Japan Heritage story
Yokosuka, Kure, Sasebo and Maizuru: Japan's naval port cities
鎮守府 横須賀・呉・佐世保・舞鶴
In the Meiji era, Japan picked four sheltered harbours and turned quiet farming and fishing villages into naval port cities. Docks, brick warehouses, waterworks and railways built then still shape Yokosuka, Kure, Sasebo and Maizuru.
Key facts
- Theme
- Sea and waterside, Food and sake, Mines and minerals
- Era
- Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi, Azuchi-Momoyama, Edo
- Region
- Kanto, Kansai, Chugoku, Kyushu & Okinawa
- Official name in Japanese
- 鎮守府 横須賀・呉・佐世保・舞鶴
- Official subtitle in Japanese
- ～日本近代化の躍動を体感できるまち～
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 広島県（呉市）・神奈川県（横須賀市）・長崎県（佐世保市）・京都府（舞鶴市）
The story
To defend an island nation, the Meiji government set up naval districts at Yokosuka in 1884, Kure and Sasebo in 1889 and Maizuru in 1901. Each sat in a deep, calm bay ringed by steep hills. Yokosuka's ironworks, built with French help, made everything from engine parts to bricks and ran a school to train Japanese engineers. Its skills passed to Kure, then to Sasebo and Maizuru, and in about 60 years Japan went from the 897-ton cruiser Seiki to the 65,000-ton battleship Yamato, built at Kure.
The four towns grew fast. Sasebo went from about 3,800 people to over 50,000 in some 20 years. Water for ships and towns came through major waterworks, including Yokosuka's Hanbara line, which flows 53 km by gravity alone. In Maizuru, streets were named in 1902 after 33 warships.
What to see
- Yokosuka: Dock No. 1, Japan's oldest stone dock, built by French engineers.
- Kure: the Honjo reservoir dam of 1918, 97 m long and 25 m high, once the largest of its kind in Asia.
- Sasebo: the Hario radio towers of 1922, three concrete towers 136 m tall.Google Maps 針尾送信所 (opens in a new tab)
- Maizuru: brick warehouses and a grid of streets named after warships.Google Maps 舞鶴赤れんがパーク (opens in a new tab)
Find each city in our Kanagawa, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kyoto guides, and see more history and heritage.
Good to know
- Many of these docks, dams and waterworks are still in use, so some are seen only from outside.
- The cities are far apart; pick one or two rather than trying all four in one trip.
- Look up at the hills around each harbour: forts once guarded the bays from above.
Questions travellers ask
What was a chinjufu?
A naval district headquarters at a military port. It defended a stretch of sea and ran the naval arsenal, hospital and waterworks.
Why were these four ports chosen?
Each had a deep, calm bay with a narrow mouth and steep hills around it, which made it easy to defend and safe for ships.
Where it comes from
More heritage stories from the same area
- 800 years of Japanese tea in Uji and southern Kyoto
- Fukiya: the birthplace of Japan Red
- Hakone Hachiri: walking the Edo stone road over Hakone
- Hizen: the birthplace of Japanese porcelain
- Iki, Tsushima and Goto: Japan's border islands
- Iwami kagura: gods and demons dance the old myths
- Kamakura: the samurai capital as a mosaic of history
- Kitamaebune: the merchant ships that made Japan's port towns rich
- Lake Biwa Canal: the waterway of hope from Otsu to Kyoto
- Onomichi: a hillside port town of temples and lanes
- Oyama Mairi: the Edo people's pilgrimage and day out
- Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage: Japan's 1,300-year journey of the heart
Local foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.