Kitamaebune

Kitamaebune were Japanese merchant sailing ships whose owners traded cargo port to port along the Sea of Japan coast, linking Hokkaido with western Japan during the Edo and Meiji periods.

Kitamaebune trade: A coastal trading system in which Kitamaebune crews bought and sold goods at successive ports. This system explains how a ship could profit from local price differences, not merely freight charges.
Herring fertilizer: Fertilizer made from processed herring, widely used to enrich fields in Japan. Kitamaebune carried Hokkaido herring products south to agricultural markets.
Edo period: The period of Japanese history from 1603 to 1868, when the Tokugawa shogunate ruled. The Kitamaebune system expanded within the political and commercial order of this era.
Port town: A settlement whose economy and development depend substantially on maritime trade and transport. Kitamaebune traffic helped coastal ports grow into centers of exchange and provisioning.
Mizushima Jūzaemon: An Edo-period merchant associated with the Kitamaebune trade and the port of Sakata. His merchant activity illustrates the fortunes built through coastal buying and selling.
Benzaisen: A Japanese wooden sailing vessel with a broad, rounded stern, used extensively for coastal transport. This ship design carried the cargo that sustained Kitamaebune voyages.
Konbu: Edible kelp harvested in East Asia and used in Japanese cooking and food production. The ships distributed Hokkaido kelp to ports and consumers farther south.
Meiji period: The period of Japanese history from 1868 to 1912, marked by imperial restoration and rapid modernization. Kitamaebune continued into this era before steam transport transformed maritime trade.
Hokkaido: The northernmost of Japan’s four main islands, historically known as Ezo. Its fisheries supplied major cargoes that Kitamaebune carried to markets farther south.
Sakata: A port city on the Sea of Japan coast in present-day Yamagata Prefecture. Sakata was a prominent Kitamaebune port and a center of regional commerce.

Linked from 2 pages