Shima Province

Shima Province (志摩国, Shima no kuni^?) was a province of Japan which consisted of a peninsula in the southeastern part of modern Mie Prefecture. Its abbreviated name was Shishū (志州^?). Shima bordered on Ise Province to the west, and on Ise Bay on the north, east and south.

Shima is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō, and was the smallest of all provinces. Under the Engishiki classification system, Shima was ranked as a "inferior country" (下国) and a "near country" (近国), in terms of its distance from the capital.

Shima was an autonomous district of Ise Province, noted as a prosperous fishing region, and during the Nara period governors of the district were responsible for providing annual gifts of fish and abalone to the Emperor. It was separated from Ise Province during the late 7th or early 8th centuries. During the Asuka period and Nara period it was dominated by the Takahashi clan. As the arable land area of Shima Province was very small, portions of the rice lands of Ise Province, as well as Mikawa Province and Owari Province were considered as part of the taxable revenues of Shima Province for the purpose of upkeep of its provincial capital, shrines and temples.

The exact location of the provincial capital is not known, but is traditionally believed to have been in Ago, currently part of the city of Shima where the ruins of the Kokubun-ji of Shima Province have been discovered. The Ichinomiya of the province is the Izawa-no-miya (伊雑宮^?), one of the subsidiary shrines within the Ise Grand Shrine complex.

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