Kikuta

Kikuta belonged to southern Mutsu, in the coastal country of Iwaki. The medieval Kikuta estate embraced settlements including Yumoto, Kubota and the Kamitōno area. During the conflict between the Northern and Southern Courts, this country contained Southern Court strongholds. In January 1337 Northern Court forces attacked Takijiri Castle and then advanced against Yumoto and neighbouring positions.

Land rights within the estate continued to involve several authorities. In 1448 Yuki Naotomo acknowledged appointment over Kikuta as an estate of Jōjōin, undertaking to remit an annual payment of five hundred kanmon. Documents also record religious offices and rights within its villages. In the early Tokugawa period the southern district acquired a new administrative centre at Kubota: a domain of twenty thousand koku was established there in 1622. Its abolition in 1684 brought the territory under direct shogunal control, with a local government office at Kubota. Kikuta's history thus connected contested medieval estate rights with the later organisation of domain and shogunal lands.