Sagami Province

Overview

Sagami Province (相模国, Sagami no Kuni) was a province of Japan located in what is today the central and western Kanagawa Prefecture. It bordered the provinces of Izu, Musashi, and Suruga, and had access to the Pacific Ocean through Sagami Bay. Its abbreviated form name was Sōshū (相州).

Most of the present-day cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki, now part of Kanagawa Prefecture, were not in Sagami but rather in Musashi Province. Sagami was classified as a Jōkoku (上国), a "superior country" in the ranking system of provinces, and also as a 遠国 (ongoku), a "distant country" relative to the capital. It lay along the Tōkaidō, the great eastern road connecting the capital region to the Pacific coast.

History

Sagami Province appears in the historical record as one of the provinces established under the ritsuryō system of the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Its territory was administered through several districts, including Ashigarashimo, Ashigarakami, Kamakura, Aiko, Ōsumi, Yurugi, Miura, and Koza. These districts formed the administrative skeleton of the province for centuries.

The province was the birthplace of Kajiwara Kagetoki, a samurai who served under Minamoto no Yoritomo during the late twelfth century and became a prominent figure in the Genpei War. It was also the birthplace of Josui Sōen, a Zen monk of the seventeenth century who later founded the Sendai branch of the Sōtō school.

Sagami saw significant military action over the centuries. The Siege of Odawara, fought in 1590, brought the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi against the Later Hōjō clan, whose stronghold stood at Odawara in the western part of the province. The Battle of Mimabara, fought in 1638 during the Shimabara Rebellion, took place far to the west in Hizen Province, but the province's name appears in connection with it through the involvement of the Odawara Domain. The Odawara Domain, along with the smaller Tamanawa, Fukami, and Oginoyamanaka domains, governed portions of Sagami during the Edo period.

The province was also struck by the 1257 Shōka earthquake, a major seismic event that caused widespread damage in the Kantō region, including Sagami.

Territory and Influence

Sagami's territory covered the central and western parts of modern Kanagawa Prefecture, stretching from the mountainous western border with Suruga and Izu to the coast of Sagami Bay. The eastern boundary with Musashi Province ran through the area that now contains Yokohama and Kawasaki, leaving those cities outside Sagami's jurisdiction. The Miura Peninsula, jutting into the Pacific, formed the southeastern edge of the province.

The province's position on the Tōkaidō made it a corridor for travel and trade between the capital region and the eastern provinces. Its coastal location gave it access to maritime routes across Sagami Bay, while its inland districts, such as Ashigarakami and Ashigarashimo, controlled mountain passes leading toward Suruga and Izu. The Kamakura district, in particular, became historically significant as the seat of the Kamakura shogunate from 1185 to 1333, though the shogunate's authority extended far beyond the province's borders.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name for the province is 相模国, read as さがみのくに in kana, with the romaji form Sagami no Kuni.

The name breaks down as follows:

• 相 (さが, saga): The character 相 generally means "mutual" or "aspect," but in this word it functions as part of the province's proper name. Its reading here, saga, is an irregular or jukujikun reading that does not follow the character's usual on-yomi or kun-yomi.
• 模 (み, mi): The character 模 usually means "imitation" or "model." In this name it is read as mi, again an irregular reading used only in this proper noun.
• 国 (くに, kuni): The character 国 means "country" or "province." Its reading here, kuni, is the standard kun-yomi.

The full name, Sagami no Kuni, means "the province of Sagami." The two characters 相模 together form the place name Sagami, which predates the provincial system and appears in older texts. The abbreviated form 相州 (Sōshū) takes the first character 相 and combines it with the suffix 州, a common pattern for abbreviating province names in classical Japanese.

Legacy

The legacy of Sagami Province survives most visibly in the geography of modern Kanagawa Prefecture. The name Sagami persists in Sagami Bay, which washes the prefecture's Pacific coast, and in the Sagami River, which flows through the western part of the former province. The city of Sagamihara, located in the central portion of the old province, also carries the name.

The province's historical districts have left their mark on modern administrative divisions. The Miura Peninsula retains its ancient name, as do the Ashigara region and the Kamakura area, the latter now a city famous for its medieval temples and shrines. Several shrines within the former province were listed as Shikinaisha, shrines recorded in the Engishiki, a tenth-century legal and ceremonial text. These include Samukawa Shrine, Rokusho Shrine in Oiso, Kawawa Shrine, Hibita Shrine, and Sakitori Shrine, along with the Shikinai Taisha and Shikinai Shōsha categories that ranked them.

The domains that governed Sagami during the Edo period — Odawara, Tamanawa, Fukami, and Oginoyamanaka — were abolished in the Meiji Restoration, and the province itself was formally dissolved when the prefectural system was established in the 1870s. The name Sagami, however, remains in daily use across the region, a persistent trace of the province's long history.