bizen province

Bizen (備前国 -no kuni) was an old province of Japan on the Inland Sea side of Honshu, in what is today the southeastern part of Okayama Prefecture. Bizen borders on Mimasaka, Harima, and Bitchu provinces. Bizen's original center was in the modern city of Okayama. From an early time Bizen was one of Japan's main centers for sword smithing. In the Muromachi period, Bizen was ruled by the Akamatsu clan from Mimasaka, but by the Sengoku period the Urakami clan had become dominant and settled in Okayama city. They were later supplanted by the Ukita clan, and Ukita Hideie was one of the regents Toyotomi Hideyoshi appointed for his son. After Kobayakawa Hideaki helped Tokugawa Ieyasu to win the Battle of Sekigahara over Ukita and others, he was granted Ukita's domains in Bizen and Mimasaka. Bizen passed through a variety of hands during the Edo period before being incorporated into the modern prefecture system.

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