East and West

We often take the Inland Sea as one region, but the region didn’t have one history in the Age of Provincial Wars. There had been two historical trends. One was a trend around Kinai region, while the other is a trend in a region which had a close relation with the Northern and the Eastern areas in Kyushu. We can divide the Inland Sea region into 2 sub-regions. The western borderlands of the first region are Bicchu in today’s Chugoku district and Nii County in Iyo in today’s Shikoku district. The second region lies west to the borderlands. The first region is called East Inland Sea Area, and the second is called West Inland Sea Area, respectively. The East Inland Sea Area has two large seaports, Hyogo (in today’s Kobe City) in Settsu and Sakai (in today’s Sakai City) in Izumi, which are most well-known Japanese seaports in the world. Hosokawa clan, which produced Shogunate aides, wielded power in those two seaports, and enjoyed close relationships with the cities. Ships and boats from the two ports go through the Kitan Strait or the Akashi Strait first. Around those straits, there used to be powerful pirates on the watch for those vessels. Around the Kitan Strait, the Manabe Clan and the Tan’nowa Clan in Izumi and the Kan Clan in Awaji were well-known, and, around the Akashi Strait, Ishii Clan in today’s Akashi was famous. In the West Inland Sea Area, Onomichi in Bingo and Itsukushima in Aki used to be famous as ports of call, and Tomo-no-ura, or the Tomo Inlet, (in today’s Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture) in Bingo were especially important since it was prosperous as a junction between the East and West Inland Sea Areas. The port is located at the rear end of an inlet at the southern tip of the peninsular which juts out into the Sea of Hiuchi-nada. It is a good port between a hill and Taiga Island, a tied-island which is attached to the hill with a sandbar. The inlet is serene and a port town had been located from the ancient time there. A sea current runs into the Bungo Channel eastward into the Sea of Iyo-nada according to the tide. Another sea current runs into the Kitan Channel westward into the Sea of Harima-nada according to another tide. The Tomo Inlet is located at the meeting point of the two sea current, and ships and boats utilizing the currents used to gather here waiting for a next current. It used to be a node of distribution network in Western Japan, and attracted information quickly as well. Tomo-no-ura used to be a port town deeply related to Muromachi Shogunate, or Ashikaga Clan. For example, at the very start of the shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji, its founder, stopped at Komatsu-dera Temple here on his way to strike back to Kyoto from Kyushu. Ashikaga Tadafuyu, Takauji’s son, came down here to Ogajima Castle as a governor of Chugoku district. Down during the Age of Provincial Wars, the 10th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiki (later renamed Yoshitane) was removed and expelled by Hosokawa Masamoto, but returned back to Kyoto from Yamaguchi to be re-appointed as a shogunate under the support of Ouchi Yoshioki. He called at the port on his way back to Kyoto. The 15th shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshiaki exiled himself here, appointed Mori Clan as a vice-shogunate, opened “Tomo Shogunate” as a base of anti-Nobunaga forces, and ordered war lords in Western Japan to work for his return to Kyoto. These examples tell us that Tomo-no-ura used to attract national attention at the beginning of Muromachi Era and at the end of the Age of Provincial Wars.