Rikuō Province 陸奥国
Province of Japan
1869–1871
Map of Japanese provinces (1869) with Rikuō Province highlighted
History
• Established	1869
• Disestablished	1871
Preceded by Succeeded by Mutsu Province Tonami Prefecture Shichinohe Prefecture Hirosaki Prefecture Kuroshi Prefecture Hachinohe Prefecture
Today part of	Iwate Prefecture Aomori Prefecture

Mutsu Province (陸奥国, Mutsu no kuni), officially called Rikuō Province (陸奥国, Rikuō no kuni) was an old province of Japan in the area of Iwate and Aomori prefecture.^[1]

It was also known as Ōshū (奥州) or Rikushū (陸州). In the Meiji era, the province was cut down to cover only present-day Aomori and given the new name Rikuō Province, which retained the original kanji.^[2]

On December 7, 1868 (January 19, 1869 in the Gregorian calendar), four additional provinces (Rikuchū, Rikuzen, Iwaki, and Iwashiro) were separated from Mutsu, leaving only a rump corresponding to today's Aomori Prefecture (with Ninohe District of Iwate Prefecture). At the same time, while the characters of the name were unchanged, the official reading was changed to the on'yomi version "Rikuō".^[2]

Mutsu (Rikuō) Province consisted of nine districts:

• Aomori Prefecture
  • Tsugaru District (津軽郡)
    • Higashitsugaru District (東津軽郡)
    • Kitatsugaru District (北津軽郡)
    • Minamitsugaru District (南津軽郡)
    • Nakatsugaru District (中津軽郡)
    • Nishitsugaru District (西津軽郡)
  • Kita District (北郡)
    • Kamikita District (上北郡)
    • Shimokita District (下北郡)
  • Sannohe District (三戸郡)
• Iwate Prefecture
  • Ninohe District (二戸郡)

• Mutsu Province
• Sanriku
• Tōhoku region
• Tōsandō
• Japanese battleship Mutsu, the World War II Imperial Japanese Navy warship named after the province.

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon (Nihon Odai Ichiran). Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691.

Media related to Mutsu Province (1868) at Wikimedia Commons

• Murdoch's map of provinces, 1903
• "Mutsu Province". SamuraiWiki. Retrieved 2008-01-16.