Japanese medieval trading towns: Sakai and Tosaminato
Richard PEARSON1
ABSTRACT

Trade was essential to the development of urban forms in medieval Japan. In this paper, Richard
Pearson introduces discoveries at two important medieval trading centres: Sakai, in the Kinai
region, comprising the modern prefectures of Osaka, Nara and Kyoto, the longest establishedurban areas in Japan; and Tosaminato, headquarters of the Ando clan at the northern tip of themain Japanese island of Honshu, centre for the northern trade with Hokkaido.
KEYWORDS: Medieval archaeology, trade, urban archaeology, Sakai, Tosa Minato

Editor’s note (by Simon Kaner)This paper is based on a presentation originally delivered at a conference in 2004 in
Norwich, UK organized by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts andCultures on the ‘Archaeology of Medieval Towns in Japan and Europe.’ A volume arisingfrom this and subsequent research will be published later in 2016 under the title of The
Archaeology of Medieval Towns: Case Studies from Japan and Europe, edited by Brian
Ayers, Simon Kaner and Richard Pearson, and published by Archaeopress of Oxford.
Pearson’s paper refers to research undertaken up to the later 2000s.
The paper is divided into two main sections. The ﬁrst part is a review of the historicaland social background to the rise of medieval urban centres in Japan in general. Pearson
identiﬁes a series of major social and economic trends which underlay the development of
towns: village nucleation; trade, with a particular focus on ceramics and coinage; changes
in land tenure and local government; the development of new economic institutions
including the appearance of shipping agents who acted as middle men between the rural
estates which produced commodities and the markets, and co-operative guilds; changes
in the composition of social classes, most notably the rise of the provincial warrior classand an urban merchant class; and changes in religion important for understanding thedevelopment of urban areas around temples of shrines.
The second section of the paper presents detailed summaries of the archaeologicaldiscoveries at Sakai and Tosaminato, which are related to the social and economic trends
1 Professor

Emeritus at the Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada(pearsonrj@shaw.ca)
Category: Original Article (Solicited) Accepted: 10 March 2016
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 3 (2016): 89–116

Richard PEARSON

discussed in the ﬁrst section. Combined with the results of the broad area excavationsat Kusado Sengen on the Inland Sea coast, these summaries introduce the reader tothe diversity in medieval Japanese trading towns and to the factors which led to theirdevelopment and demise.
The medieval history of Sakai and the Osaka region where it is located have beenpreviously discussed in English by Wakita Haruko (Wakita 1999) and V. Dixon Morris(1977). Pearson’s paper demonstrates how much the archaeological record of these port
cities adds to the historical sources. This is the ﬁrst time the results of the investigations
at Tosaminato have been presented in detail in English. Pearson will shortly be
publishing a new, fuller account of the archaeology of Osaka and Sakai, under the title of
Osaka Archaeology (Oxford: Archaeopress, forthcoming).

Introduction
In this paper I discuss some of the major historical and archaeological trends in the riseof towns in the Japanese islands, relating them to the moated trading centre of Sakai,near Kyoto and Osaka, and Tosaminato, the trading town of the Ando Clan and centre
for northern trade on the Tsugaru Peninsula, Aomori Prefecture.
Although there had been a long standing interest in medieval artifacts such as coinsand ceramics, major excavations of medieval sites in Japan began with Kusado Sengencho, Fukushima City in 1961 (Matsushita 2000) (Figure 1). By the 1980s wide area
excavation of many different kinds of sites all over Japan resulted in a proliferation ofimportant publications such as the series, Yomigaeru Chusei (The Rise of the Middle
Ages) (Amino et al. 1994). In 1991 Maekawa challenged earlier criticisms that the ﬁeld
had not yet reached a stage where summarisation and generalisation could be achieved(Maekawa 1991) and in the following decade Japanese medieval archaeology matured
into a well developed area of study with a substantial literature and recent reviews(Sakazume 2000 and Ono 2001). In many prefectures medieval sites now constitutethe largest category of sites excavated in government-funded salvage projects. Fromthe 1990s there was been a trend to produce an archaeologically derived view of social
history, with the co operation of historians. This can be seen in the annual publication,
Chusei Toshi Kenkyu (The Study of Urban Centers).
The medieval period can be seen as an interlude between two periods of uniﬁcation© Japanese Archaeological Association

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Figure 1.

Map of Japan showing major sites mentioned in the textof the 7th to 9th centuries and the 17th century to the present. During this time there wasa decline in the central authority of the Japanese (Yamato) state and the rise of local
powers. The period is also marked by the development of separate realms of militaryand sacral power and the rise of warrior and merchant classes. From 1470 to 1570
Japan was wracked by internal strife and shifting power among local rulers loyal to thecentral power and those seeking local autonomy. This is the time period of the buildingof fortiﬁed castles in Japan, termed the Warring States period (sengoku jidai). The
medieval period came to an end with uniﬁcation under military rulers, whose power was
consolidated in the Tokugawa period (1600–1867). Despite the political upheavals which
occurred throughout the medieval period, there were three centuries of economic growth
between 1250 and 1550 (Totman 2000, pp. 160–175). State control was very loose in© Japanese Archaeological Association

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the northern parts of Honshu; Hokkaido and Okinawa were economically linked to thecentre but were politically independent. Regional diversity and varying rates of change
are very important aspects of the study of medieval Japan. The cultural and politicalconditions under which towns arose were extremely diverse, a wide variety of what are
termed urban forms (toshi) being produced by multiple processes (Ishii 2000).

