Akumi District, Yamagata

File:Yamagata Akumi-gun.png

Map showing original extent of Akumi District in Akita Prefecture

colored area=original extent in Meiji period; gree=present area

Akumi District (飽海郡, Akumi-gun) is a rural district located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.

As of August 2013, the district has an estimated population of 14,695 and an area of 208.41 km². All of the city of Sakata north of the Mogami River was formerly part of Akumi District.

Towns and villages

• Yuza

History

Akumi County was formerly part of Dewa Province, and was mentioned in the Engishiki records of the early Heian period. The area came to be known as Yuza District from the Sengoku period through the Edo period. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, much of the area was ruled as part of Tsuruoka Domain or its subsidiary domain, Matsumine Domain. Following the Meiji restoration it came under the new province of Uzen Province, which became part of Yamagata Prefecture in 1876. At that time, the area consisted of 2 towns and 154 villages. The area became and was organized as Akumi District in 1878.

File:Yamagata Akumi-gun 1889.png

Historic Map of Akumi District:
Purple= Sakata City
1. Sakata
2. Matsumine
3. Kamigō
4. Uchigō
5. Tazawa
6. Kitamata
7. Minami-Hirata
8. Higashi-Hirata
9. Kita-Hirata
10. Naka-Hirata
11. Nishi-Hirata
12. Udogawara
13. Ueda
14. Mototake
15. Ichijō
16. Kannonji
17. Ozawa
18. Nikkō
19. Nishi-Arase
20. Minami-Arase

Pink=Yuza Town
21. Inada
22. Kawatsura
23. Nishi-Yusa
24. Yusa
25. Warabioka
26. Ichigo
27. Takase
28. Fukura
29. Tobishima

With the establishment of the municipality system on April 1, 1889, two towns (Sakata and Matsumine) and 27 villages were established. Sakata was raised to city status on April 1, 1933, and Yura was raised to town status on April 1, 1941. The town of Yawata was created on December 1, 1954 and Hirata was elevated to town status on August 1, 1964. On November 1, 2005, as part of the Heisei period Municipal mergers and dissolutions in Japan, the city of Sakata and the towns of Hirata, Matsuyama and Yawata merged to form the new city of Sakata.