Natori District, Miyagi


Natori District was a district located in Rikuzen Province in Miyagi Prefecture.

History

From Ancient Establishment to Pre-modern Alignment (7C - 19C)

Many kofuns had been built in the area of the future Natori district since the 5th century. Especially Raijinyama Kofun was the largest in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.
The district was founded in the 7th century. Kōriyama Site had been the capital of Mutsu province since the end of the 7th century until 724.
Natori Dan had been long maintained as one of two, six or seven battalions of the province.
Heijō-kyō excavation team discovered a wood tag attaching kombu tribute in 729 from "Natori district of Mutsu province" to the palace. And although date and year are unknown, a word Notori was written on a cup excavated at the Kōriyama Site. The first appearance in reliable literature is in Shoku Nihongi when Kimikobe Okina, a person of Natori District, was permitted to change his family name in 769.
Northern border with Miyagi District changed several times. Originally Natori River and its branch Hirose River were the border of their east side. Sendai Domain fixed the district borders in the end of the 16th century or the beginning of the 17th century. Then the boundary around Sendai are changed to Tatsunokuchi River, where is a small branch of the Hirose. This arrangement gave the Sendai Castle to the Miyagi district. Natori district was divided to 61 villages. The Nagamachi office administrated 31 villages of Northern Natori and the Masuda office did 30 villages of Southern Natori.

Start of the Municipal Law System (1886)

When Municipal Law was enforced to Natori on April 1 of 1889, 1 town and 14 villages' municipalities were established from 61 old villages.
Japanese district exclude city status municipality. So the Natori district had gradually diminished with incorporation or promotion of its municipalities to cities. Finally the original area had been divided to three cities of Sendai, Natori and Iwanuma by 1988.