Etched Sorrow·Rakunan / Yokoōji

Kusatsu-minato (Fish-market site)

Where the Katsura meets the Kamo, the Yokooji district held the river port of Kusatsu-minato until Meiji. Fish from Osaka Bay and the Inland Sea were rowed up the Yodo through the night and landed here; a shogunate-licensed fish market—forerunner of Kyoto's central wholesale market—took root, and the road carrying the catch north came to be called the 'Hamo Highway.' When the railway opened in 1877 the trade shifted to rail, and the market later moved near Kyoto Station in 1888. By tradition Sugawara no Michizane set sail from here on his exile to Dazaifu (so the stories go).

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These notes come from desk research. Local traditions vary.