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Izumo (Japanese: ???; Izumo-no-kuni) was an old province of Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture
Shimane Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Chugoku region on Honshu island. The capital is Matsue, Shimane. It is the second least populous prefecture in Japan, next to the Tottori Prefecture that is a neighboring prefecture on the east side....
 in the Chugoku region
Chugoku region

The or is the westernmost region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima Prefecture, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Shimane Prefecture, Tottori Prefecture, and Okayama Prefecture....
.

It was one of the regions of ancient Japan where major political powers arose. A powerful clan of Izumo (Idumo is an obsolete romanization) constituted an independent polity, but during the fourth century BC it was absorbed due to the expansion of the state of Yamato
Yamato Province

was a Provinces of Japan of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshu. It was also called . At first, the name was written with one different character , and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters ....
, within which it assumed the role of a sacerdotal domain.






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Izumo (Japanese: ???; Izumo-no-kuni) was an old province of Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture
Shimane Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Chugoku region on Honshu island. The capital is Matsue, Shimane. It is the second least populous prefecture in Japan, next to the Tottori Prefecture that is a neighboring prefecture on the east side....
 in the Chugoku region
Chugoku region

The or is the westernmost region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima Prefecture, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Shimane Prefecture, Tottori Prefecture, and Okayama Prefecture....
.

It was one of the regions of ancient Japan where major political powers arose. A powerful clan of Izumo (Idumo is an obsolete romanization) constituted an independent polity, but during the fourth century BC it was absorbed due to the expansion of the state of Yamato
Yamato Province

was a Provinces of Japan of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshu. It was also called . At first, the name was written with one different character , and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters ....
, within which it assumed the role of a sacerdotal domain. Even today, the Izumo Shrine constitutes (as does the Grand Shrine of Ise) one of the more important sacred places of Shinto
Shinto

is the former state religion of Japan and remains the most common name for the nation's non-Buddhist ethnic religion practices. It was formed from disparate local mythologies, beginning with the Kojiki of 712, into an imperial cult called State Shinto that solidified in the Meiji period....
: it is dedicated to kami
Kami

is the Japanese language word for the spirits within objects in the Shinto faith. The oldest surviving record of their creation is in the Kojiki of 712....
, especially to Okuninushi (O-kuni-nushi-no-mikoto), mythical progeny of Susa-no-O
Susanoo

is the Shinto god of the sea and storms....
 and all the clans of Izumo. The mythological mother of Japan, the goddess Izanami
Izanami

In Japanese mythology, is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi. She is also referred to as Izana-mi, Izanami-no-mikoto or Izanami-no-kami....
, is said to be buried on Mt. Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hoki
Hoki Province

Hoki was an old provinces of Japan of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Tottori Prefecture. Hoki bordered on Inaba province, Mimasaka province, Bitchu province, Bingo province, and Izumo provinces....
, near modern-day Yasugi of Shimane Prefecture
Shimane Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Chugoku region on Honshu island. The capital is Matsue, Shimane. It is the second least populous prefecture in Japan, next to the Tottori Prefecture that is a neighboring prefecture on the east side....
.

By the Sengoku period, Izumo had lost much of its importance. It was dominated before the Battle of Sekigahara
Battle of Sekigahara

The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though it would take three more years for Ieyasu to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyo, Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate,...
 by the Mori clan
Mori clan

The Mori clan was a Japanese clans of daimyo, descended from Oe no Hiromoto and established themselves in Aki Province. Their name was derived from a shoen in Mori, Aiko District, Sagami Province....
, and after Sekigahara, it was an independent fief with a castle town at modern Matsue
Matsue, Shimane

is the capital cities of Japan of Shimane Prefecture in the Chugoku region of Japan.As of 2005, the city has an estimated population of 196,093 and the population density of 369.84 persons per km?....
.

In Japanese mythology, the entrance to Yomi
Yomi

, the Japanese language word for the underworld in which horrible creatures guard the exits; according to Shinto mythology as related in Kojiki, this is where the dead go to dwell and apparently rot indefinitely....
 (Hell, land of the dead) was located within the province, and was sealed by the god Izanagi
Izanagi

is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shintoism, and is also referred to in the roughly translated Kojiki as "male-who-invites" or Izanagi-no-mikoto....
 by placing a large boulder over the entrance.