Hyūga Province

Hyūga Province (日向国, Hyūga no kuni) was an old province of Japan on the east coast of Kyūshū, corresponding to the modern Miyazaki Prefecture. It was sometimes called Nisshū (日州) or Kōshū (向州). Hyūga bordered on Bungo, Higo, Ōsumi, and Satsuma Province.

The ancient capital was near Saito.

History

In the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, Hyūga is called Kumaso Province (熊曽国, Kumaso no kuni) of Tsukushi-no-shima (Kyushu), along the provinces of Tsukushi, Toyo and Hi.

In the 3rd month of the 6th year of the Wadō era (713), the land of Hyūga-no kuni was administratively separated from Ōsumi Province (大隈国). In that same year, Empress Gemmei's Daijō-kan continued to organize other cadastral changes in the provincial map of the Nara Period.

During the Sengoku Period, the area was often divided into a northern fief around Agata castle (near modern Nobeoka), and a southern fief around Obi castle, near modern Nichinan. The southern fief was held by the Shimazu clan of nearby Satsuma for much of the period. The Itō clan held control of Hyuga until it was conquered by the Shimazu in 1578.