Isumi District (夷隅郡 Isumi-gun) is a district located in Chiba, Japan. As of 2010, the district has an estimated population of 18,593 and a density of 120 persons per km². The total area was 154.76 km². The district formerly included all of the city of Katsuura, most of the city of Isumi and a portion of the town of Mutsuzawa. Its has been reduced in size through mergers and consolidation to two remaining towns.
Isumi District was one of the ancient districts of Kazusa province, and is mentioned in the Nara period chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, but under different kanji and pronunciation. The name standardized to its present kanji and pronunciation by the Edo period. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the minor feudal domain of Ōtaki Domain controlled 18 villages within the district, with another 57 villages under the control of other domains (including one village belonging to Nitta Domain in Tosa Province). The remaining 108 villages were tenryō under direct control of the central government and administered by various hatamoto.
In the post Meiji Restoration cadastral reform, the area came under the control of Chiba Prefecture and on April 1, 1889 was divided into two towns (Ōtaki and Asahi) and 21 villages. Katsuura was elevated to town status on March 12, 1890, Kuniyoshi (future Chōjamachi) on September 22, 1893, Ōhara on December 2, 1899, Onjuku on April 1, 1914, and Okitsu on January 1, 1921.
The town of Isumi was created on April 29, 1954 through the merger of Chōjamachi with neighboring villages, and the town of Taitō was created in December of the same year.
Katsuura was elevated to city status on October 1, 1958.
Taitō and Chōjamachi merged to form the town of Misaki on August 1, 1961, leaving the district with five towns.
On December 5, 2005 the towns of Isumi, Misaki and Ōhara merged to form the city of Isumi, leave the district with only two remaining towns.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||