Township - Go

Japanese: 郷 - ごう

In ancient times, it was an administrative unit below the county. Under the Ritsuryo system, the whole country was organized into three levels: kuni, gun, and ri, with 50 households per ri and a village chief. However, when the gori system was implemented in 715, ri was renamed go. However, at the time, both go and ri were pronounced "sato," so the change was merely literal. From the end of 739 to the following year, the gori system was changed to the go system, and go remained the lowest administrative unit until the Middle Ages. According to the Ritsuryo Zanpen (Ritsuryo Records), there were 4,012 go in the whole country during the Ritsuryo period, and according to the Wamyōshō, there were about 4,000. The readings of go names are sometimes written in the Wamyōshō, but they may differ depending on the version. In the Middle Ages, many of the go were directly controlled by the kokuga (provincial government office) instead of guns, and after the Muromachi period, even though go lost its meaning as a unit of public land, it often continued to exist as the name of the newly organized administrative or land unit. On the other hand, it remained as the name of an internal land unit in manors, and many of them were inherited as village names in the early modern period. In the early modern period, go was sometimes used to refer to a wide area including several villages or more.
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Source : Heibonsha Encyclopedia About MyPedia Information

Japanese:

古代においては郡の下に位置付けられた行政単位。律令制では全国を国・郡・里(り)の３段階に編成し，50戸を１里として里長(りちょう)を置いたが，715年郷里(ごうり)制の施行により里が郷に改称された。ただし当時，郷・里はともに〈さと〉と訓じ，その変更は文字上のことにすぎない。739年末から翌年に郷里制は郷制に改められ，以後郷が行政単位の末端として中世に至った。律令時代の全国の郷数は《律書残篇(りっしょざんぺん)》によると4012，《和名抄》でも約4000を数える。郷名の訓は《和名抄》に記されているものもあるが，諸本により異なる場合がある。中世には郷の多くが郡に代わって国衙(こくが)に直接把握される公領単位となり，室町時代以降，郷が公領の単位としての意味を失っても，新しく編成された行政・所領の単位名としてしばしば存続した。一方，荘園においてもその内部の所領単位名として残り，近世の村名に引き継がれたものも少なくない。なお近世においては数ヵ村ないしはそれ以上の村を含んだ広域をさす地名に郷を使用する場合がある。
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