遠洋漁船日東丸

About this photo

This photograph shows the Nitto Maru, a deep-sea fishing boat from Miyako, Iwate Prefecture. This reading of the boat's name is likely but not certain. It appears in Togu Gyokei Kinen Shashincho (Photo Album Commemorating the Crown Prince's Visit), published in 1908 (Meiji 41) by Iwate Prefecture's welcoming committee. That year the Crown Prince, later Emperor Taisho, toured the Tohoku region and stayed five days in Morioka. The album commemorates that visit, called a gyokei.

Miyako is a port town at the mouth of the Hei River, and in the Edo period the Nanbu domain kept ships there. In 1897 the government passed the Deep-Sea Fishing Encouragement Act, which paid subsidies to people using Western-style sailing ships or steamships for fishing, to promote fishing in distant waters. The title does not tell us what kind of boat the Nitto Maru was or where it fished.

In 1927 Miyako Port was designated a second-class major port, and it is still one of the leading ports on the Sanriku coast. It is known as a fishing port with large landings of salmon and cod.

Glossary