I visited Mitsuo Washisaka (88), who was born and raised here. The warehouse along the Isatsu River is lined with all kinds of fishing gear used for coastal fishing. Gill nets, bottom trawling nets, sea cucumber nets, longlines, and more. Mr. Washisaka, who used to go fishing with his father when he was young, said, "I used to spend all my time in the bay without needing to go out to sea. I can get to the fishing grounds easily with nothing more than a small one-person boat. This is a sea of treasure." He told me fascinating stories while checking his fishing nets.

The nutrients supplied by the river are also abundant, and many fish come to Maizuru Bay to lay their eggs. In spring, Japanese Spanish mackerel and Japanese sea bass also come into the bay after shirome (young sardines). Black porgy (sea bream) and flatheads can also be caught with gill nets. Sand shrimp catches are good in the summer, as well as squid and Spanish mackerel in the fall, and longline pike conger eel and conger eel in the winter. "If I dig a little into the seabed, I can catch a lot of torigai {shellfish delicacy} and littleneck clams." Life in Maizuru has always centered around the bay. Winter on the Sea of ​​Japan side has always been rough due to strong weather-fronts from the northwest, but Maizuru Bay is surrounded by mountains and doesn’t have to worry about waves. No one goes diving because all they had to do is use nets from their boats. There was also a market in the village so there was no need to travel to markets to sell the hauls. When he was young, Mr. Washisaka took a position on a trawling boat to Okinoshima, but he returned to gillnet fishing in Maizuru bay because of the long hours required on the trawling boat. People have moved to Yoshiwara from all over the country because they could live a stable life. There were 600 full-time fishermen in the era during a time when occupations were split just about 50-50 between farming and fishing.

The will to never give up may be inherent to the nature of fishermen.

After hearing that, I headed to the Tanabe Castle Museum in Maizuru City. Director Hiroyuki Yoshioka, who has studied the history of Maizuru, expanded the picture of the Warring States period. The time is 1600. Hosokawa Fujitaka (Yusai), who was lord of Tanabe Castle, decides to hold off a siege with only 500 people while being surrounded by the western army that was heading for Sekigahara. The picture depicts the layout.

It was the people of Yoshiwara who were very active during this lopsided siege. At that time, they lived on the beach at the northern end of the castle town, which was called “Reushi (fisherman) Town.” When the siege started, they secretly entered the castle from the sea at midnight and played a role in delivering fish and food to soldiers. The one-and-a-half-month siege battle was ended by a decree from the Emperor himself three days before the Battle of Sekigahara. The 15,000 troops who had tried to lay siege to the castle were held up in this area and couldn’t participate in the larger war, and the East Army led by Ieyasu Tokugawa won. As a result of the successful siege defense, Hosokawa gave the fishermen in the castle area the privilege of freely fishing the territory.

There is no "Reushi Town" in the siege picture. Mr. Yoshioka says, "Fishermen probably lived side by side in shacks like in other parts of Southeast Asia." In the Edo period, the family register was managed by the local temple. But up until that point in time, people could change their residence freely. Fishermen without land to maintain could go anywhere across the sea without being tied to a particular area. But the fishermen of "Reushi Town," who helped the Tanabe clan, were able to fish and settle in the rich Maizuru Bay because they had the favor of the castle owner. Move to 100 years later. "Yoshiwara Town" is written on the picture of the castle, and there are also buildings depicted. Mr. Yoshioka says, "While the castle town was prospering, these people of the sea would have gained citizenship and blended into the town of Maizuru."

In 1727, in the middle of the Edo period, Yoshiwara was indicated as the source of a fire that burned down half of the castle town, and the castle’s lord called for the relocation of a group to the opposite bank of the Isatsu River. After the Meiji Restoration, the pioneering people of Yoshiwara made it possible to sell fish where their boats landed and also created a fish wholesaler.

The railway to Osaka opened in 1897, when the Russo-Japanese War began, which extended to the Maizuru Port area. When it became possible to sell yellowtail and other processed products to larger consumption areas, distribution and fishery processing companies started investing, and the "Yoshiwara Fisheries Joint Stock Company" became a forerunner in the Kyoto prefecture fishery industry. But around the time the railway opened, a military port had been established (1891) in Maizuru Bay, making it impossible to fish freely. This marked the beginning of offshore fishing in the area.

From the Taisho era to the early Showa era, bottom trawling boats and purse seine fishing boats were introduced, and Yoshihara grew into one of the leading fishing ports in Japanese waters. Naoaki Harada of the Fisheries Division of Maizuru City said, "The reason why we were able to make a big investment at this time was probably because we were the first to organize the fishing industry and build a distribution system."

The sea worthiness of the dugout canoe was unexpectedly proven in 2019, in part thanks to the "Where did the Japanese come from?" Project that anthropologists and archaeologists have been working on. The dugout canoe model was adopted for an experiment where people would travel 200 km from Taiwan to Okinawa / Yonaguni Island in a dugout canoe made using the same tools and technology they had 30,000 years ago. Maizuru City has a replica boat that was made with citizens in 2006. The project came to Maizuru in 2017, floated a replica boat, and conducted a test-voyage to Kanmuri Island in Wakasa Bay. Confident after their success on Wakasa Bay, the team had no trouble making the 200km sea voyage.

Residents are also beginning to unbury the area’s history.

A 100-year-old public bathhouse called "Hinodeyu" in Yoshiwara, was started during an era when people didn’t have private baths at home, and so a public bath that warms the body after spending the day cold at sea was indispensable. At dusk, on any given day, about 50 people would be watching professional wrestling in a group in front of the TV set on the dirt floor. Now, Hinodeyu is expected to be registered as a national tangible cultural property soon, and the neighborhood still gathers here. Ichiro Takahashi (72), who runs Hinodeyu, was an elementary school teacher, but one day he wanted to find out about the history of Yoshiwara, where he was born and raised.

“Both my childhood friends and seniors are getting older.” In July 2020, Mr. Takahashi created the "Yaochi Club" to study local history. Mr. Takahashi was interviewed when he started exploring the local history.

“The ancestors of people living here cooperated in the siege battle of Tanabe Castle and became members of the castle town, and the uncovered remains of an ancient boat was connected to the dugout canoe of 6000 years ago. Everything is a series of surprises. I want to know more, I want to keep searching!”

Yoshihara Elementary School has a memorial magazine that was created on the 100-year anniversary of its founding, and has a thick appendix. It is a memento of posterity. Mr. Takahashi says, "It's only five years until the 150th anniversary of the school’s founding. We want to expand our circle of friends learning across generations and create a continuation of the commemorative magazine together."

The fishermen of the castle, the people of Yoshiwara, were pioneers of the fishing industry in Kyoto. The driving force of the area’s development may very well be the pioneering spirit inherited by the people of the sea. The school song of Yoshihara Elementary School has the following line, "I'm going to raise the flag of autonomy.” What were the ancestors of Yoshiwara thinking when they wrote this song? The journey to explore its roots are just beginning.