Tōno, Japan

History

The area of present-day Tōno was part of ancient Mutsu Province, and has been settled since at least the Jōmon period. Pottery fragments can still be found in farmers' fields and other places. Later the area was inhabited by the Emishi and many place names are based on the Ainu language. In the Early Nine-Years War lasting from 1051 to 1063, Minamoto no Yoshiie fought running battles with Abe no Sadato throughout the area. There are references to this in "Tōno Monogatari" and arrowheads still turn up from time to time. Later the Hiraizumi Fujiwara controlled Tōno which was a prized area for horse breeding, farming and hunting.

During the Sengoku period, the area was dominated by various samurai clans before coming under the control of the Nambu clan during the Edo period, who ruled Morioka Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate. The Nambu built Nabekura Castle in what is now known as Nabekura Park in downtown Tōno as a defence against the powerful Date clan of Sendai Domain to then south, and assigned to Nanbu Naoyoshi, formerly castellan of Ne Castle near Hachinohe in 1627. This formed an unofficial subsidiary 12,500 koku domain of Morioka Domain, which lasted until the Meiji restoration.

From the History section of Tōno, Iwate on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.