state, province
州 centers on a defined territorial division: a state or province. The shape suggests a river with islands or sandbars, which historically marked boundaries.
州 is a pictograph of a river with sandbars or islands in the middle, later extended to mean an administrative division bounded by natural features.
See the three vertical lines as a river and the three dots as islands. These islands divide the land into separate states or provinces.
For シュウ, imagine a shoe-shaped province on a map: shoe -> シュウ, and the river dots mark its borders.
state (of the US, Australia, India, Germany, etc.); province (e.g. of Canada); county (e.g. of the UK); region (e.g. of Italy); canton; oblast
Kyūshū (southernmost of the four main islands of Japan)
Europe
Kitakyushu (city)
Honshū (largest of the four main islands of Japan); Honshu
Manchuria
Shinshū (alt. name of former Shinano province)
state-run (i.e. established and managed by a state in a federal system)
Jeju (special self-governing province and island in South Korea)
sandbank (in a river); sandbar
Australia
Guangzhou (China); Canton
National Guard (esp. USA); National Guard member
Kyushu University
Kyushu Electric Power
state capital; provincial capital; county town
Quanzhou (China); Chinchew
continent
sandbar; sandbank; shoal
state law (e.g. in the US); state statute