Event

The Seto Inland Sea region was the center for much of the late medieval (14 th – 16 th c) period’s commercial activity. With growing local economic development came the rise of smaller markets throughout the provinces. Maritime-based shipping networks were at the heart of this trade, and required the cooperation of cultivators, sailors, and warehouse managers (toimaru) to transport commodities through these smaller shipping hubs and often to a final destination in the marketplaces of Kyoto. This talk will focus on the various agents of those networks, with a particular emphasis on how to trace the hands through which trade goods passed when there is little extant documentation about those actors.

Michelle Damian is an Assistant Professor of History at Monmouth College, IL (USA). After completing an MA in maritime archaeology from East Carolina University and a PhD in Japanese history from the University of Southern California, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. She has published chapters in several edited volumes and articles in Education About Asia, and is currently working on her manuscript about maritime trade networks in medieval Japan. She is also on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit Museum of Underwater Archaeology (http://www.themua.org).