Miyagi District, Miyagi
Encyclopedia
is a district
Districts of Japan
The was most recently used as an administrative unit in Japan between 1878 and 1921 and is roughly equivalent to the county of the United States, ranking at the level below prefecture and above city, town or village. As of 2008, cities belong directly to prefectures and are independent from...

 located in past Mutsu Province
Mutsu Province
was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori prefecture and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture...

 and today's Miyagi
Miyagi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The name of the prefecture was from this district.

The original territory was east-west long from Ōu Mountains
Ou Mountains
The are a mountain range in the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan. The range is the longest range in Japan and stretch south from the Natsudomari Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture to the Nasu volcanoes at the northern boundary of the Kantō region. Though long, the range is only about wide...

 to Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

, including current Sendai, Shiogama, Tagajō cities. As of 2003, the district has an estimated population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of 69,567 and a density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 620.80 persons per km². The total area is 112.06 km².

History

The Minami-Koizumi site had been a village or town site since the fifth century A.D. Miyagi District first appeared in in historical documents occurred in 766, in the Shoku Nihongi
Shoku Nihongi
The is an imperially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the Six National Histories, coming directly after the Nihon Shoki and followed by Nihon Kōki. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as the primary editors...

Archaeologists presume that Miyagi District was established by eighth century, based on the presence of square field system remains between Hirose River and Nanakita River. The province capital of Mutsu
Mutsu Province
was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori prefecture and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture...

 was moved to Taga
Site of Tagajō
was a fort in Tōhoku established during the campaigns against the Emishi in the eighth century. It served as the administrative centre of Mutsu Province. Bashō tells of his visit to the site in Oku no Hosomichi...

 (modern Tagajō) from the Koriyam site of Natori District
Natori District, Miyagi
was a district located in Rikuzen Province → Miyagi Prefecture.-History:* Referred to as 奈止里郡 in the Wamyō Ruijushō....

 in 724. Its residential area extended beyond the wall of Taga. In 785, Taga District and Shinakami District were separated from Miyagi, but later annexed.

Taga continued to be the capital in the Kamakura Period
Kamakura period
The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....

, but the city center moved to west Iwakiri. In 1190 Isawa Iekage was appointed as the Governor Acting in Absence of Mutsu Province, charged with restoring order after the Revolt of Ōkawa Kanetō. His descendants established a fiefdom around Taga and changed their name to Rusu
Rusu clan
The ' were a Japanese clan which claimed descent from Fujiwara Kaneie's son Michikane. They assumed the name Rusu following Minamoto no Yoritomo's conquest of northern Japan; the family, then named Isawa, were entrusted with keeping watch in the north during Yoritomo's absence...

, which means, literally, acting in absence.

In the Nanboku-chō period of 14th century, Taga was the object of military campaigns between the South and North Courts. The Rusu family occupied the northern-most part of the district, where Taga was located. The fate of the Rusu family had been easily swung by the battles between governors of Mutsu (Ōshū). The Mutsu were strong generals sent from central government, or shogunate. In addition to the Rusu, some samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 clans were known in southern and western parts of the district, including Ōkōchi, tenacious warriors for the Southern Court; Kokubun, the lord around the provincial temple
Provincial temple
Emperor Shōmu of Japan established so-called provincial temples in each province of Japan...

 (Kukubun-ji) of Mutsu; Hachiman clan, descendants of a past vice-governor of Mutsu.

A long war broke the unity of Mutsu and the function of its capital. After the governor Ōsaki left, the rule of the district was divided by Rusu and Kokubun, who struggled against each other. Eventually the Date clan's influence reached to Miyagi and the clan sent to its children as child-in-law and successors of the heads of families. Then Rusu Masakage
Rusu Masakage
was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period through Azuchi-Momoyama period. Served as a retainer of the Date clan Masakage was the uncle of the famous Date Masamune....

 and Kokubun Morishige became commanders of Date Masamune
Date Masamune
was a regional strongman of Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful daimyo in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai...

, fought many battles for the Date's dominance over Tohoku region. The two held only nominal independence from Date, solely to placate the retainers of the families.

When Masamune surrendered to the new samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

 in 1890, Rusu was abandoned and Kokubun was formally regarded a subject of Date. Miyagi district became a part of the territory of Date clan. In 1600, just after the Battle of Sekigahara
Battle of Sekigahara
The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu...

, Masamune decided to build and move to the Sendai Castle in Miyagi District. After that the district was developed as the suburb of new Sendai town. Sendai town has been ruled as a different area from the rest since then.

The Meiji government divided Mutsu Province into three parts in 1869. Miyagi District became part of Rikuzen Province
Rikuzen Province
is an old province of Japan in the area of Miyagi and some parts of Iwate prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Rikuchū and Mutsu Provinces.-History:...

. The population in 1889 (excluding Sendai) was 60,518.

Towns and villages

  • Matsushima
    Matsushima, Miyagi
    is a town located in Miyagi District, Miyagi, Japan. It is most famous as the location of Matsushima Bay, one of the Three Views of Japan, and is also the site of the Zuigan-ji, one of the most famous Zen temples in Tōhoku, Entsū-in and Kanrantei....

  • Rifu
    Rifu, Miyagi
    is a town located in Miyagi District, Miyagi, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 31,832 and a population density of 711.33 persons per km². The total area is 44.75 km²....

  • Shichigahama
    Shichigahama, Miyagi
    is a town located in Miyagi District, Miyagi, Japan.As of January 1, 2011, the town has an estimated population of 20,396. The total area is 13.27 km².-Geography:...

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