Tomonoura
- Japanese: 鞆の浦 (Tomonoura)
Tomonoura is a harbor in modern-day Fukuyama City, Hiroshima prefecture, which historically was a significant Inland Sea port. It was a port of call along the Western Circuit shipping route of the kitamaebune, and a stop for Ryukyuan, Korean, and Dutch embassies to Edo.
One of the chief famous local products (meibutsu) is a form of medicinal liquor called homeishu (保命酒). The Nakamura family, known for their homeishu, also hosted daimyô, Ryukyuan embassies, court nobles, and other elite visitors in a set of buildings which together functioned as the town's honjin; two of those buildings are today known as the Ôta family house (Ôta-ke jûtaku) and the Chôsôtei, and have been designated National Important Cultural Properties.[1]
Komatsu-ji (小松寺), a Rinzai Zen temple of the Myôshin-ji branch located near the harbor is home to the grave of Shô Dôkyô Yoseyama Peechin, a musician and member of the 1790 Ryukyuan embassy, who died on the way to Edo on 10/13 in that year. A plaque was later donated to the temple in his memory, by Yoseyama's grandfather, Fukuyama ueekata Chôki.
Tomonoura is also home to the shop of Uoya Manzô, where Sakamoto Ryôma engaged in negotiations surrounding the Iroha-maru Incident.[1]
References
- Watanabe Miki. "Nihon ni okeru Ryûkyû shiseki" 日本における琉球史跡. Personal website.
- Maehira Fusaaki, "Edo nobori no tabi to bohimei" 江戸上りの旅と墓碑銘, Okinawa Bunka Kenkyû 21 (1995), 83ff.
