Sanuki Province

Overview

Sanuki Province (讃岐国, Sanuki no Kuni) was a province of Japan located in the northeastern part of the island of Shikoku. It bordered Awa Province to the south and Iyo Province to the west. Its abbreviated name was Sanshū (讃州). Under the Gokishichidō system, Sanuki belonged to the Nankaidō circuit, one of the seven major administrative circuits into which the country was divided.

In the Engishiki classification system, compiled in the early tenth century, Sanuki was ranked as an "upper country" (上国) in terms of importance, and a "middle country" (中国) in terms of distance from the capital. The provincial capital was located in what is now the city of Sakaide, though its exact position was only identified in 2012. The province's ichinomiya, or highest-ranking shrine, was the Tamura jinja in the city of Takamatsu.

History

Sanuki Province existed as an administrative unit from the ancient ritsuryō system until 1871, when the provinces were formally abolished and replaced by prefectures. During the Meiji period, in the fourth year of the Meiji era (明治), the province was dissolved and its territory absorbed into the newly created administrative structures. The area of former Sanuki Province now corresponds to Kagawa Prefecture.

The province was closely tied to the domains that governed it. The historical records reference Sanuki as being located within the territories of Takamatsu Domain and Marugame Domain, two major feudal domains that controlled much of the province during the Edo period. These domains were significant political and economic centres, and their influence shaped the province's development through the early modern era.

Territory and Influence

Sanuki occupied the northeastern corner of Shikoku, a position that gave it strategic importance as a gateway between the island and the main Japanese island of Honshu across the Seto Inland Sea. The province's coastal location facilitated maritime trade and communication with the rest of the Nankaidō circuit and beyond.

The province's influence extended through its administrative and religious institutions. The ichinomiya, Tamura jinja, served as the principal shrine of the province and played a central role in its religious life. The provincial capital at Sakaide functioned as the seat of provincial government, where the governor and his staff administered the surrounding districts. The identification of the capital's exact site in 2012 came after years of archaeological and historical investigation, underscoring the enduring interest in the province's administrative geography.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name of the province is 讃岐国, read in kana as さぬきのくに, and in romaji as Sanuki no kuni. The word kuni (国) means "province" or "country," and was the standard suffix for provincial names in the ancient administrative system.

The name breaks down character by character as follows:

• 讃 — read san in this word. The character carries the meaning of "praise" or "commend." It is a relatively uncommon character in modern Japanese, appearing most often in this historical provincial name and in related compounds such as the abbreviated form 讃州 (Sanshū).
• 岐 — read ki in this word. The character means "fork" or "branch," and is also used in the name of Gifu Prefecture's old province, Mino, among other place names. In the context of Sanuki, it contributes the second syllable of the province's name.
• 国 — read kuni in this word. The character means "country," "province," or "nation." It is the standard character used to mark a province in the classical administrative system, and appears at the end of nearly all provincial names, such as 阿波国 (Awa no kuni) and 伊予国 (Iyo no kuni).

The reading Sanuki does not transparently derive from the individual meanings of the characters. Rather, the kanji were chosen for their phonetic value to represent a name that predates the introduction of writing to Japan. The character 讃 provides the san sound, and 岐 provides the ki sound, together approximating the spoken name of the province. This practice, known as ateji (当て字), was common in the naming of provinces and other ancient place names, where characters were selected for sound rather than meaning.

The full name Sanuki no kuni follows the standard pattern for Japanese provinces, in which the possessive particle no (の) links the province's proper name to the generic noun kuni. In English, the name is conventionally rendered as "Sanuki Province," dropping the particle.

Legacy

The legacy of Sanuki Province persists most visibly in the geography and institutions of Kagawa Prefecture, which occupies the same territory. The name Sanuki survives in numerous modern contexts, including the Sanuki Plain, a major agricultural region, and in the famous Sanuki udon noodles, a regional specialty that has become nationally and internationally known. The province's historical identity is also preserved in the continued recognition of Tamura jinja as a significant shrine, and in the archaeological study of the provincial capital site at Sakaide.

The 2012 identification of the provincial capital's location marked a significant milestone in understanding the administrative history of the region. It confirmed the long-held assumption that the capital lay within the modern city of Sakaide and provided concrete evidence for the layout of provincial government in this part of Shikoku. The former province's borders, though no longer administrative, continue to define a distinct cultural and economic region within modern Japan.