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Honshū is the main island in Japan (so it could be called something like 大州 or
広州). But it is also common in cosmogonies to say the gods created our land
first and foremost, and the rest of the planet is just an afterthought to use
up left-over materials, Honshū may then have been 元州. Related questions: How
old is the name, what is the source?
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2019-01-27T08:33:35.473
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2019-01-28T09:11:05.477
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etymology history
What is the etymology of Honshū (本州)?
> But it is also common in cosmogonies to say the gods created our land first
> and foremost, and the rest of the planet is just an afterthought to use up
> left-over materials, Honshū may then have been 元州.

Interestingly, according to the traditional legends, _Honshū_ was created
**last** out of the [eight
islands](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E5%B3%B6).

The earliest references to「本州」I could find dates back to the early 19th
century. For example,「本州」shows up in a book published in 1833
[小原桃洞『桃洞遺筆』](https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=bbRiAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP366&dq=%E6%9C%AC%E5%B7%9E&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi985XQ84_gAhUYVH0KHT0GD7c4ChC7BQgsMAA#v=onepage&q=%E6%9C%AC%E5%B7%9E&f=false).

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fs1tP.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fs1tP.png)

I think the name
[秋津州](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A7%8B%E6%B4%A5%E5%B3%B6) was more
common until the turn of the 18th century. Here's an excerpt from the Japanese
history book [_Tokushi Yoron_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokushi_Yoron)
([新井白石『讀史餘論』](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100057715)), written in
1712 (although this version was published in 1876):

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nSMFt.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nSMFt.png)

* * *

So, the name「本州」might only be in widespread use since 200~250 years ago. I
think the etymology of「本州」should be just taken at face value: _main_ 「本」
_island_ 「州」; it is, after all, the biggest island with the most population
and probably where most historical events of Japan took place.

I would expect「本州」to have a native poetic/literary/archaic Japanese reading,
rather than just the _on'yomi_ **ほ​んしゅう** , if「本州」was a representation used
since ancient times.
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