Shimotsuke Province (下野国, Shimotsuke-no kuni) is an old province of Japan in the area of Tochigi Prefecture on the island of Honshū.[1] It was sometimes called Yashū (野州) or Shimotsuke-shū (下野州).
The ancient capital city of the province was near Tochigi.
Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb and shrine is at Nikkō, in Shimotsuke.[2]
In the Nara period, Shimotsuke was part of Keno Province. This was changed in the reforms of the Taihō Code in 701.[3]
Parts of Shimotsuke were held by a several daimyo during the Sengoku period.
In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. Maps of Japan and Shimotsuke Province were reformed in the 1870s.[8]
Futarasan jinja was the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) of Shimotsuke. [9]