Major social and economic trends in medieval Japan
Village nucleation and the rise of towns and cities

Maekawa (1998) has identiﬁed a process by which villages coalesced and increased theiradministrative, service, handicraft, and religious roles, becoming multifunctional regional
centers. He has termed this process sonshuka, which he has translated as nucleation. It isa process of coalescence or agglomeration which creates regional nuclei. A trend toward
nucleated rural villages began in the 13th century and progressed rapidly during the 14thand early 15th centuries. It was driven by the expansion of arable land and irrigation
systems by farmers who had previously lived in isolated farmsteads (Maekawa 1998,
Yamakawa 1998). Maekawa identiﬁed three trajectories of nucleation of late medieval
villages (1998, pp. 45). One of these led to the creation of residential forts (jokan), a
second to the development of villages which persist into the present and a third led tothe development of urban centres. The development of the residential fort can be seenin the structure of the 16th century site of Ichijodani, Fukui Prefecture. In this site theinternal land divisions (tansaku) are relatively small. They are the units given to local
samurai groups, and vary according to the social status of the samurai. Maekawa (1998)
considered the appearance of the long narrow tansaku pattern of land tenure as a key
indicator of urban life and the presence of artisans and merchants who were dependent
on farmers for their food. The third type, the urban commercial centre can be seen in the
Kusado Sengen-cho site in the 13th to early 14th centuries. In the ancient period it was
already a local capital and in the medieval period it formed from a number of villages
who shared a market. These nucleated settlements took different forms in different partsof Japan (Maekawa 1997).
By at least the 13th century, town-like or urban features can be found archaeologicallyin relatively remote areas such as Yanagigosho, the administrative capital of the Northern
Fujiwara polity in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture (Maekawa 2000, pp. 93). The site lies innortheastern Japan, the ‘Eastern Country’ known in Japanese as Togoku. It was relatively
remote from the administrative centre of Kyoto. In the Togoku area at the end of theancient and in the early medieval periods there were rectangular garrisons which secured
the power of the central authority. They housed administrators, craftsmen, and religious
practitioners. These sites were surrounded by moats and earth ramparts and contained© Japanese Archaeological Association

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dwellings, a ﬂat assembly area, and in some cases a Buddhist temple.
In the late 13th century there was a proliferation of port towns along the Inland Sea,such as Kusado Sengen, and Sakai. In northern Kyushu Hakata was the main port for
the China trade. In the Kinai region, comprising the modern prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto
and Nara, early centres of the 14th century show evidence of iron working. It appears
that artisans lived around elite residences (yashiki) in a dependent relationship since
workshops have been found around the edges of elite residences. Communities were also
built around temples (monzenmachi).
The development of a commercial sector can be seen in the site of Kusado Sengen
beginning in the 14th century, It has characteristics of both a port town and a temple
town since it was the site of a substantial temple, the Teifukuji, built around 1321. In the
13th century it consisted of a rectangular group of residences and a cemetery of cairnburials. The chronology of the site can be divided into four periods. From the mid 13th tothe beginning of the 14th century there was a main road running north to south. From the14th century an area of long narrow lots was found as well as evidence of brewing, ironworking, circulation of coins, and lacquer production. The number of houses declines inthe early to mid 15th century and there was rapid decline in the 16th century (Ono 2001,
pp. 48).
One of the most signiﬁcant new urban developments of the Muromachi period was
the building of castle towns ( jokamachi) by local leaders involved in territorial struggles(sengoku daimyo). By the late Muromachi period, castles were no longer built on
defensible peaks but were situated on plains where daimyo could combine defence with
control. These communities included warriors, merchants, and craftsmen. Earlier fortiﬁed
castles were demolished. By the late 16th century large numbers of villages in the Kinai
were surrounded by ditches and moats. The latter were used not only for defence but also
as important parts of irrigation systems.
Up to this point we have been discussing regional centres. During the 14th and 15th
centuries the population of the primal city of Kyoto was over 200,000, making it one of
the world’s largest cities of its time. The population of London at this time is said to havebeen 50,000 (Yamamura 1990, pp. 377).

Trade

Medieval Japanese towns and cities served as redistribution centres. In this section
I outline several of the major turning points of trade between China and Japan andsummarize two of the commodities, ceramics and coinage. The ﬁrst stage of thedevelopment of the medieval economy and society of Japan is linked to the rise of theSong economy in China. From the 10th century the pace of commercial development
quickened in China and in the 11th and 12th centuries private traders from China came
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to the Japanese port of Hakata. By the late Heian Period, trade, mostly private, wasconducted by elites through ports in northern Kyushu and Japan became part of the East
Asian trading sphere. Song ships came to Dazaifu and traded with representatives ofvarious temples and shrines and their attached estates. Little trade was carried out by thecentral government. From the end of the 10th century to the beginning of the 12th century
the most important centre for trade was the Dazaifu Korokan, set up especially forinteraction with foreign traders. There was an increasing inﬂow and use of coins before
the end of the 12th century, although many rural people still exchanged goods without theuse of coins. The volume of Chinese ceramics ﬂowing to Japan increased dramaticallyin the 12th century, reaching a peak in the 13th and 14th centuries. It declined in the 15th
century but was resumed in the 16th century. Trade in Chinese goods included works
of art and antiques as well as coins and ceramics. The renewal of continental contacts,
which had begun in the late Heian period, was fuelled by a demand for Chinese objects
by political and religious elites, particularly under the rule of the Ashikaga family of
military rulers (Totman 2000, pp. 175).

CoinageThroughout the medieval period Japan used Chinese copper coins as the medium of
exchange; therefore it was a crucial import (Totman 2000, pp. 153). Huge amounts ofSong coins were imported, despite Chinese ofﬁcial prohibition in the late 12th century(Yamamura 1990, pp. 358). In the 15th century the Ming court sent Japanese leaders
diplomatic gifts of millions of coins (Atwell 2002, pp. 86; Collcutt 1983, pp. 174). From
1404 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu opened up trade with Ming dynasty China, accepting fromthe Chinese the title of ‘King of Japan.’ There were only nineteen missions between
1404 and 1549, when the Ming terminated these missions because of internal confusion
in China and piracy along the coast. In the transition from the Medieval period to theModern period in the early 17th century, the Tokugawa government prohibited the useof Chinese coinage and minted its own currency in gold, silver, copper and later, irondenominations.
The Sin’an shipwreck of the early 14th century, found near Mokpo, Korea, contained
8.1 tons of Chinese coinage, some eight million coins (Information Section 1984,
Kokuritsu 1998a, pp. 60). It is said to have belonged to the Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto.
Dramatic hoards of Chinese coins have been found in Hokkaido and the main JapaneseIslands, but are virtually absent in the Ryukyu Islands. In addition to chance ﬁnds suchas the discovery in 1968 of around 450,000 Chinese coins dating from Han times to 1368
at Shinori near Hakodate, Hokkaido (Nagai 1994, pp. 16) there are now several cases oflarge quantities of coins from controlled excavations (Kurihara 2000). A few examples
will convey the scale of these ﬁnds. Some 77 percent of the coins in the caches are from© Japanese Archaeological Association

