Database: The Port at Sakai

The name Sakai, meaning "frontier," comes from the town's position on the borders of three provinces: Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi. Originally a medieval manor (shōen), the estate expanded as a post station on the Kumano Kodō Pilgrimage Route, relative to the nearby Sumiyoshi Shrine. The town of Sakai, with its proximity to the sea, was inhabited by seafarers and developed as a cargo terminal at the end of the Inland Sea (Setonaikai) during the 14th and 15th centuries. Goods from Kyoto were shipped down the Yodo River toward the delta in the direction of Sakai where more and more goods arrived from the west of the country and even from China.

Over time, an international shipping route was established, connecting the Chinese port of Ningpo [sic] (near modern-day Shanghai) to southern Kyushu (Satsuma), then around the island of Shikoku to Sakai. This waterway offered a competitive alternate to the older trade route through the port of Hakata in northern Kyushu, which was mired in the political power struggles between the lords of the Hosokawa clan who had a significant influence over the shōgun of Ashikaga, and the powerful Ouchi lords, who controlled western Honshu and northeastern Kyushu, including the port of Hakata.