In the Edo period, the maritime shipping route that connected Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku, and western Japan was an economic artery, and the merchant ships that traveled along this route were called kitamae-bune. Kitamae-bune developed as transporters of commodities such as rice, and along their journey, the shipowners would buy various goods from one port and sell them at other ports. Through a system of repeatedly buying and selling as they traveled, the shipowners further increased their profits, and kitamae-bune have been described figuratively as “moving trading companies”. Today, from the numerous remaining ports of call and residential areas once populated by shipowners along the coasts of the Seto Inland Sea and the Japan Sea, one can sense the grandeur of the world of the kitamae-bune.
Because Sakoshi is located on a natural harbor with gentle waves that is well-suited for use as a port, it has a long history of prospering from the merchant ship business. Sakoshi experienced a particularly high level of prosperity during the Edo period, when, along with the development of the nishimawari koro, it served as a port of call for ships, including kitamae-bune, from various provinces. Sakoshi’s unique history and culture, shaped by the prosperity of the maritime shipping industry in the early modern period, have been richly preserved. In Heisei 30 (2018), 7 cultural properties from Sakoshi (Sakoshi’s townscape, Ikishima Island, the Former Sakoshi-ura Kaisho, Kurosaki Cemetery, the items donated to Osake Shrine, the Sakoshi Boat Festival, and the Funachinginjoho) were added to the group of cultural properties designated as Japan Heritage and entitled “The Kitamae-Bune Sea Routes: Ports and Residences Built on the Dreams of Brave Seafarers”.