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the Northern Song (960–1127) (Suzuki 1999, pp. 59). In Kusado Sengen Cho two ﬁnds
were made. One, weighing nineteen kilogrammes, was comprised of ﬁve thousand coins
while the other consisted of 12,595 coins. All of the coins were dated before 1368, thebeginning of the Ming Dynasty. From Niigata, at Ishiusu, near Kamitate Castle and the
Senpukuji Temple, 271,784 coins were found in association with architectural featuresand ceramics. There were 82 types of coins on strings of between 92 and 99 coins each,the latest being the Korean Chosen Tsuho type, dated to 1423. From Namioka Castle in
Aomori, privately minted Chinese coins were also recovered (Suzuki 2002).
Suzuki (1999) gathered data from 275 cases of hoards totaling 3,530,000 coins. Four
prefectures, Akita, Shimane, Kochi, and Okinawa are not included in his survey since
their data were not yet compiled. He concluded that the coins were used in commerce
and for paying soldiers. They were buried primarily for security, while a few instanceswere ritual or votive deposits. He concluded that most of the coins were transported
to Japan in the 13th century, and that the hoarding peaked in the ﬁrst half of the 16th
century, declining in the latter half of the 16th century. He cites historical records oftransactions in feudal manors (shoen) which show that the use of currency increased in
the 13th and 14th centuries, in comparison to rice or textiles. In the 16th century coins of
Yongle Tongbao type were specially favoured for commercial transactions.
Both Chinese coins and trade ceramics provide important methods of dating medieval
sites, as well as important information on changes in patterns of consumption. As Suzuki
points out (1999, pp. 60) dating from coins is not simple, since the coins remained incirculation for a long time. The relationship between the time of import (which can
only be postulated) and the time of burial in the cache is not always well known. The
Japanese also produced counterfeit Chinese coins at sites such as Sakai.

Ceramics

Chinese ceramics constituted the bulk of the imports in medieval Japanese foreign trade
but there were also relatively small quantities of ceramics from Korea, Vietnam, andThailand. The history of the ceramics is relatively well known through the intensive
work of pioneer scholars. Excavation of the Korokan yielded ceramics from the 7th to11th centuries, including Korean wares from the Korean states of Silla and Koryo, Yuan
ceramics from Zhejiang, Changsha Tongguan ceramics, northern white wares and bluishwhite (qingbai) wares from Zhejiang and Guangdong. The most numerous are Chinese
yue ware, a kind of proto celadon. While ofﬁcials and upper class people at Dazaifu used
yue bowls and plates from the 9th century, by the 11th century their use had spread tolower class people. The Korokan served as the distribution centre for ceramics until themid 11th century, after which the merchants of Hakata assumed control of ceramics. Sites
thought to be private warehouses of Song merchants have been found in Hakata (Kamei© Japanese Archaeological Association

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1995, pp. 132). Celadon ceramics from Longquan, Zhejiang, replaced yue ceramics in themid 11th century through mid 12th centuries (Kamei 2000, pp. 136). Findings from theMottaimatsu Site in Kagoshima Prefecture, southern Kyushu, which yielded ceramics
from the latter half of the 11th century to the 13th century, indicate that in addition to
Hakata there were other distribution centres (Yamamoto 2003). At that time, bowls withlotus petal motifs incised on their exteriors are found, along with bowls and plates witha peculiar dark green glaze, from Tong’an, Fujian. By the 12th and 13th centuries, the rateof ﬂow of Chinese ceramics into Japan increased. Some of the sites under the moderncity of Hakata yield counts of Chinese ceramics as high as 24 percent. Ceramics can befound from Okinawa in the south up to the Tohoku region, though the elite of northern
Japan preferred to use lacquered wooden bowls. From the middle of the 13th century, theamount of ceramics decreases suddenly in the Japanese main islands.
In the ﬁrst half of the 15th century, Chinese ceramics are very rare in the main islandsof Japan, while they are abundant in the Ryukyus. During the Ming ban on trade(1368–1522) the Ryukyu Kingdom of Okinawa maintained close diplomatic ties with
China and engaged in trans-shipment of Chinese goods. In the 16th century Chinese
ceramics became more common in the central areas of Japan, in sites such as Himeji,
and Ichijodani, where the Asakura family had their regional capital from 1470 to 1573.
In the former site about half of the ceramics are local earthenware, while the other half
are Chinese celadon, white, and blue and white wares and Japanese wares such as Bizen,
Tamba, Shigaraki, Tokoname and Hizen. In bowls and plates Chinese wares were seventimes more common than Seto or Mino (Kamei 2000, pp. 58).
In the case of Ichijodani, ceramics from the houses of the samurai and merchants
consisted of about ﬁfty percent earthenware and thirty percent Echizen ceramics.
Chinese ceramics were about ten percent. However in the residence of the Asakurafamily members the proportion of trade ceramics was about thirty percent. They
imported ceramics for daily use, including a rare antique white ware four-eared jar.
In the 16th century trade ceramics were found in higher frequencies in the northernareas of Tohoku and Hokkaido and in the southern regions of Kyushu and Okinawa,
whereas in the central area local Mino and Seto ceramics were also available (Suzuki
2000). Nevertheless even in these latter areas Chinese bowls and plates remain three
to ﬁve times more abundant than the local ceramics (Kamei 2000, pp. 60). Most of
the Chinese blue and white is from the Jiajing Period (1522 to 1566) when trade wasrestored after the ban on trade under the Ming. At this time silver was mined in Japanand exported to China in huge quantities. Kamei believes that ceramics were brought inChinese ships to Hakata and Sakai and were then distributed through domestic networks.
In domestic ceramic production, in the early part of the medieval period, production was
not for daily use. Elite and ritual wares such as four-eared tsubo, ewers and bottles, were
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produced in Kamakura for the Togoku region. Three types of ceramics developed, allbased on prototypes from the ancient period. These were ash glazed, sue, and kawara
type wares. The ash glazed types developed into high quality hard ﬁred ceramics. Greystoneware was produced in round and ﬂat bottom variants. Soft grey earthenware wasalso used for ritual, storage and heating.

