contributor
27,126
edits
Changes
no edit summary
*''Japanese/Okinawan'': [[泊]] ''(Tomari / Tumai)''
*''Japanese/Okinawan'': [[泊]] ''(Tomari / Tumai)''
Tomari was a district of the city of [[Naha]], the chief port of the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]], and a major port in its own right.
Tomari was a district of the city of [[Naha]], the chief port of the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]], and a major port in its own right. The port district sits at the mouth of the Azato-gawa ([[Azato River]]), and served as a key transport point, connecting water routes to land routes (roads).
A one-kilometer-long, narrow earthen embankment called the [[Chokotei|Chôkôtei]] connected the tiny off-shore island of Ukishima, where most of the other districts of Naha were located, to the Okinawan "mainland," ending at the temple of [[Sogenji|Sôgenji]] in Tomari.
A one-kilometer-long, narrow earthen embankment called the [[Chokotei|Chôkôtei]] connected the tiny off-shore island of Ukishima, where most of the other districts of Naha were located, to the Okinawan "mainland," ending at the temple of [[Sogenji|Sôgenji]] in Tomari.
While the port of Naha was the chief site for receiving foreign ships, ships from [[Yaeyama]], [[Miyako]], [[Amami Islands|Amami]], and other outlying islands within the kingdom, including those bringing [[tribute]], made port at Tomari. The ''[[Tomari satonushi]]'', the chief administrator for the district, was also in charge of receiving and managing the tribute from Amami; the district also contained warehouses for storing the tribute goods.<ref>Uezato. pp62-63.</ref>
Tomari was an active and busy port as early as the 13th-14th centuries. While the port of Naha was the chief site for receiving foreign ships, ships from [[Yaeyama]], [[Miyako]], [[Amami Islands|Amami]], and other outlying islands within the kingdom, including those bringing [[tribute]], made port at Tomari. The ''[[Tomari satonushi]]'', the chief administrator for the district, was also in charge of receiving and managing the tribute from Amami. His office was known as ''Tumai udun''; the district also contained warehouses for storing the tribute goods, known as ''Ôshimakura''.<ref>Uezato. pp62-63.</ref>
In the 19th century, when European and American ships began to call at Ryûkyû, Ryukyuan and [[Satsuma han]] authorities did not wish to allow these ships into Naha Harbor; thus the water off of Tomari were employed as an anchorage, and foreigners who came ashore thus did so in Tomari, and not in Naha proper. A monument still stands today at the [[Tomari International Cemetery]] marking that [[Commodore Perry]] came ashore near that spot in [[1853]].
==References==
==References==
*Plaques on-site at Tomari Port.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/9545757368/in/dateposted-public/]
*Uezato Takashi. "The Formation of the Port City of Naha in Ryukyu and the World of Maritime Asia: From the Perspective of a Japanese Network." ''[[Acta Asiatica]]'' 95 (2008). pp57-77.
*Uezato Takashi. "The Formation of the Port City of Naha in Ryukyu and the World of Maritime Asia: From the Perspective of a Japanese Network." ''[[Acta Asiatica]]'' 95 (2008). pp57-77.
<references/>
<references/>