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*''Japanese'': 御手洗 ''(Mitarai)''

*''Japanese'': 御手洗 ''(Mitarai)''

Mitarai was a port town in [[Hiroshima han]], located on an island in the [[Inland Sea]], located roughly halfway between the cities of [[Kure]] (in Hiroshima domain) and [[Imabari]] (in [[Iyo province]], on [[Shikoku]]). Today, Mitarai has been absorbed into Kure City.

Mitarai was a port town in [[Hiroshima han]], located on an island in the [[Inland Sea]], located roughly halfway between the cities of [[Kure]] (in [[Hiroshima han]]) and [[Imabari]] (in [[Iyo province]], on [[Shikoku]]). Today, Mitarai has been absorbed into Kure City.

A major regional port town, Mitarai got its start around the mid-18th century, and grew in the early 19th century as the archipelago-wide "travel boom" burgeoned. Like many other prominent Inland Sea ports, Mitarai was chiefly home to warehousers, affiliated with wealthy, powerful warehousing guilds in [[Osaka]]; essentially they served as middlemen, buying, storing, and selling a variety of goods which sea captains transported across the Inland Sea and beyond. By the [[Bakumatsu period]], however, many sea captains bypassed the warehousers and simply bought and sold directly with producers in cities like [[Onomichi]] and consumers in places like Osaka. By that time, too, fears of foreign ships led to Mitarai being equipped with shore batteries.

A major regional port town, Mitarai got its start around [[1666]], when the domain granted permission for the construction of divided homes; the town quickly grew into a major port over the course of the 18th century, and especially in the early 19th century as the Japan-wide "travel boom" burgeoned. Like many other prominent Inland Sea ports, Mitarai was chiefly home to warehousers, affiliated with wealthy, powerful warehousing guilds in [[Osaka]]; essentially they served as middlemen, buying, storing, and selling a variety of goods which sea captains transported across the Inland Sea and beyond. By the [[Bakumatsu period]], however, many sea captains bypassed the warehousers and simply bought and sold directly with producers in cities like [[Onomichi]] and consumers in places like Osaka. By that time, too, fears of foreign ships led to Mitarai being equipped with shore batteries.

During the [[Edo period]], Mitarai was among the more typical stops for ''daimyô'' and their entourages to stop during their ''[[sankin kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' journeys to and from [[Edo]]; [[Korean embassies to Edo|Korean]] and [[Ryukyuan embassies to Edo]] also stopped here, and a ''hengaku'' plaque featuring calligraphy by Ryukyuan envoy [[Ryo Kochi|Ryô Kôchi]] can be found in the temple of [[Manshu-ji|Manshû-ji]] in the town.<ref>Shirarezaru Ryûkyû shisetsu 知られざる琉球使節, Fukuyama-shi Tomonoura rekishi minzoku shiryôkan (2006), 37.</ref>

During the [[Edo period]], Mitarai was among the more typical stops for ''daimyô'' and their entourages to stop during their ''[[sankin kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' journeys to and from [[Edo]]; [[Korean embassies to Edo|Korean]] and [[Ryukyuan embassies to Edo]] also stopped here, and a ''hengaku'' plaque featuring calligraphy by Ryukyuan envoy [[Ryo Kochi|Ryô Kôchi]] can be found in the temple of [[Manshu-ji|Manshû-ji]] in the town.<ref>Shirarezaru Ryûkyû shisetsu 知られざる琉球使節, Fukuyama-shi Tomonoura rekishi minzoku shiryôkan (2006), 37.</ref> Numerous other notable figures visited Mitarai, including [[Ino Tadataka|Inô Tadataka]] in [[1806]], [[Philipp Franz von Siebold]] in [[1826]], [[Yoshida Shoin|Yoshida Shôin]] in [[1853]], [[Sanjo Sanetomi|Sanjô Sanetomi]] and [[Fall of Seven Nobles Incident|several other court nobles]] in [[1864]].

Like many such port towns, Mitarai was home to a number of [[prostitution|brothels]], catering to sailors and travelers. Hiroshima domain authorities paid little attention to regulating or forbidding prostitution; Mitarai competed with other neighboring ports which offered other entertainments, including plays, lotteries, and teahouses. There were four main brothels in Mitarai: the Sakaiya, Wakaebisuya, Tomitaya, and Ebiya. In the mid-18th century, the town had a population of just over 500, of whom roughly 100 were indentured women. However, by the 19th century, this proportion dropped considerably. In the 1860s, the Wakaebisuya, which employed around a hundred women by itself at its peak time, now had only around a dozen; meanwhile, the other brothels were on the brink of closing.

Like many such port towns, Mitarai was home to a number of [[prostitution|brothels]], catering to sailors and travelers. Hiroshima domain authorities paid little attention to regulating or forbidding prostitution; Mitarai competed with other neighboring ports which offered other entertainments, including plays, lotteries, and teahouses. There were four main brothels in Mitarai: the Sakaiya, Wakaebisuya, Tomitaya, and Ebiya. In the mid-18th century, the town had a population of just over 500, of whom roughly 100 were indentured women. However, by the 19th century, this proportion dropped considerably. In the 1860s, the Wakaebisuya, which employed around a hundred women by itself at its peak time, now had only around a dozen; meanwhile, the other brothels were on the brink of closing.

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==References==

==References==

*Amy Stanley, ''Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan'', UC Press (2012), 163-187.  

*Amy Stanley, ''Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan'', UC Press (2012), 163-187.

*''Mitarai tsûshin'' 御手洗通信 no. 1, Dec 1996, p11.

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