備後尾ノ道港

About this photo

This photo shows Onomichi Harbor in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. It appears in Nihon Fukei Fuzoku Shashincho (Photo Album of Japanese Scenery and Customs), published in 1910 (Meiji 43) by the photographer Ogawa Kazumasa. The Japanese title uses Bingo, the old name of the province covering the eastern half of Hiroshima Prefecture, and an old way of writing Onomichi.

Onomichi is a port town on the Onomichi Channel, a narrow strait between the mainland and Mukaishima island. Its history as a port is said to begin in 1169 (Kao 1), in the Heian period, when it was approved as the port for shipping out rice paid as taxes from Ota-no-sho, an estate in the mountains. In the Edo period it flourished as a port of call for kitamaebune, merchant ships sailing the Sea of Japan, and wealthy merchants built temples and improved the town.

Onomichi became a city in 1898, and its hillsides are still crowded with temples and houses, one above another. In 2015 it was recognized as a Japan Heritage site under the theme of a miniature garden city shaped by the Onomichi Channel since medieval times, and National Treasures such as the main hall of Jodoji temple survive here.

Glossary