Ōmi Province

Map of the Japanese provinces, Ōmi marked in red

This color woodcut by Hiroshige shows sailing boats at Yabase, from the series “ Eight Views from Lake Biwa ”, c. 1834.

Ōmi ( Japanese 近 江 国 , Ōmi no kuni ) or Gōshū ( 江州 ) was one of the historical provinces of Japan . The area now forms the Shiga Prefecture . With its location on Tōkaidō between the imperial capital Kyōto and the Kantō area, it played a key strategic role.

This was also used by Oda Nobunaga , who had a fiefdom on the east bank of the bivouac and built the important Azuchi Castle .

The monastery complexes of Enryaku-ji on Hiei-zan played a major role for centuries .

Zeze Castle later stood in Ōmi-kyō (today: kurzetsu ), the capital of Japan for a short time .

In the Sengoku period , the northern part of the province was a fiefdom of Ishida Mitsunari , Tokugawa Ieyasu's opponent at the Battle of Sekigahara , although he mostly administered the fief of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's young son in Osaka Castle .

After Ishida's defeat, Tokugawa gave the fief to the allied Ii family , who built the castle and the city of Hikone on the ruins of Sawayama.

etymology

Ōmi means in the spelling ( 近 江 ) "near bay (also in the sense of lake)". In ancient times, however, it was written as 近 淡 海 , which means “near freshwater lake” and means Lake Biwa . The name is in contrast to the "distant freshwater lake", the Hamana lake in the province of Tōtōmi . As a result of a decree in the 8th century, according to which province names have to consist of only two characters, 近 淡 海 was shortened to 近 江 .

The actual transcription of 近 淡 海 was originally Chika tsu Ahaumi ( Old Japanese : * ti ₁ ka-tu-apa-umi ₁ ) and later Chika tsu Afumi . In the spoken language, however, Lake Biwa was briefly referred to as Afumi (“freshwater lake”) and the “near” was omitted. This was also applied to the abbreviated 近 江 . From Afumi then Oumi ( Ōmi ).

Remarks

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Takashi Toda: 「近 江」 を 「お う み」 と 読 む 理由. (No longer available online.) In: Lake Biwa Museum. October 25, 2007, archived from the original on August 9, 2007 ; Retrieved July 5, 2009 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Coordinates: 35 ° 13 '  N , 136 ° 7'  E