Fuhanken sanchisei

The exact numbers varied continually as adjustments to the feudal territorial divisions, mergers and splits started to take up pace, but very roughly there were about >250 -han and about <50 -fu/-ken in total during this time.

or the shogunate's minor vassals (sometimes grouped separately as hatamoto-ryō) and 2. other families' feudal domain holdings (han-ryō).

It was the convention to name prefectures and han after the location of their [actual or in some cases: planned] prefectural/domain government, either by town/village or later often by ritsuryō district (e.g. Mie, Saitama, Inba, Gunma).

The act dissolved the Tokugawa era court houses, creating government controlled prefectural governors called chifuji (知府事) and chikenji (知県事).

The Daimyo who agreed to this were appointed as chihanji (知藩事, "domain governors"), who had to follow the laws and instructions of the central government.

By the end of 1868, ten fu had been established: Kyoto, Hakodate, Osaka, Nagasaki, Edo (later Tokyo), Kanagawa, Watarai, Nara, Echigo (later Niigata) and Kōfu.

Due to some prefectures gaining non-urban land or being amalgamated into other territories, in 1869 three remained: Kyoto-fu, Osaka-fu and Tokyo-fu.

After three major merger/reorganization waves and many smaller mergers, splits and border changes between the initially >300 prefectures (down to 75 by 1872, to <40 in the late 1870s), they took generally their present forms in the 1890s.

After the Daimyo of the northern domains were stripped of their social status in the Boshin War, the following Prefectures were created.