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Efforts were undertaken in [[1907]]-1915 to expand the harbor, to make it accessible for steamships. By 1915, the harbor could handle three 1500-ton ships at once; later, it was further expanded to accommodate 4500-ton ships. Meanwhile, Osaka Shôsen, a company founded in [[1884]], began running regular passenger ship routes between Osaka and Naha in [[1885]]; other companies soon joined in, connecting Naha to Kagoshima, Tokyo, and other cities, and enabling the rise of Okinawa's tourism industry.<ref>Gallery labels, Naha City Museum of History, August 2013.</ref>
Efforts were undertaken in [[1907]]-1915 to expand the harbor, to make it accessible for steamships. By 1915, the harbor could handle three 1500-ton ships at once; later, it was further expanded to accommodate 4500-ton ships. Meanwhile, Osaka Shôsen, a company founded in [[1884]], began running regular passenger ship routes between Osaka and Naha in [[1885]]; other companies soon joined in, connecting Naha to Kagoshima, Tokyo, and other cities, and enabling the rise of Okinawa's tourism industry.<ref>Gallery labels, Naha City Museum of History, August 2013.</ref>
===Other Areas===
Around the year [[1500]], King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]] had a great many [[pine]] trees planted along the main road from Shuri to Naha. A stele erected there in [[1501]] by Shûkei, abbot of [[Enkaku-ji (Okinawa)|Enkaku-ji]], indicates that this was done to ensure a source of lumber for upkeep and repairs of that temple, established the previous decade.<ref>The stele is known alternately as Sashikaeshi matsuo no himon サシカヘシ松尾之碑文 and Ufudômô no himon 大道毛之碑文. Smits, ''Maritime Ryukyu'', University of Hawaii Press (2019), 139.</ref> The stele further cautions against the crime of doing anything to disturb this most important lumber supply.<ref>Smits, ''Maritime Ryukyu'', 139.</ref> The area came to be known as Ufudô Matsubara 大道松原 ([[Okinawan language|O]]: ''Ufudô machibara''; roughly, "field of pines at the great road"), and is mentioned in the [[Sanshin#musical_genres|classical Okinawan song]] ''[[Nubui kuduchi]]'', which narrates the journey envoys to [[Kagoshima]] traveled, starting from Shuri and passing through Ufudô Matsubara, [[Azato Hachimangu|Azato Hachimangû]], and [[Sogenji|Sôgenji]] on the way to the harbor. The neighborhood today, to the east of Azato Station, is known as Daidô, a standard Japanese reading of the phrase ''Ufudô'' ("great road"). Few pines remain.
==References==
==References==