Bizen Province

In 713, the six northern counties of Eita, Katsuta, Tomata, Kume and Mashima were separated from Bizen to form Mimasaka Province.

Bizen, with much flat land and many rivers of reasonable size for flood control and water transportation, has been suitable for agriculture since ancient times.

It has been an iron production area since the Kofun period, and also had salt fields along its coast with the Seto Inland Sea, which also provided for convenience of marine transportation to the Kinai region Shikoku and Kyushu.

The province was economically prosperous, and although its area as not large, it was ranked as a "superior country" under the Ritsuryō classification system.

His successor, Ukita Hideie was defeated at the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara and dispossessed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who awarded Okayama to Kobayakawa Hideaki.

A small area of former Bizen Province was transferred to Akō, Hyōgo in 1963 at the request of is local inhabitants.

Per the early Meiji period Kyudaka kyuryo Torishirabe-chō (旧高旧領取調帳), an official government assessment of the nation’s resources, the province had 680 villages with a total kokudaka of 423,379 koku.