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For the purposes of taxation the country was again divided into Kantô suji and Kamigata suji, of which the former comprized the twelve provinces just named, while the latter included the rest of Japan. In common language the term Kamigata is applied vaguely to Kiôto and the country round.
The islands of Iki and Tsushima are not included in any of the Seven Circuits, but form a division by themselves.
The province of Mutsu or Ôshiu formerly extended beyond the northern shore of the main island, and included the territories of the daimiô of Matsumaë, while the name Yezo, miscalled Yesso by most Europeans, was given not to the whole island, but to that part inhabited by the barbarous tribes.
In 1868, after the rebellious daimiôs of Ôshiu and Déwa had submitted to the Mikado, those two provinces, which far exceeded in extent any others in the country, were subdivided, Déwa into Uzen and Ugo, Ôshiu into Iwaki, Iwashiro, Rikuzen, Rikuchiu and Michinoku, for obvious political reasons. At the same time the island containing the Matsumaë territory and the settlements of the Aino, and the southern Kuriles were named Hokkaidô, or Northern Sea Circuit, and divided into eleven provinces, namely Oshima, Shiribéshi, Ishikari, Téshiwo, Kitami, Ifuri, Hitaka, Tokachi, Kushiro, Nemuro and Chishima, the last comprising those of the Kurile islands which belong to Japan.
The Japanese word kuni, which I have rendered by province, seems literally to mean ‘country,’ and province must be taken in the sense in which it was used in the maps of France previous to the revolution of 1789. The word kôri, which is used by the Japanese for the subdivision of a province, would be best translated ‘department.’ The number of departments in a province varies according to its size. In the old system there wore altogether 629 departments, but the addition of the Hokkaidô has raised the number to 715.