Changes in land tenure and local government

In the 7th century under the Taiho Promulgations, the ritsuryo system of centralizedstate land tenure was established, despite opposition of independent uji chieftains.
Ownership of land resided with the emperor. In the 10th century the system was changed
from levying tax and corvee on individuals to land under cultivation. Also in Late
Heian times, huge private estates (shoen) were created, removing land from the publicdomain and redirecting the revenues made from them to large temples and aristocraticfamilies (Totman 2000, pp. 100–105). They were originally parcels of land brought into
cultivation by temples, but in later times they were estates of cultivated ﬁelds designatedto support particular temples or other institutions, by imperial decree. In the late 12th
century a second class of ofﬁcials, land stewards ( jito) were assigned to both public andprivate lands to supervise the collection of taxes and the regulation of production As
the military rulers (shogun) gained power in the 13th century they appointed military
governors (shugo) throughout the country to maintain law and order. In the Muromachi
period local lords (daimyo) exercised aristocratic control over their castle towns; howeverin cases of the trading ports of Sakai and Hakata, citizens’ councils governed, and also
managed defences. In Kyoto groups of townsmen regulated affairs in their district but in
the Azuchi Momoyama period these groups were brought under close regulation.

Development of new economic institutions

Two economic institutions that had appeared earlier and continued to develop during
the Kamakura Period were the shipping agents who took rice and other products of the
shoen estates on consignment for distribution to markets (toimaru) and co-operative
guilds which provided favorable reciprocal trade advantages and reduced competition(za) (Yamamura 1990, pp. 394). Many Heian artisans functioned as house provisioners,
providing goods and services to elites. During the 12th century many of the elite
institutions licensed specialised za to provide many kinds of supplies (Totman 2000, pp.
109). The za developed mostly in the Muromachi period. They enjoyed the sponsorshipof nobles of religious institutions to whom they paid dues in return for protection of theirmonopoly privileges and exemption from barrier charges and market fees.
In the Muromachi period there were advances in agriculture, commerce,transportation, village organization, and urban development. There was a strong demand© Japanese Archaeological Association

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for goods and services from the shogunal court and the resident shugo daimyo. The
policies of the sengoku daimyo aimed at fostering local commerce by new groups ofmerchants and at reducing barriers to trade within their domains. Two powerful newsocial forces emerged: a self-conscious mercantile group and an increasingly restive andmarket oriented economy. The toimaru, originally agents who supervised rent shipments
for estate proprietors, began to handle the affairs of more than one patron and went intobusiness for themselves, becoming powerful traders, as in Sakai (Morris 1981, pp. 33).
Double cropping of rice and barley, which had begun in western Japan in the
Kamakura period, spread to eastern Japan by the Muromachi period. Improvements
occurred in fertilizing, irrigation, and mining of gold and silver. The building ofmassive castles and castle towns by daimyo stimulated haulage and forestry. The needfor peasants to convert at least part of their crops into cash to pay taxes and levies also
contributed to the development of markets and commercial activity.

Changes in social classes

Each class developed its own residential and community patterns and patterns ofconsumption, which can be seen in archaeological sites. The aristocratic centralised
life of the Heian imperial court in Kyoto was maintained by the civil aristocracy (kuge)
whose courtly background set the standard of taste in Heian times. In the Muromachi
period actual power was transferred from the kuge to the provincial warrior class (bushi
or samurai). A great number of private landed estates (shoen) came under the control of
the warrior class. In the 13th century a legal code of the warrior class set out the rightsof the warrior class and the duties of the Kamakura-appointed ofﬁcials such as military
governors and stewards. The rise of the merchant class in the 15th and 16th centuries isparticularly important, as we shall see in the case of Sakai, outlined below.

Religious changes

Space does not permit me to discuss in detail the effects of religious changes on life inmedieval Japan. Two new forms of Buddhism introduced in the 9th century, Shingon andTendai, had centres outside Kyoto, at Mount Koya and Mount Hie. Their warrior monks
exerted considerable power over Kyoto, although Buddhism did not spread widely among
the masses in Heian times. Pure Land Buddhism became popular in the latter half of
the Heian Period, and became a separate sect in the Kamakura Period. New Japanesesects such as Nichiren, arose in the Kamakura period through charismatic leaders. Zen
Buddhism was introduced from China in the late 12th century, ﬁrst to Hakata, and laterto Kamakura, where a close relationship between Zen and the military leadership wasestablished. Both Rinzai and Soto sects of Zen ﬂourished, along with early forms ofJapanese Buddhism in large centers such as the Todaiji and Kofukuji in Nara. Song© Japanese Archaeological Association

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traders supported Buddhist temples in the Hakata region (Kamei 1995, pp. 134–135) . In
the Muromachi period several large Rinzai temples of Kyoto became deeply involved ininternational trade and diplomacy (Collcutt 1981), while other Rinzai temples eschewed
such activities. Christianity was introduced by Iberian missionaries from 1549. Whileit ﬂourished in some areas for several decades it was snuffed out in the 17th century. In
addition to the formal religions mentioned above I would argue that a new commercial
mentality, rooted in the rise of industrialization and a cash economy in South China
in the Song Dynasty (960 to 1279) greatly affected the values of Japanese elites andtownspeople. These changes were linked to the developments in Buddhism mentioned
above. and the great Zen temples of Kyoto were engaged in international trade (Collcutt
1981).

Sakai
Historical backgroundAs one of the major medieval centres of the Japanese islands, Sakai displays the
expanding, multifunctional roles which typify towns of this period. Its rise in the 15thand 16th centuries is seen by some as the beginning of modern Japan, but its decline
and loss of independence in the 17th century is also seen as a regression into Tokugawa
feudalism (Morris 1981, pp. 23–25). Both a local and international entrepot, and an
important trade port for the land locked Nara Basin, Sakai, originally a ﬁshing village, issituated on old communication routes running from Osaka Bay through low mountains
into the Nara Basin, and also along the coast of Wakayama to the religious centre of
Kumano (Figure 2). Sakai had long been a strategic transportation node. From the 5th
century it was the site of monumental tombs of the rulers of the Kinai (Kyoto Nara
Osaka region). The location of such impressive tombs outside the Nara Basin, in the
Kawachi Plain, must have been partially motivated by a desire to impress visitors whovoyaged into the Inland Sea, the maritime terminus of the Silk Road. It was an important
stop on the pilgrimage route to Kumano, and a port for local produce. It was a military
port during the Namboku Cho period (1336–1392) and an important port of trade within
the Japanese islands. In the 15th century it became an international port and in the late
16th and 17th centuries it became a centre for manufacturing. Through its link with
Okinawa it also had access to goods from Southeast Asia. The city was dominated by anumber of powerful Shinto shrines situated along the main thoroughfare that ran parallelto the shoreline. In the area of Sakai port, a well thought to be used for agriculture has
been dated to the late 12th and early 13th centuries, suggesting that the area was a small
settlement with garden plots at that time (Tsuzuki 1994, pp. 85). Early farmers may haveused drainage water from nearby huge 5th century tumuli for agriculture and ditches© Japanese Archaeological Association

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Figure 2.

