Bizen Province

Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Bizen highlighted

Bizen Province (備前国, Bizen-no-kuni) was a province of Japan in the area that is eastern Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of western Japan.[1] [2] Bizen bordered Bitchū, Mimasaka, and Harima Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was Bishū (備州). In terms of the Gokishichidō system, Bizen was one of the provinces of the San'yō circuit. Under the Engishiki classification system, Bizen was ranked as one of the 35 "superior countries" (上国) in terms of importance, and one of the "near countries" (近国) in terms of distance from the capital. The provincial capital was located in what is now the city of Okayama.

Hiroshige ukiyo-e "Bizen" in "The Famous Scenes of the Sixty States" (六十余州名所図会)
  1. ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Bizen" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 78, p. 78, at Google Books.
  2. ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Mimasaka no Kuni" in Japan Encyclopedia at Google Books.