was a province

Provinces of Japan

Before the modern prefecture system was established, the land of Japan was divided into tens of kuni , usually known in English as provinces. Each province was divided into gun ....

 of 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...

 in the area that is today the eastern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture

Yamaguchi Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Yamaguchi, in the center of the prefecture. The largest city, however, is Shimonoseki.- History :...

. It was sometimes called . Suō bordered on Aki

Aki Province

or Geishū was a province in the Chūgoku Region of western Honshū, comprising the western part of what is today Hiroshima Prefecture.When Emperor Shōmu ordered two official temples for each province , two temples were founded in Aki Province...

, Iwami

Iwami Province

was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Iwami bordered Aki, Bingo, Izumo, Nagato, and Suō provinces.In the Heian era the capital was at modern-day Hamada....

, and Nagato

Nagato Province

, often called , was a province of Japan. It was at the extreme western end of Honshū, in the area that is today Yamaguchi Prefecture. Nagato bordered on Iwami and Suō Provinces....

 Provinces.

The ancient provincial capital was in Hōfu

Hofu, Yamaguchi

is a city located in Yamaguchi, Japan.-History:Hōfu means "the capital of Suō Province".The eastern part of Yamaguchi prefecture was formerly called Suō Province.The city was founded on August 25, 1936...

. Suō was ruled for much of the Muromachi Period

Muromachi period

The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...

 by the Ōuchi clan, who built a castle at Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi

is the capital city of Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.As of February 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 198,971 and a population density of 194.44 persons per km²...

. In the Sengoku Period

Sengoku period

The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...

 it was conquered by the Mōri clan

Mori clan

The Mōri clan was a family of daimyō, descended from Ōe no Hiromoto and established themselves in Aki Province. Their name was derived from a shōen in Mōri, Aikō District, Sagami Province. The generation of Hiromoto began to name themselves Mōri.After the Jōkyū War, Mōri was appointed to the jitō...

, and was ruled remotely by them for much of the Edo Period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

.