Tanba Province


Tanba Province was an old province of Japan. The ambit of its borders encompassed both the central part of modern Kyōto Prefecture and the east-central part of Hyōgo Prefecture.
It and the neighbouring Tango Province were collectively known as Tanshū. Besides Tango, Tanba bordered on Harima, Ōmi, Settsu, Tajima, Wakasa, and Yamashiro Provinces.
The ancient provincial capital is believed to be in the area of modern Kameoka.

Historical record

In the 3rd month of the 6th year of the Wadō era, Tango Province was administratively separated from Tanba. In that same year, Empress Genmei's Daijō-kan continued to organize other cadastral changes in the provincial map of the Nara period.
In Wadō 6, Mimasaka Province was sundered from Bizen Province ; and Hyūga Province was divided from Ōsumi Province. In Wadō 5, Mutsu Province had been severed from Dewa Province.
After being governed by a succession of minor daimyō, the region was eventually conquered by Oda Nobunaga in the Sengoku period. He assigned the province to one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, who would become the central figure in Nobunaga's assassination in 1582.
A town in this region also named Tanba was merged with several other towns in 2005 to create Kyōtanba.

Historical districts