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 divided into eighty-four provinces, namely, five home provinces and eight circuits.”

The Go-kinai, or five home provinces, are Yamashiro, Yamato, Kawachi, Idzumai and Setsu. The seven circuits are the Tôkaidô, Tôzandô, Hokurikudô, Sanindô, Sanyôdô, Nankaidô and Saikaidô. The first division of Japan into provinces was made by Seimu Tennô, A.D. 131–190, in whose time the jurisdiction of the Mikado did not extend further north than a line drawn from Sendai Bay to somewhere about Niigata, the rest of the island, namely, the subsequent province of Déwa and part of Mutsu, being still occupied by the barbarous tribes of whom the Ainos are probably the remaining descendants. What in 1868 constituted sixty-six and a half provinces was divided by him into only thirty-two. In the third century the Empress called Jingô Kô-gô, after returning from her victories in Corea, divided the country into five home provinces and seven circuits, in imitation of the Corean arrangement. In the reign of Mommu Tennô (696–707) some of the provinces were sub-divided, so as to increase the whole number to sixty-six. The boundaries then fixed by him were re-surveyed in the reign of Shômu Tennô (723–756) by Kibi Daijin and the Buddhist priests Giôgi and Taishô, to whom the task was confided by that Mikado. They are said to have buried charcoal in the earth at points on the boundaries, that being the most imperishable mark which they were able to devise.

The old division is as follows:—

The Go-kinai, or Five Home Provinces are:—