Ōmi Province

The area of Ōmi has been settled since at least the Yayoi period, and the traces of several large settlements have been found.

The names of "Ōmi" or "Lake Biwa" do not appear in the Kojiki, Man'yōshū or other ancient documents.

With the spread of Buddhism in Japan, the great Tendai monastery of Enryaku-ji was constructed at Mount Hiei in Ōmi.

In the late 1560s into the 1570s, lord Oda Nobunaga invaded from the east, defeating the Azai, Asakura, Rokkaku, Kōka, and the Ashikaga shogunate.

He built Azuchi Castle near Lake Biwa in Ōmi, from which he planned to eventually rule all of Japan and beyond.

Following Nobunaga's assassination in Honnō-ji temple, much of the province was awarded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to Ishida Mitsunari, Tokugawa Ieyasu's arch-rival at the Battle of Sekigahara.