The mouth of Minamata-gawa River
- Date
- Year 1960
- Nov. 3, 2014
- Address
- 3-3-2 Hachiman-cho, Minamata
- The mouth of Minamata-gawa River around 1960. There used to be a fishing village called Funatsu-mura around the left side of the Minamata-Ohashi Bridge, which you can see in the center of the picture. Now it corresponds to 1 and 3 chome Hachiman-cho and the area next to Araikiri-machi. As for fishing in Funatsu-mura, pole and line fishing was popular. In the Meiji Era, there were two fishermen’s bosses and they operated freighters to Saga or Nagasaki district. However, the pictures in 1960 show nothing left of them. Might these be some boats for racing? A crowd can be seen on both sides of the coast.
- The mouth of Minamata-gawa River at present. Along the river, a hall for martial arts was built in 1985 where a sumo ring was previously located which flooded at high tide. In 1920, a part of the coast was reclaimed and a covered handsome ring was constructed where it remains today.
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.