Location of Sakai

from the tumuli may have been used part of Sakai’s moat (1994, pp. 85). Tsuzuki (1994,
pp. 96) states that a substantial area within the moat was inhabited by people who had
farm plots.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the northern part of Sakai lay in the shoen of
Settsu, while the southern part was located in the Waizumi shoen. This location onsuch a boundary, at the junction of old roads, gave it a strategic advantage for internal
trade in the Kinai as well as for international trade (Figure 4). Later, Sakai became theshugo territory of the Hosokawa family, who were kanrei (shogunal deputies). At thistime it was already an important trading centre for the small polities of Kyushu and the
Chugoku (southwestern Honshu). In the 15th century, the Shokokuji Temple of Kyoto© Japanese Archaeological Association

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received the rents from the properties in Izumi Sakai, while Settsu Sakai was under the
proprietorship of the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine (Morris 1981, pp. 25).
During the Onin Wars (1467–1477), aristocrats, priests, and townspeople from Kyoto
and surrounding areas sought refuge in Sakai and the city developed rapidly. During the15th century it was the base for 19 tribute missions from Japan to the Ming (Senboku
Koko Shiryokan 1996). The Ming tribute missions were complex ventures with multiple
sponors for which the Sakai merchants acted as ambassadors for the Hosokawa family(Fukuoka Style 1993, pp. 38). In the tribute mission of 1451, 1200 persons traveled in theships and 350 travelled to the capital, Beijing (Ito 1998). Interests in the tribute missions
were held by the Five Great temples of Kyoto, the Sakai merchants, the Hosokawa familyof high ofﬁcials in Kyoto, and the merchants of the Ouchi clan in Hakata (Sakai Shi
Hakubutsukan 1993, pp. 8). In the latter half of the 15th century a self governing council
was established, At the height of its prosperity in the 16th century it was governed bya council of 36 prosperous merchants, three members carrying out the administrationin monthly rotation (Kiyonaga 1990, pp. 151). At that time, many communities had akind of autonomous governing council, responsible for the payment of taxes. Morris
states that Sakai’s governing council (egoshu) originated as a shrine guild. It was self
governing, as was the port of Hakata in Kyushu. Sakai also traded with Okinawa, which
was given preferential trade status with the Ming and had extensive connections with
Southeast Asia.
In addition to foreign trade, it was an important centre for casting weapons and guns
(late 16th century), salt production, and the making of ink stones. It was also a centre formaking gunpowder, which was made from saltpeter brought from Thailand (Senboku
Koko Shiryokan 1996, pp. 4), and was also a centre for the development of the tea
ceremony. The military role of Sakai is important, as well as its commercial and cultural
attributes. Sakai merchants were ultimately controlled by warriors since they were theonly group who could afford the services and luxuries of the city (Morris 1981, pp. 34).
The city underwent two episodes of destruction, the ﬁrst, at the time of the Oei
Disturbance (1399), ten thousand houses were destroyed in the central part of the town,
leaving a burnt earth layer. To cope with the threat of widespread disturbance and atakeover by the warrior Oda Nobunaga in 1569, the inhabitants began to build a moataround the main town, an area of one by three kilometers. The construction of the moat
follows the practice of other smaller medieval centres. Sakai did capitulate to Nobunagain 1569 but was not harmed, since it was valuable only when it was economically fully
functional. In 1615, at the time of consolidation of power of Tokugawa and the fall of
Osaka castle, the entire city of some twenty thousand houses, was destroyed, to berebuilt after the institution of a new survey and different land units (Fukuoka Style 1993,
pp. 36).
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Trade goods moving to China from Sakai included sulphur, copper, sword blades,gold screens and art objects. Goods from China included ceramics, craft work, medicine,books, paintings, and other Chinese objects. Sakai merchants were also involved with the
incense trade from southern China and Southeast Asia (Kiyonaga 1990, pp. 149). Sakai
was a center for metal casting and export; in the 14th century it was the shipping port for
special temple bells cast in the Tannan region of Kawachi, the plain to the west of Sakai,and the city itself was a centre for casting coins and weapons. It had access to silver andiron from Tajima in the Hyogo region. Buddhist texts, wood block printed in Sakai, werealso shipped from there (Fukuoka Style 1993, pp. 36; Kiyonaga 1990, pp. 153). Weavingof expensive types of cloth was also important and shuttles and spindles have been
recovered from archaeological sites of commercial goods. Warehousing was an important
activity of Sakai merchants (Watsky 2004, pp. 20).
Sakai merchants who also traded in weapons became patrons of the arts, sponsoring
the tea ceremony (Sen 1998). The merchant princes (gosho) of Sakai commanded thetechnology to circulate goods from Sakai to the Japanese hinterland and vice versa; theyﬁnanced the local (shugo) daimyo and shoen ofﬁcials at high interest rates, and they were
engaged in foreign trade. Moreover they had a bold entrepreneurial and independent
mentality (Kiyonaga 1990, pp. 151).

Sakai sites

Situated on the beach sands of Osaka Bay, Sakai contains archaeological deposits aboutfour metres deep. From excavation, the history of the site before the Nambokucho period
is not clear, although there are some scattered remains from the Kamakura, Heian, andNara periods. In 1962 archaeologists located the burned soil layer left by the destructionof the site in 1615, 1.5 metres below the present ground surface and in 1975 they began
excavations which continue to the present (Sakai 1997). Up to the present hundreds of
localities have been excavated. A few of the excavations are summarised below.

Commoners’ residential area

This excavation contained deposits from the ﬁre of 1615 and yielded a wooden slip
(mokkan) dating to Tensho 13 (1588). It appears to be part of a commoners’ residentialarea, containing a stone wall and a stratiﬁed deposit. Ceramics were: haji ware (small
plates, suribachi, and hibachi) 47 percent; Japanese wares (Bizen, Seto, Mino, Karatsu)
17.8 percent; Chinese and Korean ceramics, 8 percent; Minato (local) wares 16.5 percent;local tile wares (hibachi) 10.8 percent (SKT 19: Sakai Shi Kyoiku Iinkai 1984).

