Martin Dusinberre
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835248
- eISBN:
- 9780824871819
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835248.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter explores how the people of Kaminoseki and Murotsu saw, in the “beautiful” harbor that formed to the west of the straits, an opportunity. Their landscape could generate money, and by the ...
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This chapter explores how the people of Kaminoseki and Murotsu saw, in the “beautiful” harbor that formed to the west of the straits, an opportunity. Their landscape could generate money, and by the time of Scottish botanist Robert Fortune's visit in 1860, the villagers had perfected a complex money-making system. The chapter then notes how the nascent decline of Kaminoseki and Murotsu as a port of trade and commerce was further aggravated by the impact of domestic political reform and international trade on the local economy. It is safe to say that the beginning of the ports' decline resulted from the fact that kitamae-ships were in terminal downtrend by the late 1880s. The phrase “backwater Japan” had been coined to describe the Japan Sea prefectures in which ship ownership had formerly been concentrated.Less
This chapter explores how the people of Kaminoseki and Murotsu saw, in the “beautiful” harbor that formed to the west of the straits, an opportunity. Their landscape could generate money, and by the time of Scottish botanist Robert Fortune's visit in 1860, the villagers had perfected a complex money-making system. The chapter then notes how the nascent decline of Kaminoseki and Murotsu as a port of trade and commerce was further aggravated by the impact of domestic political reform and international trade on the local economy. It is safe to say that the beginning of the ports' decline resulted from the fact that kitamae-ships were in terminal downtrend by the late 1880s. The phrase “backwater Japan” had been coined to describe the Japan Sea prefectures in which ship ownership had formerly been concentrated.
