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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.
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.
The town's name literally means "hand washing," and depending on the source one refers to, the placename derives from either [[Izanagi]], [[Empress Jingu|Empress Jingû]], or [[Sugawara no Michizane]] having washed their hands there at one time. Numerous rivers, ponds, and other sites across Japan share the same name (sometimes pronounced Mitarashi or Mitarase, but written with the same [[kanji]]).<ref>''Mitarai tsûshi'' 御手洗通志 16 (July 2005), 5, 8.</ref>
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.
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.