In the
Kojiki and other ancient texts, this area was called , but was also called "Sanuki" under various spellings. Sanuki Province was formed by the
Ritsuryo reforms. The
Shiwaku Islands in the
Seto Inland Sea were initially considered part of the province, but
Shōdoshima and the
Naoshima Islands were not transferred from
Bizen Province until the
Edo Period. In the
Heian period, Sanuki was famous for its associations with the Buddhist monk
Kūkai as both his birthplace and the place of his early upbringing. Later, the famed poet
Sugawara no Michizane served as governor of the province from 886 to 890 AD. At the end of the Heian period, the
Heike clan, which controlled maritime routes on the Seto Inland Sea, had
Yashima as one of their main strongholds, but were defeated by
Minamoto no Yoshitsune at the
Battle of Yashima. In the
Muromachi period, the area came under the control of the
Hosokawa clan, who were appointed as
shugo by the
Ashikaga shogunate. However, in the
Sengoku period, the Hosokawa were eclipsed by the
Miyoshi clan. The Miyoshi were in turn invaded by
Chōsokabe clan from
Tosa Province and the Chōsokabe were in turn defeated by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The province was awarded by Hideyoshi to his general
Ikoma Chikamasa, who made
Takamatsu Castle his stronghold. In the
Edo period, Sanuki was divided into five areas; three
han,
tenryō territory under direct control of the
Tokugawa shogunate and a part of
Tsuyama Domain whose headquarters was on
Honshū. Per the early
Meiji period , an official government assessment of the nation’s resources, the province had 395 villages with a total
kokudaka of 293,628
koku. Sanuki Province consisted of the following districts: } || 14,642
koku || 34 villages || Takamatsu || Dissolved, now Higashikagawa Following the
abolition of the han system, Sanuki Province became Kagawa Prefecture in 1872. However, the following year Kagawa was merged with Tokushima Prefecture and the island of
Awaji to form . It was separated again on September 5, 1875, but on August 21, 1876 was merged with Ehime Prefecture. It was separated again on December 3, 1888. ==Gallery==