagano Prefecture.[4]
In theSengoku period, Shinano Province was often split among fiefs and castle towns developed, includingKomoro,Ina, andUeda. Shinano was one of the major centers ofTakeda Shingen's power during his wars withUesugi Kenshin and others.
During theAzuchi–Momoyama period, after Nobunaga's assassination atHonnō-ji Incident, the province was contested between Tokugawa Ieyasu and theGo-Hōjō clan based inOdawara castle. TheTokugawa clan, TheUesugi clan and theHōjō clan each aspired to seize the vast area in Shinano Province,Ueno region, andKai Province, which ruled by the remnants of the many small clans formerly serving the Takeda clan. Following of disorder post death of Nobunaga, at the same time with Ieyasu departure an army of 8,000 soldiers to those disputed region. This caused the triangle conflict between those three factions in the event which dubbed by historians asTenshō-Jingo War broke out.[5][a] As the war turned in favor of Tokugawa clan, combined with the defection ofSanada Masayuki to the Tokugawa faction, the Hōjō clan now negotiate truce with Ieyasu[8] and The Go-Hōjō clan then sent Hōjō Ujinobu as representative, while the Tokugawa sent Ii Naomasa as representative for the preliminary meetings.[9][10] Furthermore, In October, representatives from the Oda clan such asOda Nobukatsu,Oda Nobutaka, and Toyotomi mediated the negotiation until the truce officially concluded.[11]
Suwa taisha was designated as the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) for the province.[12]
In 1871, during theMeiji period, with theabolition of the han system and the establishment ofprefectures (Haihan Chiken) after theMeiji Restoration, Shinano Province's ex-domains/1871 prefectures and ex-shogunate territories/1868 prefectures (mainlyIna [merger of several shogunate demesne administrations with parts ofMatsumoto],Okutono,Iwamurada,Komoro,Ueda,Matsushiro,Suzaka,Iiyama,Suwa/Takashima,Takatō,Iida,Matsumoto) andTakayama/Hida which coveredHida Province were administratively merged into Nagano (initiallyNakano Prefecture in 1870) andChikumaprefectures. The seat of the prefectural government of Nakano was Nakano town fromTakai District (becameNakano City in 1954), Nagano's prefectural capital was Nagano town inMinochi District (→Nagano City in 1897), and Chikuma's capital was Matsumoto town,Chikuma district (Matsumoto City from 1907). In the second wave of prefectural mergers in 1875/76, Chikuma was split again: the Western part covering Hida Province was merged into Gifu, and the Eastern part in Shinano became part of Nagano. Since that time, Nagano is essentially contiguous to Shinano.
Shinano Province consisted of sixteen districts:
