I. the River Yura rises from Mikunigatake located in the north of the tableland of Tamba, and flowing through the Fukuchiyama basin, it empties itself into Wakasa Bay. This river has often flooded and given a great damage all over the valley of the river; of which cause lies in the facts that the River Yura suddenly slows down after entering into the Fukuchiyama basin, and that the said basin is narrow and limitted in its west northern extremity. Passing the basin, however, the lower courses of the stream become gentle, and enable a river-boat navigate. For this reason, the River Yura offered great facilities for water transport especially from the 17th Century till the 20th Century, and played an important part as the transporting route of goods between the Fukuchiyama basin, and the Japan Sea side and the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe district.
II. That the River became actively navigable was after the birth of a new route, in 1672, which led to Osaka starting from the Japan Sea coast and passing through the Kammon Channel and the Inland Sea of Seto. The port Yuraminato was established by the aid of various goods both produced in the basin and transported through the above-mentioned new route. The function of a downward-bound boat was mainly to carry rice which was a tributary payment to a feudal lord, and besides this, wheat, konnyakudama (a tuberous root of the devil's tongue), cotton and others. Salt was a leading material among the goods carried by an upward-bound boat, and followed this the finny tribe, oil-cakes and stone. The salt was landed at Fukuchiyama, and by horses supplied to the circumference of the basin. After streaming up the Piver Yura, the silk fabrics produced in the Tango district were transported to Kyoto, Osaka and neighbourhood by land carriage.
III. It was a river-boat (20-50 koku capacity) that contributed much to the water-borne commuication of the River Yura. More than three hundred of it used to sail up and down the stream. There was a ship-stocks system in those days. Namely, each owner of these boats payed a regular amount of money to the lord of a manor, and grew up under the patronage of the lord. The owner had an exclusive right to transport general commodities.
IV. After the Railway, Sanin line, was opened to traffic at the last stage of the 19th Century, the River Yura nearly lost value as a river traffic route, owing to the restriction of location.
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