Chronicle of Hekinan

Chapter One

The Sea Road — Ōhama Port and the Cargo Ships That Linked Edo

第一章 — 海の道・大浜湊と廻船がつないだ江戸

Introduction — Why "the Power to Carry" Decided the Culture

In the prologue, we saw that the land of Hekinan was chosen for brewing by its terrain. But good water and abundant rice alone would not have nurtured a brewing culture of this scale. Without the means to deliver what was made to a great market that would buy it — "the power to carry" — fermentation would have ended in the self-sufficiency of one locality.

What lifted Hekinan's brewing from a local produce into one of Japan's foremost cultures was the sea. The "sea road" that joined Hekinan to the vast city of Edo — the story of the cargo ships — is the very key to understanding this land's fermentation. In this chapter we wish to depict how what the ships carried was not cargo alone, but culture itself.

I. Ōhama — Where Sea, River and Land Meet

Ōhama, the heart of present-day Hekinan, was in the Edo period a hub of distribution opening onto Kinuura Bay.

The "Ōhama road," running from Ōhama through Okazaki and Toyota and out toward Shinshū, is said to have been opened in the Kamakura period, and was an important route for carrying salt and seafood inland.1 In the Edo period, brewing trades — soy sauce, miso, sake, mirin — and the tile trade developed throughout this area, and the shipping that carried them to Edo flourished. Thus Ōhama became a hub of distribution where the roads of sea, river and land met, a rich land where people, goods, wealth and information gathered.1

Even now, in the temple quarter of Ōhama, imposing temples and shrines stand in rows, and an old aspect remains — black-boarded storehouses and residences, intricate lanes.1 These are the memory of the wealth that once flowed into this land. That the scene of a prosperity brought by fermentation can still be traced on foot, here in the twenty-first century, is what makes Ōhama a rare place.

II. The Bishū Cargo Fleet — A Maritime Body Born of the Chita Peninsula

What carried Hekinan's fermentation to Edo was a shipping body called the Bishū kaisen — the cargo fleet of Owari province.

The Bishū fleet was a body of cargo ships that flourished from the late Edo period into the Meiji era, based on the Chita peninsula of Owari.2 Taking as their bases the various places of the Chita peninsula — Ōno, Noma, Tokoname, Utsumi, Handa, Kamezaki — they spread along the Pacific side of Honshū, weaving between the higaki-kaisen and the taru-kaisen. They carried, in the main, the shipping that joined Kamigata, the Ise Bay region, and Edo; and by 1857 the body was so vast as to hold as many as two hundred and fifty ships.2

Here Hekinan enters. The ships of Handa and Kamezaki often acted jointly with shipowners on the opposite shore — Kariya, Takahama, Ōhama (Hekinan) — and carried the brewed goods made along the shores of Kinuura Bay — sake, vinegar, mirin — and tiles, to Edo.3 Hekinan's fermentation thus rode the maritime network of the Bishū fleet and was delivered to the tables of Edo.

And here is the economic essence of the Bishū fleet. They were not mere carriers who took cargo in trust and earned a freight charge. They bought the goods for themselves at the place of production, carried them to where they could be sold dear, and gained the margin of the trade — this method is called kaizumi, "buy-and-carry."2 The shipowner was himself a merchant, reading the market, bearing the risk, and winning the profit. The cargo ship was a speculative enterprise that crossed the sea.

III. The "Sea Road" Gave Birth to Industry

Here, to the question raised in the prologue, an answer returns from the side of shipping.

In the Edo period, the volume of goods in circulation increased by leaps. The Bishū fleet, based on the Chita peninsula, widened its range of voyages in the eighteenth century and came to hold a great place within a nationwide network of distribution.3 And — the development, along the shores of Kinuura Bay at Handa, Kamezaki and elsewhere, of manufactures such as sake, vinegar and tiles aimed at the vast Edo market, came about precisely because there was a "sea road" that the ships joined.3

This single sentence strikes the heart of Hekinan's fermentation culture. It was not that fermentation came first and the ships then carried it. It was because the means to carry — the sea road — existed that a brewing industry aimed at a vast market developed. The terrain gave rice and water; the sea gave the road to market. When these two meshed, Hekinan's fermentation leapt from a local produce into "a culture that sustained the food of Edo."

At each base of the Bishū fleet, shipowners and captains formed associations and set rules for trade and for the conduct of crews, seeking, as autonomous bodies, to win the trust of consignors and trading partners.3 Shipping and brewing stood in a relation of mutual support. In the village of Shimo-Handa, on the ridge plaques of Nariha Shrine, in a quarter where brewing storehouses stood in rows, the names of shipowners and captains were carved in great number alongside those of brewers, and the portable shrine is said to have been donated by the captains of twenty-six ships, who pooled the funds.3 The people of the sea and the people of fermentation — each upheld the other, and together made the region itself stand.

IV. The Vast Market of Edo and the "Goods from Above"

What kind of market was Edo, the destination at which Hekinan's fermentation aimed?

