Western Circuit

• Japanese: 西廻り航路 (nishimawari kouro)

The Nishimawari kôro, or "Western Circuit Shipping Route," was the longest, and busiest (in terms of volume of goods) of three major domestic maritime shipping routes in the Edo period. It connected Ezo and Osaka via the Sea of Japan, the Straits of Shimonoseki, and the Inland Sea, along with a number of ports located in between Ezo and Osaka, especially along the Sea of Japan coast.

The other two major shipping routes were the Kamigata Shipping Route, or Kamigata kôro, connecting Osaka and Edo, and the Eastern Circuit Shipping Route, or Higashimawari kôro, which linked Edo with Pacific coast ports to the north and east.

References

• Moriya, Katsuhisa. Ronald Toby (trans.) "Urban Networks and Information Networks." in Chie Nakane and Shinzaburô Ôishi (eds.) Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan. University of Tokyo Press, 1990. pp97-123.