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Mutsu (陸奥国, Mutsu no kuni^?) is an old province of Japan, which today composes Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori prefectures and the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. Also known as Ōshū (奥州).

Mutsu, in northern Honshū, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Ainu, and became the largest as it expanded northward. The ancient capital was in modern Miyagi prefecture.

In the 3rd month of 2nd year of the Wadō era (709), there was an uprising against governmental authority in Mutsu province (陸奥国) and in nearby Echigo province (越後国). Troops were promptly dispatched to subdue the revolt.^[1]

In Wadō 5 (712), the land of Mutsu-no kuni was administratively separated from Dewa province (出羽国). Empress Gemmei's Daijō-kan continued to organize other cadastral changes in the provincial map of the Nara period, as in the following year when Mimasaka province (美作国) was divided from Bizen province (備前国); Hyūga province (日向国) was sundered from Osumi province (大隈国); and Tamba province (丹波国) was severed from Tango province (丹後国).^[2]

Iwase (石背国 ; -no kuni) is an old province of Japan lasting for a brief period of time in Nara period in what is now western Fukushima prefecture

For a brief period of time during the Nara period, Yōrō Ritsuryō established Iwase province (石背国). In 718, Iwase-no kuni was carved out of what was then alternately known as Michinoku province. Old Iwase province encompassed the five districts of Shirakawa (白河), Iwase (石背), Aizu (会津), Asaka (安積) and Shinobu (信夫); but the area was reincorporated into Michinoku some time between 722 and 724.

During the Sengoku period various clans ruled different parts of the province. The Uesugi clan had a castle town at Wakamatsu in the south, the Nambu clan at Morioka in the north, and Date Masamune, a close ally of the Tokugawa, established Sendai, which is now the largest town of the Tōhoku region.

In Meiji period, four new provinces were created from parts of Mutsu, including Rikuchū, Rikuzen, Iwaki, and Iwashiro.

The area that is now Aomori Prefecture continued to be part of Mutsu until the Abolition of the han system and the nation-wide conversion to the prefectural structure of modern Japan.

• Isawa District(胆沢郡)
• w:白河郡
• w:磐瀬郡
• w:会津郡
• w:耶麻郡
• w:安積郡
• w:安達郡
• w:信夫郡
• w:刈田郡
• w:柴田郡
• w:名取郡
• w:菊田郡
• w:磐城郡
• w:標葉郡
• w:行方郡
• w:宇多郡
• w:江刺郡
• w:伊具郡
• w:亘理郡
• w:宮城郡
• w:黒川郡
• 賀美郡
• w:色麻郡
• w:玉造郡
• w:志太郡
• w:栗原郡
• w:磐井郡
• w:膽沢郡
• 長岡郡
• 新田郡
• 小田郡
• w:遠田郡
• w:気仙郡
• w:牡鹿郡
• w:登米郡
• w:桃生郡
• w:大沼郡

• Tsugaru District(津軽郡)
• Kita District(北郡)
• Sannohe District(三戸郡)
• Ninohe District(二戸郡)

• Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.--Two copies of this rare book have now been made available online: (1) from the library of the University of Michigan, digitized January 30, 2007; and (2) from the library of Stanford University, digitized June 23, 2006. Click here to read the original text in French.