In the Edo period, the shogunate-sanctioned higaki-kaisen plied regularly between Osaka and Edo, carrying the goods of the home provinces and the western lands to Edo and meeting its demand.4 In time the taru-kaisen, which dealt specially in the Kamigata sake prized in Edo, broke away from the higaki-kaisen, and transport grew livelier still.4 In the late Edo period, it is said the passage from Osaka to Edo took six to twelve days.5

In those days Kyoto and Osaka were called "Kamigata" (the upper region); to go toward them was to "go up," and to move away was to "go down."5 The people of Edo called the cargo coming from Osaka "goods come down from Kamigata" — kudarimono — and prized them greatly, holding them of higher quality than the wares around Edo.5

Hekinan's fermentation — above all the sweet, mellow mirin, and the white soy sauce that draws out an ingredient — was honed toward this vast market, an "Edo where the genuine gathered." Quality was pursued not for local self-sufficiency, but to be chosen by a great consuming centre of discerning eyes. This structure — "honing the genuine toward a great market outside" — resonates quietly with the way Hekinan's fermentation turns toward the world today.

V. What the Ships Carried Was Culture

Let us close the first chapter.

The "sea road" that carried Hekinan's fermentation to Edo was no mere distribution. Ōhama, the node of sea, river and land.1 The Bishū fleet, a vast shipping body born of the Chita peninsula.2 The spirit of kaizumi, in which shipowners themselves, as merchants, met the market.2 And the inseparable relation of carriage and production, whereby the vast Edo market gave birth to a brewing industry precisely because the "sea road" existed.3

When all of these are bound together, one fact comes into view. What the ships carried was not cargo alone — sake, vinegar, mirin. It was the work of carrying the very culture that the land of Hekinan had brewed over time, to Edo, and thence throughout Japan.

The cargo ship was, as it were, "fermentation that travels." Fermentation, which ought to be rooted to the land and not to move, crosses the sea and journeys. The unmoving, and the moving. To take root, and to travel. That these two were bound into one in Hekinan is the oldest source of the theme — "the journey" — that this endeavour holds aloft.

In the next chapter, we move our brush to the most emblematic produce those ships carried — to mirin itself. How did a sweet wine change the Japanese table? We wish to trace the story of that invention.

Notes & Sources

This is the first chapter of the Chronicle of Hekinan (white paper). The facts stated rest on the sources cited. On the Bishū fleet and the history of cargo ships, more specialised secondary and primary sources exist — such as researcher interviews in issue 25 of Mizu no Bunka, the journal of the Mizkan Water Culture Centre — and corroboration by cargo-ship records particular to Ōhama and Hekinan (municipal histories, shipowner-family documents, etc.) will be reinforced in future revisions.

Footnotes

  1. "Shall We Walk? Let's Walk the Ōhama Road!," Kenporen Aichi (on the Ōhama road opened in the Kamakura period carrying salt and seafood to Shinshū, the development of brewing and tile trades and shipping in the Edo period, Ōhama becoming a hub of sea-, river- and land-distribution, and the storehouses, residences and lanes that remain in the Ōhama temple quarter). https://kenporen-aichi.jp/shallwewalk_ohama ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. "Bishū Kaisen," Wikipedia (on the cargo-ship body based on the Chita peninsula from the late Edo period into Meiji; the bases of Ōno, Noma, Tokoname, Utsumi, Handa and Kamezaki; their spread between the higaki- and taru-kaisen; the Kamigata–Ise Bay–Edo shipping; the scale of 250 ships in 1857; and the kaizumi method). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/尾州廻船 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Shōkakutei Bunko special exhibition "Handa Opening onto the Sea — Ports and Cargo Ships" (2011) (on the ships of Handa and Kamezaki acting jointly with shipowners of Kariya, Takahama and Ōhama on the opposite shore and carrying the brewed goods [sake, vinegar, mirin] and tiles of the Kinuura shores to Edo; on manufactures aimed at the vast Edo market developing because of the "sea road"; on the widening voyage-range of the Bishū fleet; on the associations and rules of each base; and on the ridge plaques and portable shrine of Nariha Shrine in Shimo-Handa village). https://shoukakutei.or.jp/works/2011313.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. "Higaki-Kaisen and Taru-Kaisen," Dictionary of Japanese History / Homemate (on the higaki-kaisen plying regularly between Osaka and Edo and carrying the goods of the home provinces and the west to Edo, and on the independence of the taru-kaisen). https://www.touken-world.jp/history/history-important-word/higakikaisen-tarukaisen/ ↩ ↩2

  5. "Higaki-Kaisen and Taru-Kaisen," Dictionary of Japanese History / Homemate (on the late-Edo passage of six to twelve days between Osaka and Edo, the terms "going up / going down," "goods come down," and their being prized in Edo). https://www.touken-world.jp/history/history-important-word/higakikaisen-tarukaisen/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3