Small buildings

To the north and west of the central part of Sakai, in an area which shows no sign of© Japanese Archaeological Association

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the burning of 1399, there are the remains of small buildings with stone pillar bases,
along with wells and various kinds of pits. The artifacts include soft grey (kawara) warelarge mouth storage jars, and plates, and soft red (haji) and grey plates, These were used
for storage and serving food. Japanese hard ﬁred ceramics included Bizen ware, wide
mouth storage jars and shredding and mixing bowls (suribachi), Tamba bowls and Seto
bowls, plates, and jars. Chinese wares include white ware bowls and plates from Fujian,and celadon bowls, plates, and platters (chargers) from Longquan, Zhejiang (SKT 21, 61:
Sakai Shi Hakubutsukan 1993, pp. 89).

Warehouse site

A slightly elevated location, 4.4 metres above sea level, about ﬁfty metres from theshore at the time of occupation. The excavation in 1989 of about ﬁfty square metresin area exposed ﬁfteen layers, from the 18th century to the end of 14th century with a
total depth about ﬁve metres. The ﬁnding of a long narrow line of grey tile bricks forsupporting buildings indicates a group of warehouses near the shore. This type of grey
brick storehouse architecture has been found from the end of the 15th century. In Layer 4,
dating to the latter half of the 16th century, parts of a residential compound (yashiki) witha building facing a garden and a garden entrance (tsuri en) were recovered. In Layer 3
dating to 1615, there are warehouses and fragments of tea wares (Tsuchiyama 1996; SKT
39 Sakai Shi Hakubutsukan 1993, pp. 60).

Buildings destroyed in the ﬁre of 1615

This area yielded a two storey building containing many tea ceramics along with thefoundations of 8 other buildings all burned in 1615. One of the buildings, 6 m×7 m, had asunken ﬂoor paved with long rectangular grey tiles. On the east side of the building wasa two storey building with door and windows. It yielded burned and fallen plaster, a tea
grinding mortar, and red earth (kabe) for plastering the walls of a tea house as well as
the remains of a garden with a built up hill (chikuyama) (SKT 47).

Coin molds

Coin mold deposit (Sakai Shi Kyoiku Iinkai 1997) The 1991 excavation contained several
living surfaces dating from 1615 (layer 1) to the ﬁre of 1399 (level 7). Of the total of 3,
841 mold fragments recovered, there were two types: molds for thin plain coins (85%),and molds for inscribed coins (15%). The inscribed coins comprised 19 types, from Tang
to Northern Song. These types were produced in Sakai in the mid to late 16th century(Shimatani 1998) (SKT 78).

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Residential area of townspeople

There are seven living surfaces, dating from the early to middle 15th century to 1615.
Structures were small buildings set on supporting stone bases, along a road, with wells
encased in soft grey ware circular tiles. Water was stored in large Tokoname jars. From
Layer 5 there was evidence of long narrow tansaku lots. From Layer 3, Storage buildings
were found with each house (SKT 200: Tsuzuki 1994).

Writing hall

A large scale shoin type (writing hall) building, discovered in 2000. The ﬁnds reﬂectchanges in the tea ceremony, in which Sakai merchants began to use Japanese andSoutheast Asian wares, but retained their interest in Chinese wares. The ﬁnds included
Japanese Karatsu, Bizen, Mino, Shigaraki, Iga, Tamba, and Raku Wares; Chinese
blue and white from Zhangzhou and Jingdezhen, white wares, celadons, overglaze
enamelled, Huanan Three Color, and brown wares; and Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese
wares (Kanazawa 2004). This site exempliﬁes the trend toward the ‘grass hut style” oftea ceremony, a less elaborate form removed from warrior elite control, and featuring
Japanese and Southeast Asian as well as Chinese ceramics (Sleusser 2004).

Tea master’s tea house and warehouse

Architectural remains include a tea house and storage area. There were about 500
ceramic vessels, all burned, comprising imported ceramics (61%), Japanese ceramics(25%), and local earthenware (14%). Many of the food serving vessels are Chinese blue
and white while the storage vessels are Japanese (SB 301: Sakai Shi Hakubutsukan 1993,
pp. 63–64).

Nucleation and urbanisation

East-west transects of Sakai prepared by Tsuzuki (1994, pp. 66–67) show four stages ofdevelopment from the mid to late 15th centuries to 1615. Warehouses begin to replacesmall houses along the front road by Osaka Bay in the late 15th century. Tea houses werebuilt near the warehouses. An agricultural zone can be seen in the western side, inside
the moat, in the 16th century but by the early 17th century part of this zone has beentransformed to craft industries such as casting.

Evidence of trade

Sakai was one of the premier trading ports in medieval Japan. Linked to the central
government and to the heartland of Yamato, it had a particular commercial and ﬁnancialrole. The ceramics found in Sakai illustrate its importance as a local and international
center. From SKT 39 and other sites, Chinese ceramics were extremely popular up to© Japanese Archaeological Association

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Figure 3.

Trade ceramics from Sakai (from Morimura 1998)

the time of the conﬂagration of 1615, comprising sixty percent of the assemblage (Figure3). Other ceramics were Japanese Bizen and Karatsu. After 1615, Imari comprised about
30% of the ceramics and Chinese ceramics declined to about thirty percent. In otherlocalities Chinese ceramics were about 30%, while Bizen and Karatsu comprised seventy
percent.
Shifts in the ceramics used in the tea ceremony in Sakai reﬂect general changes intaste and the availability of Chinese objects (Senboku Koko Shiryokan 1996). Up to theend of the 14th century, Chinese white wares, celadon, and temmoku were the primary tea
utensils. In the late 15th century, Murata Shuko, the pre-eminent tea master, developed
new fashions in tea consumption, favouring Japanese ceramics such as Bizen and© Japanese Archaeological Association

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Shigaraki as well as Fujian celadon (Sen 1998, pp. 159–160). Despite his inﬂuence Sakai
merchants continued to use Ming ceramics until the latter half of the 16th century. From
the ﬁrst half of the 15th century to the ﬁrst half of the 16th century, celadon comprisedﬁfty to sixty percent of the ceramics from Sakai, and white wares, twenty to thirty
percent. From the latter half of the 16th century, blue and white, which had been scarce
up to that time, increased, comprising sixty percent of the trade ceramics at the end of
the 16th century and the early 17th century. It was used not only for the tea ceremony but
also for daily eating utensils.

