Higo Province

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Higo (肥後国; Higo no kuni) was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hyūga, Osumi, and Satsuma.

The castle town of Higo was usually at Kumamoto city. During the Muromachi period, Higo was held by the Kikuchi clan, but they were dispossessed during the Sengoku period, and the province was occupied by neighboring lords, including the Shimazu clan of Satsuma, until Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Kyūshū and gave Higo to his retainers, first Sasa Narimasa and later Kato Kiyomasa. The Kato were soon stripped of their lands, and the region was given to the Hosokawa clan.

During the Sengoku period, Higo was a major center for Christianity in Japan, and it is also the location where Miyamoto Musashi stayed at the Hosokawa daimyo's invitation while completing his The Book of Five Rings.

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The article incorporates text from OpenHistory.