ABSTRACT
THE name of Yezo appears in Japanese history for the first time about A.D. 650 during the reign of the Emperor Saimei, when Hirafu Abe made it his fief. In 1590, after Hideyoshi's eastern expedition, Matsumai Yoshihiro, the self-assumed lord of Yezo, under agreement with the Shogunate, extended its jurisdiction to Matsumai. Again, in 1596, he paid a visit to Iyeyasu, as a result of which in 1604 he received an order appointing him Governor of the entire country of Yezo.