The development of new economic institutions

The mercantile and ﬁnancial role of the Sakai merchants can be seen in the ﬁndingof baked clay coin molds in SKT 78. The total number of Chinese and other Asiancoins from the Sakai excavations is over 2,279,000. Plain coins of the type made in
Sakai have been found in sites from Hokkaido to Okinawa. They have a higher copper
content than some Chinese or Korean coins. The inscribed coins are thinner than theirChinese counterparts and the casting is rougher. Coin molds have been found in Kyoto,
Kamakura, Hakata, and Sakai, but only Sakai has produced the plain type (Shimatani
1998). Yamamura (1990, pp. 385) has addressed the question of why the Kyoto
government did not mint coins in the 14th and 15th centuries. He states that Japan did notconstitute a full ﬂedged nation state in the international community: it remained a part ofthe political economic sphere dominated by China. After the 9th century the government
did not command the political power to have coins accepted and used nationally.

Changes in social classes

Differences in the scale of residential sites within Sakai indicate the emergence of the
Sakai merchants, often referred to as merchant princes (gosho). These sites have higher
proportions of foreign ceramics. The appearance of large warehouses in the 16th century
along the coastal road also indicates the ability of Sakai merchants to control large
inventories and to arrange for their shipment. Tsuzuki (1994, pp. 91) states that similar
warehouses developed in Kyoto but at a later date.

Changes in land tenure and local government

There is little archaeological evidence for the rise of the political independence of Sakaiand the development of the ruling council. However, following the destruction of the cityin 1615 new land divisions were instituted by the Tokugawa government and these can beseen in some structures which post date 1615.

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JAPANESE MEDIEVAL TRADING TOWNSThe northern centre of Tosaminato and the territory of the Ando clan

The extreme northern part of Honshu constituted the edge of Japanese power for
many centuries. Japan’s northern frontier, Hokkaido, lay beyond the boundaries of the
ritsuryo state. The consolidation of political control by the central government took
many centuries. Although there were Hokkaido style kofun tumuli in the 7th and 8th
centuries, which have yielded iron agricultural implements and iron weapons, there is noevidence of political control from the Kinai centre. Sato (1994) mentions the importanceof maritime communication routes in the Ancient period (7th to 11th centuries). In the
Tohoku region, groups of villages (mura) supported fortiﬁed centres ( jo) and tribute andtrade with the Yamato state ﬂourished. Yamato attempted to prohibit private trade fromtime to time (Sato 1994, pp. 76). Northern products included ﬁne horses, hawks, sea
mammal skins, bear skins, and sea weed.
Fukushima-jo, a large site earlier than Tosaminato, is located on the northern shore
of Lake Jusan (Senda 1994). Thought to date to the 10th–11th centuries, it is triangular inarea, about one kilometre on each side and 625,000 square metres in area. It has innerand outer enclosures. The eastern side of the outer enclosure has an earth rampart twelve
to thirteen metres wide and three to four metres high, extending for one kilometre, while
the inner enclosure is rectangular, two hundred metres on each side, with a moat andrampart. While there are no historical sources concerning the site it is thought to havebeen built by the East Branch of the Ando clan (Sato 1994, pp. 78). Sato states that its
defensive works were built on the same scale as those of Dazaifu, the centre for tradewith Korea and China, located in northern Kyushu. There are several other medieval
sites on the south shore of Lake Jusan such as the Karakawa site (Aomori Ken 1996, pp.
6) which has a rampart and ditch, two groups of semi subterranean pit dwellings, pillarbases, stone steps, and the remains of a ﬁve storey pagoda. The emergence of the Andoclan as key players in the northern trade indicates a shift in social classes in the region
and the development of new economic institutions. The Ando clan was originally ofindigenous Emishi (Ainu) origin (Sakakibara 1996, 2001, pp. 27).
At the beginning of the 11th century, internal lug clay cauldrons and external lugiron cauldrons appear in Tohoku while in Hokkaido, Satsumon pottery declines and is
replaced by internal lug pottery which spread from Tohoku. Other changes reﬂecting
inﬂuence from Tohoku include the adoption of iron tools for making wooden eatingutensils and a shift from semi subterranean dwellings to houses on the ground surface, as
well as a shift from a baked clay ﬁreplace at the edge of the house (kamado) to a sunken
hearth. Suzu ceramics, produced in the Noto Peninsula area of the Japan Sea Coast,
have been recovered from this and later time periods. In the 14th and 15th centuries, theperiod of the control of northern coastal trade by the Ando clan based at Tosaminato,
the Japanese became established along the southern Hokkaido coast. Other trading forts© Japanese Archaeological Association

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were built at that time. As mentioned in the introductory section, very large caches ofcoins have been found in Hokkaido, indicating vigorous trade and the accumulation ofmonetary wealth.
There was a struggle in the mid 15th century for control of the Tsugaru Peninsula by
the Ando and Nanbu clans. The traditional region of the Nanbu lay to the south of theAndo. The Ainu offered strong resistance to Japanese incursions in the 16th century, thetime of the Koshiamuin Uprising. As the Matsumae clan attempted to establish control
in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ainu built fortiﬁed sites termed chasi. Over 25 of thesesites are known.

The Tosaminato site

The Tosaminato site is situated at the northern tip of Honshu, on the northwest shore of
the Tsugaru Penuinsula, where the Iwaki River empties into Lake Jusan, a lagoon witha narrow opening to the Sea of Japan (Figure 4). The site is located on a long sand bar
running north to south. Encompassing 550,00 sq m, it has been the scene of more thana decade of excavations, and the topic of symposia (Kokuritsu 1994) and exhibitions(Kokuritsu 1998b). Excavations by the National Museum of History and Folklore were
undertaken in 1991 to 1993 and further excavations were undertaken by Shiura Townshipand the Aomori Prefectural Board of Education in 1995 and 1996 (Aomori 1996, 1998a,b) as as well as Toyama University (Shiura 1998).

