What is the 'No' in 'Kozuke and Shimotsuke'?
—The story of the 'Land of No' that actually never existed
'Kozuke' and 'Shimotsuke'.
As place names, they are far too common and far too ordinary.
Gunma and Tochigi. If you look at a map, it seems like that's all there is to it.
But if you stop and think for a moment, it's a little strange.
Kozuke
Shimotsuke
...What is 'No'?
Since we say 'Upper Land' and 'Lower Land',
it would seem logical for there to be a 'Land of No' in the middle,
but no matter how much you search history textbooks, no such country appears.
This small sense of unease is the perfect entrance
to peek into how 'countries' were formed in ancient Japan.
In fact, the 'Land of No' never existed
Let's start with the conclusion.
A country called 'No' never existed in the first place.
Then why do 'Kozuke' and 'Shimotsuke' exist?
The answer lies not in 'No', but in 'Keno'.
Originally, it was one world called 'Keno'
In ancient times, the area spanning present-day Gunma and Tochigi prefectures
was a large regional community called
Keno.
The 'country' referred to here is not yet an administrative unit.
It was a 'cohesive group' as a living sphere and cultural sphere centered around powerful clans.
The flow of rivers, the arrangement of mountains, and transportation routes.
Human movement, economy, and rituals—
this entire area functioned as one world.
The state arrived and split it into upper and lower
However, in the latter half of the 7th century,
when the Ritsuryo state began full-scale regional rule, the situation changed.
For a centralized state,
a 'regional community that is too large' is difficult to handle.
Therefore, Kenu was artificially divided.
The side closer to the capital → Kozuke Province
The side farther from the capital → Shimotsuke Province
This is the important part.
Kozuke and Shimotsuke were newly created administrative districts. On the other hand, Kenu was a 'real region' that existed before that.
In other words,
what was originally one entity
was simply split into upper and lower parts for the convenience of the state.
That is all there is to it.
The mysterious pronunciations of 'Kozuke' and 'Shimotsuke'
There is one more point of interest.
Why
is 'Kozuke' read as Kozuke,
and 'Shimotsuke' read as Shimotsuke?
This is
Kamitsukenu
Shimotsukenu
the result of the original names being shortened.
The traces of 'Kenu'
remain firmly within the pronunciations.
Erased in the written language,
only the sounds survived.
This, too, is a trace of state formation.
This is actually how Japan's 'province names' were created
This structure actually exists in many other places as well.
Bizen, Bitchu, and Bingo (originally Kibi)
Hizen and Higo (originally Hi)
Chikuzen and Chikugo (originally Tsukushi)
The ancient Japanese state
governed by dividing existing regional worlds while respecting them.
Province names
are not copies of the 'worlds that were there,' but
the 'results of processing into a form easy to govern.'
'Provinces' are not something that exists in nature
'There were no provinces of the fields.'
This fact does not end as mere trivia.
The divisions we take for granted—
prefectural borders, regional names, administrative units—
many of these are lines drawn after the fact.
On the other hand,
the 'world' where people lived, moved, and connected
certainly existed before the lines were drawn.
Just as the invisible 'Kenu' still lies
between Kozuke and Shimotsuke.
Finally
Next time you look at Gunma and Tochigi on a map,
I want you to remember, 'These were originally one.'
With just that,
Japanese history will become a little more three-dimensional.
And surely,
you will want to start questioning other 'taken-for-granted' things as well.