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Tomonoura is a harbor in modern-day Fukuyama City, [[Hiroshima prefecture]], which historically was a significant [[Inland Sea]] port and [[jokamachi|castle town]]. It was a port of call along the [[Western Circuit]] shipping route of the ''[[kitamaebune]]'', and a formal maritime post-station (''umi no eki''), regularly hosting ''daimyô'' on ''[[sankin kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' journeys and [[Ryukyuan embassies to Edo|Ryukyuan]], [[Korean embassies to Edo|Korean]], and [[Dutch embassies to Edo]], as well as shogunal officials and official shogunal cargo shipments.

Tomonoura is a harbor in modern-day Fukuyama City, [[Hiroshima prefecture]], which historically was a significant [[Inland Sea]] port and [[jokamachi|castle town]]. It was a port of call along the [[Western Circuit]] shipping route of the ''[[kitamaebune]]'', and a formal maritime post-station (''umi no eki''), regularly hosting ''daimyô'' on ''[[sankin kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' journeys and [[Ryukyuan embassies to Edo|Ryukyuan]], [[Korean embassies to Edo|Korean]], and [[Dutch embassies to Edo]], as well as shogunal officials and official shogunal cargo shipments.

Even since ancient times, Tomo's natural geography made it an ideal harbor for ships to wait for the right winds and tides. As early as [[1607]], the town is said to have been fairly densely packed, the homes "like the teeth of a comb,"<ref>Aono Shunsui 青野春水, "Edo jidai Tomo-chô no seiritsu to kôzô" 江戸時代鞆町の成立と構造, ''Tomo no tsu [[Nakamura-ke nikki|Nakamura-ke monjo]] mokuroku IV'' 鞆の津中村家文書目録 IV (2009), 252, citing ''Haecha lu'' (海槎録), a record by Korean envoy Gyeong Chilsong<!--慶七松-->.</ref> at a time when nearby ports such as [[Mitarai]] are said to have had no elite houses at all, developing a sizable population only in the 18th century.<ref>Kimura Yoshisato 木村吉聡 (ed.), ''Ryukyu shisetsu no Edo nobori to Mitarai'' 琉球使節の江戸上りと御手洗, Shiomachi kankô kôryû Center 潮待ち館観光交流センター (2001), 3.</ref> Korean envoys visiting Tomo ten years later (in [[1617]]) wrote that Tomo was even greater than [[Shimonoseki]].<ref name=aono252>Aono, 252.</ref>  

Even since ancient times, Tomo's natural geography made it an ideal harbor for ships to wait for the right winds and tides. As early as [[1607]], the town is said to have been fairly densely packed, the homes "like the teeth of a comb,"<ref>Aono Shunsui 青野春水, "Edo jidai Tomo-chô no seiritsu to kôzô" 江戸時代鞆町の成立と構造, ''Tomo no tsu [[Nakamura-ke nikki|Nakamura-ke monjo]] mokuroku IV'' 鞆の津中村家文書目録 IV (2009), 252, citing ''Haecha lu'' (海槎録), a record by Korean envoy Gyeong Chilsong<!--慶七松-->.</ref> at a time when nearby ports such as [[Mitarai]] are said to have had no elite houses at all, developing a sizable population only in the 18th century.<ref>Kimura Yoshisato 木村吉聡 (ed.), ''Ryukyu shisetsu no Edo nobori to Mitarai'' 琉球使節の江戸上りと御手洗, Shiomachi kankô kôryû Center 潮待ち館観光交流センター (2001), 3.</ref> Korean envoys visiting Tomo ten years later (in [[1617]]) wrote that Tomo was even greater than [[Shimonoseki]].<ref name=aono252>Aono, 252.</ref> By the 1760s, Tomo boasted some 1,465 buildings, housing around 5,860 people.<ref>These included 434 families who owned their own homes, 1,031 homes which were rental properties, twenty-seven Buddhist temples, and ten families who operated Shinto shrines. Fujii Kazue 藤井和枝 and Mitsunari Nahoko 光成名保子, "Nakamura ke nikki (III) ni tsuite," ''Nakamura ke nikki III - Fukuyama shi jûyô bunkazai'', Fukuyama Castle Museum Tomo-no-kai (2009), 3.</ref>

[[Tomo castle]] was built in 1607 as well; it featured a three-story tower keep (''tenshu''), Ôtemon, and ''yagura''. [[Fukushima Masanori]] granted the castle and an associated 8,131 ''[[koku]]'' fief to his retainer [[Ozaki Genba|Ôzaki Genba]], who in turn likely had some 342 retainers under him.<ref name=aono252/> Though the castle's main keep was torn down in [[1619]] in keeping with the "one castle per domain" policy of the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], Tomo nevertheless continued to develop as a castle town. By the end of the 17th century, it was divided into seven districts within the castle's outer moats: Hara-machi, Kaji-machi, Ishii-machi, Seki-machi, Michikoshi-machi, Nishi-machi, and Eura-machi. As in many castle-towns, these were divided into areas directly associated with the castle, samurai residential neighborhoods, and townsmen (commoner) neighborhoods. After one further castellan, [[Mizuno Katsutoshi]], Tomo came to be overseen not by a "lord" but by a Magistrate known as the ''Tomo bugyô''. A man named Hagino Shin'emon was the first to hold this post. From that time forward, the town began to shift once more away from being organized as a castle-town, towards a more dominant port-town character.<ref>Aono, 253.</ref>

[[Tomo castle]] was built in 1607 as well; it featured a three-story tower keep (''tenshu''), Ôtemon, and ''yagura''. [[Fukushima Masanori]] granted the castle and an associated 8,131 ''[[koku]]'' fief to his retainer [[Ozaki Genba|Ôzaki Genba]], who in turn likely had some 342 retainers under him.<ref name=aono252/> Though the castle's main keep was torn down in [[1619]] in keeping with the "one castle per domain" policy of the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], Tomo nevertheless continued to develop as a castle town. By the end of the 17th century, it was divided into seven districts within the castle's outer moats: Hara-machi, Kaji-machi, Ishii-machi, Seki-machi, Michikoshi-machi, Nishi-machi, and Eura-machi. As in many castle-towns, these were divided into areas directly associated with the castle, samurai residential neighborhoods, and townsmen (commoner) neighborhoods. After one further castellan, [[Mizuno Katsutoshi]], Tomo came to be overseen not by a "lord" but by a Magistrate known as the ''Tomo bugyô''. A man named Hagino Shin'emon was the first to hold this post. From that time forward, the town began to shift once more away from being organized as a castle-town, towards a more dominant port-town character.<ref>Aono, 253.</ref>