Page:TASJ-1-1-2.djvu/50

 {|
 * Tsushima||or||Taishiu.
 * and||Iki||||Ishiu.
 * }
 * }

It will be seen from a comparison of this list of geographical divisions that the main island contains the Go-kinai, Tôkaidô, Tôsandô, Hokurikudô, Sanyôdô, Sanindô and one province of the Nankaidô. To use the names of these divisions is just as convenient for a Japanese as to use a collective name like that which foreign geographers have misapplied to the whole island would be. The explanation of the anomaly is, therefore, that it has never been felt. The smaller of the two adjacent islands, namely Shikoku (or the Four Provinces), contains the rest of the Nankaidô; while the Saikaidô exactly corresponds to the third island, Kiushiu, or the nine Provinces. Europeans repeatedly confuse this island with the Province of Kishiu, on account of the resemblance of the two names. The fact that the names of these divisions are all derived from Chinese words confirms the statement that the system has emanated from Corea, in which country the Chinese language seems almost universally to have furnished the names of places. Every province, except the eleven of the Hokkaidô, and the seven into which Ôshiu and Déwa have been recently divided, has two names, one generally of pure native derivation, the other composed of the Chinese word shiu, a province, added to the Chinese pronunciation of one of the characters with which the native name is written. In many cases the pedantic Chinese name has completely superseded the original Japanese name in the mouth of the people, in a few both are used concurrently, while in some the original name is retained. For instance, Kôshiu, Shinshiu and Jôshiu have replaced Kai, Shinano and Kôdzuké. Isé and Seishiu, Sagami and Sôshiu, Tosa and Toshiu are used concurrently, while Yamashiro, Yamato and several more have been retained. In such cases as Higo and Hizen, where the Chinese form is the same for both, it is not adopted in speaking, though it sometimes is in books, to the great confusion of the careful reader. Higo and Hizen were formerly one province, called Hi no Kuni, or ‘the province of Fire.’ Echizen, Etchiu and