Shopping street of Asahi-machi
![](https://gkbn.kumagaku.ac.jp/minamata/wp-content/themes/minamata/image/marchives/konjyaku/main/past/past_73.jpg)
![](https://gkbn.kumagaku.ac.jp/minamata/wp-content/themes/minamata/image/marchives/konjyaku/main/now/now_73.jpg)
- The bustling shopping area of Asahi-machi Street. Huge advertising displays are here and there. A merchant is carrying something on a pole. In Minamata, people used dialects such as “inau” which means “carry” something on a pole and “mego” which means a big sieve basket for fish. Thus, people called fish peddlers Mego-inai
- Asahi-machi at present. Some shops were demolished and became parking lots. On the back of the street, a non-frills hotel for business trip was built.
Reference sources
- The Edo Period:
The Picture Map of Ashikita-gun, Collection of Kumamoto Gakuen University Library, the late Edo Period. - The Meiji Period:
The Japanese National Atlas at the end of Edo Period and in the Meiji Period, Kashiwa Shobo, Collection of Kumamoto Gakuen University Library, 1983.