Geography
The Iga province is a small mountain ringed basin (the Ueno basin) in the center of Japan's Kansai region, on the island of Honshū.
Iga was one of fifteen ancient provinces which made up the Tōkaidō Region (東海道?). This land area was one of five geographical regions within what was known as the gokishichidō system -- an organized way of parsing the Japanese islands into five commonly understood elements. The Tōkaidō region was situated along the southeastern edge of Honshū, its name literally means 'Eastern Sea Way'.
The term Tōkaidō also refers to a series of roads that connected the capitals (国府 kokufu) of each of the provinces of the region, including small Iga. Historically, Iga Province was rather inaccessible due to extremely poor road conditions. However, it is now relatively easy to access from nearby Nara and Kyoto, as well as the larger cities of Osaka and Nagoya.
Read more about this topic: Iga Province
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