Awa Province (Chiba)

Awa Province (安房国, Awa-no kuni^?) was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. It lies on the tip of the Boso Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first kanji from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was Bōshū (房州^?) or Anshū (安州^?). Awa Province in Shikoku phonetically has the same name, but is written with different kanji (阿波国).

Awa is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō. Under the Engishiki classification system, Awa was ranked as a "middle country" (中国) and a "far country" (遠国).

Awa was originally one of four districts of Kazusa Province. It was well-known to the Imperial Court in Nara period Japan for its bountiful seafoods, and is mentioned in Nara period records as having supplied fish to the Court as early as the reign of the semi-legendary Emperor Keikō. On May 2, 718 the district of Awa was elevated into status to a full province. On December 10, 741 it was merged back into Kazusa, but regained its independent status in 757. The exact location of the capital of the new province is not known, but is believed to have been somewhere within the borders of the modern city of Minamibōsō, Chiba; however, the Kokubun-ji was located in what is now the city of Tateyama, Chiba as is the Ichinomiya (Awa Shrine) of the province.

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