Regional nucleation

Extending east to west across the peninsula is a rampart with a large ditch on its
southern side, which divided the site into two parts. To the north of the rampart was
the Ando clan residence, protected by another ditch one hundred metres to the north ofthe main ditch. Although east and west ditches have not been found, it is very probablethat the Ando residence was surrounded by ditches which formed a rectangle of about
one hundred metres. This has been determined by remote sensing (Senda 1994, pp.
56–59). Excavations in 1993 in this area yielded evidence of pit dwellings believed tohave belonged to artisans. The main ditch ﬁll contained Suzu ceramics dating to the
14th century. Uno (1994, pp. 113) mentions that very small quantities of 9th and 10th
century ceramics have been found in Tosaminato, suggesting that the site was notentirely unpopulated at this time. In the 11th and 12th centuries the trading sphere ofeastern Japan, including Hokkaido, expanded. Uno (1994, pp. 132) states that there were
important links between Taga Jo (castle), Hiraizumi, and Fukushima-jo. Fuksuhima-jofunctioned more as an armed garrison outpost than as a trading post (Miura 1994). In the
12th century the trade goods from eastern Japan were circulating throughout all of Japanand Tosaminato played a role in this trend.
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Figure 4.

Map of the Tosaminato Site. (adapted from Saito Toshio 1994)

The western side of the sand bar faces a narrow stretch of water separated from theJapan Sea by a beach and sand dunes. In medieval times ships entered this channel,
which was deeper than at present, or waited near its access to the Sea of Japan, to thesouth of the site. On the side of the sand bar lies the large lagoon, Lake Jusan, also called
the Back Lagoon (Ushirokata).
Excavations areas 5, 7, 8, 9, 18, and 96 were devoted to the area of the Ando clan’sresidence and headquarters. The excavators uncovered pits, posts, planking, the remainsof a post built building, a well, pit houses, some of which appear to have been used forblacksmithing, indicating that craftsmen were working in this area. Artifacts from thisarea date from the 13th to the ﬁrst half of the 15th centuries, the most active period being
the latter half of the 14th and the early 15th centuries. To the north of the area of the Ando
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residence is the area of the retainers’ quarters (Localities 10, 11, 15, 16, and 74; Saito
1994). To the northeast of the retainers’ area there may have been long narrow ﬁelds inthe tansaku pattern (Maekawa 2001, pp. 5). A major road running north to south, 7.2
metres wide, was located, as well as an east to west road 2.7 metres wide. In addition
to the roads remains of buildings suggest a dense concentration of irregular structures
which are thought to be merchants’ quarters. Dating of this area is similar to the Andoheadquarters.
The third area, (Localities 6, 17, and 71) is comprised of individual houses (yashiki)
built with posts set in the ground and bounded by fences and ditches, which faced acentral north to south road. Artifacts were dated from the end of the 14th century to theﬁrst half of the 15th century. Roads from the south of the site led to the Myojin Shrine
and the Tanrinji Temple. Amino (1994, pp. 24) notes that Jishu Buddhist and Hiyoshi
Jinja Shinto networks were established along the Japan Sea coast. The Machiya Area,
Area 3, yielded evidence of long narrow land divisions of the tansaku type. As Area 3
developed in the 15th century, Tosaminato assumed an urban appearance (Aomori Ken
1996, pp. 8).

Evidence for increased trade

The site yielded a density of hard ﬁred ceramics which was higher than the norm
for Tohoku and Hokkaido. These ceramics included Seto, Suzu, Tokoname, Echizen,
earthenware (chusei haji), Koryo ceramics and Chinese white, celadon, and brown wares(Suzuki 1998a, 1998b). From the Ando residence, luxury ceramics included Seto andceladon incense burners and tenmoku bowls. Glass beads found in the Ando headquarters
are found in many northern trade sites. Suzuki notes that abundant abalone shells andhearths that may have been used for boiling them are found in the Shimokita region of
Aomori Prefecture. Abalone shell may have been traded from Tosaminato to the central
parts of Japan (Suzuki 1998b, pp. 24).
The Port Area was tested by an excavation in 2000 (Locality 4: Sakakibara 2001).
This area is located on the northwest side of the peninsula on the Fore Lagoon side. The
shoreline was artiﬁcially faced with gravel for a distance of about two hundred metresand there are posts from a wharf, as well as round logs, perhaps for hauling up smallboats. In the gravel layer, Chinese celadon, Suzu, and Seto wares dating mostly from theﬁrst half of the 15th century were recovered.
The internal plan of Tosaminato comes from a proto type established in Kyoto andrepeated in Kamakura and smaller communities such as Kusado Sengencho—a shrine in
the extreme north, elite residences in the northern areas, commercial and factory areas
further to the south and major east-west and north-south roads (Uno 1994, pp. 122).
Tosaminato was superceded by the Katsuyama Kan, built by the Muto Clan on the© Japanese Archaeological Association

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Watarishima Peninsula of Hokkaido. It ﬂourished from the second half of the 15th
century to the end of the 16th century. Consisting of buildings on three ﬂat areas on aslope, divided by a ditch and surrounded by a stockade, it yielded large quantities ofChinese ceramics, as well as many tea containers and tea bowls (Miura 1994). In thelate 16th century Kakizaki Yoshihiro, the local lord who controlled the southern tip of
the Oshima Peninsula, Hokkaido, accepted the expanding authority of the military ruler
Hideyoshi. In 1599 he aligned with the Tokugawa, and assumed the family name of
Matsumae. The Matsumae clan was granted control of the trade in marine products andother resources of the northern territory, which was called Ezo (Totman 2000, pp. 219).

Discussion
Two medieval trading communities with different political economies provide glimpseof life at the center and periphery of town life in mediaeval Japan. Each is embedded ina local context built up through long spans of history. In addition to having a common
Japanese cultural background they are linked by the circulation of Chinese goods anddiverse relations to a central power in Kyoto. Trade routes extending from them tothe north and south and to mainland Asia show dramatically that the Japanese Islands
consisted of a series of interlocking open systems.
Sakai, the major port for the central power in Kyoto, had several sectors. Domestic
and foreign trade were important. The tribute missions to Ming were important ﬁnancial
projects for Sakai merchants, who were ﬁnanciers. High quality casting and printing areevidence of a skilled, intensive, manufacturing centre. A distinctive elite culture can also
be seen.
In Tosaminato the Ando clan, an indigenous elite group. lived in a rectangularcompound with retainers and attached craftsmen. Resources from the northern maritime
regions were the major commodities and the site has a clearly demarcated mercantile
component.

Acknowledgements
I offer hearty thanks to Dr Simon Kaner and the Sainsbury Institute for a stimulating
conference and the enthusiastic exchange of information and ideas. Mr. Morimura
Ken’ichi of the Sakai City Board of Education, and Prof. Ono Masatoshi of the Japanese
National Museum of History have been particularly helpful in making information
available to me. I also thank the members of the Shiura Board of Education, Aomori, formaking available many sources concerning Tosaminato.

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